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I would only add this to the narrative: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmfaff/28/2811.htm
The UK, Germany and the whole world knew that the events were fabricated in order to allow Western intervention. The UK parliament admitted as much, while allowing that such propaganda and lies were necessary to oust Milosevic. Therein precisely is the dilemma. Should Western democracies overthrow warlords and scum like Milosevic with deceitful propaganda of this sort? Even when a man like Milosevic is smart enought o pick his battles (Milosevic always deferred to Holbrooke when the USA go tough on him because he knew he didn't have a strong hand). I objected to NATO's execution of the war because they pinned Milosevic to a corner when clearly peace was in the offing. Instead, as usual, they wreaked mayhem and triggered an event which ended in the death of thousands. Sound familiar?
I may be cynical, but I find the military men who conducted this war just a shade less trustworthy than those conducting the current campaign in Iraq. I'm not at all convinced that Wesley Clark, for one, could have avoided an Iraq imbroglio. Democrats like having military men on "our" side since it cinches up our macho bonafides in the face of a Republican attempt to "feminize" the Democrats. The upshot us that we trust our military guys blindly, even if they are crypto-Republicans (Clark supported Bush in 2000).
More things could have been mentioned, such as William Cohen's infamous claims on May 16 of 100,000 murdered Albanians in mass graves, which evaporated like Iraqi WMD. (And Cohen wasn't even keen on intervention. The State Dept. at one point spoke of 500,000).
There are many parallels between the two wars, from the fact that both enemy statesmen agreed to the bulk of the respective ultimata, via the inadequate planning for the aftermath, to the brash dismissal of a need for explicit UNSC mandate. Especially the latter suggests that the Kosovo War became an important political stepping-stone to the Iraq War, an idea not weakened by this period piece from our friends at PNAC: 'Kosovo and the Republican Future' (pdf). The world's northernmost desert wind.
Minor note here: from what I've read, Clark voted for Gore in 2000. He also has been working very hard for Democratic candidates for the last several years - let's put the "crypto-Republican" attack to rest.
I've been following this guy for years. It's no secret that his bosses didn't think he had much integrity.
Here's what FAIR had to say about him: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1839
Some other choice quotes I got from http://www.irregulartimes.com/wesleywho.html
"And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice... people I know very well - our president George W. Bush. We need them there." - Clark in remarks delivered at the Pulaski County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 11, 2001.
Uh, I'm guessing he voted for Bush.
I don't think i was far off at all when I said Clark would very likely have duplicated this administration's Iraq plans.
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