News from RAI International/ Italy

[Furthur]

Last night I was watching the news on RAI International broadcasting from Italy. They had a film crew in Kosovo. My Italian is spotty so I can only describe the video.
There is a man in a crowd with two flags, ours and theirs.
He touches the corner of our flag to his lips and then kisses his new flag.
It was a powerful image.
Overwhelming joy expressed for something too many of us take for granted.
Freedom and Democracy.
That wasn't the U.N. flag he kissed. It was the Stars and Stripes.

We really are the leader of the free world.
I hope our next President will have the courage and historical perspective to keep leading the way; and remain accountable for the responsibilities that role demands.

[hnooe]

Last night I was watching the news on RAI International broadcasting from Italy. They had a film crew in Kosovo. My Italian is spotty so I can only describe the video.
There is a man in a crowd with two flags, ours and theirs.
He touches the corner of our flag to his lips and then kisses his new flag.
It was a powerful image.
Overwhelming joy expressed for something too many of us take for granted.
Freedom and Democracy.
That wasn't the U.N. flag he kissed. It was the Stars and Stripes.

We really are the leader of the free world.
I hope our next President will have the courage and historical perspective to keep leading the way; and remain accountable for the responsibilities that role demands.

I agree totally, as long as we are leading the way with "vision" and without "arrogance" (not seen between 200 and 2008). Only then will our allies will follow along with us, and only then will dictators and tyrants be overthrown!

[BIGDOG]

Last night I was watching the news on RAI International broadcasting from Italy. They had a film crew in Kosovo. My Italian is spotty so I can only describe the video.
There is a man in a crowd with two flags, ours and theirs.
He touches the corner of our flag to his lips and then kisses his new flag.
It was a powerful image.
Overwhelming joy expressed for something too many of us take for granted.
Freedom and Democracy.
That wasn't the U.N. flag he kissed. It was the Stars and Stripes.

We really are the leader of the free world.
I hope our next President will have the courage and historical perspective to keep leading the way; and remain accountable for the responsibilities that role demands.

Having been in a room with Bosnian leaders and European UN delegates in the '90s I have NEVER been more proud of America's place on the world stage. After hearing testimonies of injustices, mass murders of Bosnians and Muslims and the UNs complicity, UK and European's response "It's not our problem. We don't need to take the fall if something goes wrong, and we're not interested. America will fix it." And America did. I give Clinton a tremendous amount of credit for his vision and foresight. We were able to show Europe that human rights still matter even when it is "inconvenient".

Much like what was happening with the murder of Kurds to facilitate oil deals of the French and Russians in the 90s and the human right's nightmare UN's Oil for Food abuse, the US news never covered these issues.

[hnooe]

Having been in a room with Bosnian leaders and European UN delegates in the '90s I have NEVER been more proud of America's place on the world stage. After hearing testimonies of injustices, mass murders of Bosnians and Muslims and the UNs complicity, UK and European's response "It's not our problem. We don't need to take the fall if something goes wrong, and we're not interested. America will fix it." And America did. I give Clinton a tremendous amount of credit for his vision and foresight. We were able to show Europe that human rights still matter even when it is "inconvenient".

Much like what was happening with the murder of Kurds to facilitate oil deals of the French and Russians in the 90s and the human right's nightmare UN's Oil for Food abuse, the US news never covered these issues.

Your right. And they don't really cover the 45,000 monthly deaths in Darfur Africa either.

[scooterbug44]

I wouldn't be too proud of our record in Bosnia. We most definitely picked sides and there are many dead from genocide that went unreported and unchampioned.

We are quick to get involved when $ and oil are involved, not so much when it's tens and hundreds of thousands of people dying and we're quite slow to realize that our allies are murdering people.

Of course, we look like Mother Teresa compared to all the countries that just ignore it and wait for us to step in. :angry:

[BIGDOG]

I wouldn't be too proud of our record in Bosnia. We most definitely picked sides and there are many dead from genocide that went unreported and unchampioned.

We are quick to get involved when $ and oil are involved, not so much when it's tens and hundreds of thousands of people dying and we're quite slow to realize that our allies are murdering people.

Of course, we look like Mother Teresa compared to all the countries that just ignore it and wait for us to step in. :angry:

Just curious. Why wouldn't you be proud of our record in Bosnia? We picked the side that wasn't committing genocide and unlike the UN, we weren't facilitating mass murders with our "neutrality". I'd really like to know why you would feel that way. We had NO other motivation other than human rights to be involved in Bosnia We got involved fairly early and without had little assistance or support from other nations and plenty of criticism.

IMHO, we should've gotten involved quicker in the Kurdish genocide in Iraq. Those poor folks were decimated by Hussein and the UN simply to facilitate the oil deals of French and Russians.

No country's perfect, but I'm proud to be from a place that doesn't stand by and not watch countries be raped and pillaged and think we're superior because we don't get involved.

[scooterbug44]

We backed the Serbs and Milosevic - per one CIA report, they were responsible for 90% of the ethnic cleansing and he was tried before the UN war crimes tribunal.

There is definitely more than enough violence and hideousness to go around in a civil war that includes concentration camps, quests for ethnic purity, and mass graves, but the media reports and official line were definitely skewed pro-Serb.

I definitely applaud that we get involved and put billions into our efforts while others sit on their hands, but we also have a tendency to put blinders on once we choose a side to support.

[BIGDOG]

We backed the Serbs and Milosevic - per one CIA report, they were responsible for 90% of the ethnic cleansing and he was tried before the UN war crimes tribunal.

There is definitely more than enough violence and hideousness to go around in a civil war that includes concentration camps, quests for ethnic purity, and mass graves, but the media reports and official line were definitely skewed pro-Serb.

I definitely applaud that we get involved and put billions into our efforts while others sit on their hands, but we also have a tendency to put blinders on once we choose a side to support.

The UN facilitated Milosevic's ethnic cleansing. The U.S. to our own detriment, protected the muslim targets of genocide. We funded the Kosovo Liberation Army and its Mujahedin soldiers and by proxy Bin Laden, and despite NATO's outrage didn't enforce the arms embargo. Early on, the media called it the "next Vietnam".

The "media reports" in the western world on Kosovo/Serbia are about as reliable the "media reports" on the middle east.

[Furthur]

Some years ago I was detained while driving through Serbia. I had a German tagged car and a German drivers license, which was enough to infuriate the arresting officer. But when his superiors saw that I also had an American passport I was released and called a partisan.
It is a confusingly complicated place. Old memories and loyalties run very deep.
I'm sure Kosovo will be better off as a separate country.

[BIGDOG]

We backed the Serbs and Milosevic - per one CIA report, they were responsible for 90% of the ethnic cleansing and he was tried before the UN war crimes tribunal.

There is definitely more than enough violence and hideousness to go around in a civil war that includes concentration camps, quests for ethnic purity, and mass graves, but the media reports and official line were definitely skewed pro-Serb.

I definitely applaud that we get involved and put billions into our efforts while others sit on their hands, but we also have a tendency to put blinders on once we choose a side to support.

Obviously, today's riots by the Serbs against the US Embassy prove we were on the right side. When genocidal scum hate you, you know you're doing something right.