Following is a synopsis of events that transpired on the evening of
July 17th, 2001, during General Wesley Clark's book promotion talk at
the Borders bookstore in Pentagon Centre.
Mr. Clark began his speech around 7:00 pm. He spoke for about 25-30
minutes about the book, his own military career, and his own opinions
about the lessons to be learned from the Kosovo war about the changing
military strategies needed for winning wars. Not once in his speech
did raise the issue of the morality of going to war against Serbia in
the first place.
During the question and answer period, I was called on, and asked the
following question:
"How can you justify the US and NATO attacking a country like Serbia
who never did anything to threaten us, and never attacked any country
in any way, and how can you justify dropping cluster bombs and
depleted uranium on then, which will cause much suffering for
generations to come, doing much more harm than Mr. Milosevic ever
could?"
He answered by going into a long spiel of supposed "atrocities"
committed by Serbs against Albanians in Kosovo. Most were the same
unsubstantiated accusations we've heard from the state department, and
the mainstream media for the past two years, many of them having been
proven outright false. For example, he claimed that Albanians had no
voting rights, and no right to education in their own language in
Kosovo. He claimed that "America fought a revolution over 'no
taxation without representation'," and therefore we were morally
obligated to fight for the same for the Albanians, whom, he claimed,
had it much worse off than the American colonists under the British.
He conveniently refused to comment on the destruction caused to
civilians by the cluster bombs and the depleted uranium. He concluded
by saying that he thought the war was justified "because it prevented
a greater evil."
The next person to ask him a question was George Jatras, who held up a
picture of Mr. Clark standing with and shaking hands with, KLA leaders
Hashim Thaci and Agem Ceku. George asked Mr. Clark how he could
justify his praise for these men who were responsible for war crimes
against Serbs in Kosovo, such as raping women and burning churches.
At this point, Mr. Clark very rudely interrupted George Jatras, and
said in a very hostile tone of voice that he felt justified in his
alliance, because he claimed the KLA had been "taken out of uniform"
at that time, and that he did not condone the burning of churches or
mosques, but felt that the Serbs had done more of those kinds of
crimes. When finally Mr. Clark's temper cooled down a bit, George was
able to finish his question, asking Mr. Clark how he could justify
bombing the Serbs on Easter Sunday, a holy Christian holiday. Mr.
Clark responded by saying "because the Serbs were committing ethnic
cleansing on Easter Sunday."
The following questions asked by the audience were mainly showing
fawning admiration for Mr. Clark, and "congratulating" him for what he
did in Serbia. When the question and answer period ended, Mr. Clark
said:
"First, I'll stay and talk to those who read and enjoyed the book, and
sign books for them, but for those of you who just want to argue with
me, who have your minds made up and don't want to hear anything
different, wait on the other side of the room, and I'll talk to you
after I'm done talking to the people who liked the book."
So, those of us who were critical waited for about 20 minutes, and
then we were allowed back into the discussion area. We were told by
the moderator that Mr. Clark had only ten minutes to talk to us before
he had to leave.
People asked him questions about the Rambouliette accord, and why the
Serbs should have been expected to sign it. He claimed that it was
necessary to have NATO troops stationed throughout Yugoslavia, as
specified in Rambouliette in order to allow troops to move from Bosnia
through Serbia into Kosovo. He also made the ridiculous claim that by
allowing the NATO troops into his country, "Mr. Milosevic would have
had an opportunity to let NATO solve his problems for him (the civil
war in Kosovo)."
He went on more about all the supposed atrocities committed by Serbs,
and I asked him:
"What business did the US have to get involved in this conflict in the
first place?"
He asked me if I thought atrocities committed in a civil war were
acceptable. I said no, of course I didn't think that any atrocities
were ever acceptable, but that civil wars happen all around the world,
all the time, and atrocities are committed by all sides in any civil
war, but what right does the US have to interfere in another country's
civil war? What gives us the right, I asked him, to play Policeman of
the World?
He got excited again, and asked me if I thought it would have been
fine with me if the US had stayed out of World War II, and not tired
to stop the Holocaust.
"We could have PREVENTED World War Two," I said, but then I was cut
off by the moderator, who accused me of not being respectful to the
speaker. I was going to say: "We could have prevented World War Two
by staying out of World War One, and not punishing Germany with
sanctions the way we did after World War One." However, I was not
given a chance to say this.
All told, it was a very frustrating exchange with a very arrogant and
disagreeable man!
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
