I remember the night our aircraft began bombing in Kosovo. I went outside and looked at the sky. I sincerely expected to eventually see missile reentry vehicles falling on us. The potential for disaster in going in when all of Europe and especially Russia were against it had me concerned. And the Russians had strong ties to Milosovich–strong enough that their prestige was on the line. They were already stung by collapse, and I worried they could take no more humiliation. Fortunately, Clinton had information I wasn’t privvy to, and the threat really wasn’t there.
Once it began, I wanted to see our forces go in and clean house. We didn’t do that. We kept up a bombing campaign. The reason given for the attack was that Milosovich was murdering innocents by the thousands. Bombing doesn’t stop that, only invasion. All I could think of during that time was that thousands more were being killed, and quickly so as to be done with the job before American soldiers hit the ground.
Guess what. It wasn’t happening. Clinton LIED! How often did you hear that? I don’t recall anything like that. I do remember Paul Harvey calling it Monica’s War. Paul Harvey.
But Americans got behind the invasion. We as a people saw (I think) this as something we needed to do as the remaining superpower.
Fast forward.
What has changed? The only thing that has changed is the political party of the President. How do we go from supporting a questionable war based on humanitarian causes to another one based in part on solid humanitarian issues and have almost half the population screaming? Disregard the WMD issue–something some will never do–and we had a humanitarian crisis at least ten times greater than the one in Kosovo. Yet people who supported that war don’t support this one.
For all the gnashing of teeth coming from the left, isn’t there at least some modicum of decency that will come out as, “We stopped the murderous regime from killing anyone else” and “We brought democracy to a people who have not seen anything like it in generations”?
WE. Not President Bush. The American people. Our military. We as a Nation made that happen. Granted, Dubya led. He made the tough choices. But we did it. Can those who hate Bush not feel any pride at all in what has just transpired? Is the hatred for Bush, who did far more for Iraq than Clinton did for Kosovo, so deep that nothing will attenuate it?
I don’t understand. I see Kosovo as the quagmire, where we kept troops in occupation for more than a decade. Yet people forgot they were even there. No daily news coverage. I don’t recall a daily harrangue from opposition politicians for an exit strategy or a timetable for withdrawl. And I shouldn’t expect to.
Far different from today.
Supporting our country and supporting the President can be exclusive. This isn’t Saddam’s regime where the two are inseparable. I didn’t support Clinton, but I did support the operations in Kosovo even though I didn’t agree with getting involved at the outset. All I can say now is that I simply want to see that half of the American public who hate George W. Bush at least quit harping. Our accomplishments in Afghanistan and Iraq overshadow anything we did in Kosovo.
But, that’s really the problem, isn’t it.