quarterly-report.com Political Commentary by James R. Audet

The 31st Day
April 23, 1999

No single word captures the feeling as well as it memorializes the moment.  Over a million refugees in one month.  Unbelievable.

Civilians invariably flee war zones without the prod of a bayonet to get them moving.  Yet, the flight of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo caught NATO flatfooted.  Although a humanitarian crisis was guaranteed by its "no ground troops" pledge, NATO failed to have a contingency plan.  Unbelievable.  This attack - borne of deceit to the governed - was a colossal military blunder.

As if standing on one leg, we stagger from the outrageous images that come from Albania and Macedonia while we suffer Clinton's sophistry -- "our quarrel is not with the Serbian people."  Our quarrel?  Unbelievable.  In our sleep, we struggle with the Pentagon's slick presentations -- "everything is proceeding as planned."   We have serious doubts about the strategy, the capabilities, the mission itself.

The plight of the refugees has the Allies backed into a corner.  The homeless are a displaced nation.  It is implausible that they will accept relocation, even if there were countries to take them.  Likewise, we are squeezed into a moral corner by an Administration that believes it has no ethical requirement to tell the truth.  Patriotic Americans -- pinned to the mat by the suffering of the refugees -- proclaim we can not lose this war.  What have they learned from the television pictures?  By any measure, the refugees have already lost.  Unless NATO can assure their safe return and the postwar security of Kosovo, it loses.  Consequently, we are left to decide for ourselves if Milosevic can be bombed to submission.

The Instant Liar speaks of "the inevitable victory" to mask his failure to achieve instant success.   He petitions us to worship at the temple of the high priestess of technology and to gain faith that a limited war will stop Milosevic's madness.  Clinton continues to follow his mentor's amoral steps -- ones that led John F. Kennedy into a Southeast Asia swamp.  Unbelievable.

The media champions the deployment of Apache helicopters as if these vulnerable machines are the magic bullets that will eradicate the Serbian plague.  Beltway mouthpieces proclaim the intelligence of our bombs as the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia is destroyed.  How would these delusionists feel if a Serbian national blew-up Washington's Memorial Bridge?  Would they insist that he be treated as a prisoner of war?  Or, would they just want to hang the son of a bitch.  Oh, how smart our weapons have become.  Oh, if the Administration was as capable.

The Administration speaks of an autonomous, postwar government for Kosovo, but in the same breath, it floats a partitioned state similar to a once divided Germany or Vietnam.  Unbelievable.  When asked for a successful model for a divided country, they are speechless.

We see the accidental destruction of a passenger train and a convoy of refugees.  We learn that $300,000 has been spent to destroy farm tractors.  Unbelievable.  Are these tragedies the result of pilot error or misguided tactics?  Who is responsible, the pilot, General Clark, Bill Clinton?

The Instant Liar has no answer to the question, "How much will it cost."  His spinners shoot figures into the air like arrows, hoping to strike key votes.  Congress lays low, as if cowering for cover, content with the largess that will flow from Washington.  Three, six, ten, twenty billion dollars.  We will learn how much it will cost when it is all over.  Unbelievable.

The Instant Liar calls for donations to help the refugees.  He has made his calculations; his budget is for war material, not humanitarian aid.  For every dollar spent in waging this war, the United States will spend two to rebuild Yugoslavia.  From where will these dollars for reconstruction come?  Have no fear.  There is the social security trust fund.  Clinton's alleged passion to save it has fallen victim to the plight of our European Allies.  Is there no unrevealed facet of his multi-facedness?

The budget surplus has begotten a dunderhead who wants to spend it.  Unable to explain his fiscal about face, Clinton avoids one on one news conferences with the press.  He has no incentive to tell the truth and far less courage to speak it.  Maybe Kosovo is just another phony war.  Unbelievable.

Perhaps the war has yet to affect the consciousness of the average American.  If we harken to the Instant Liar, there is no need for concern.  The country is prosperous.  Wall Street is engaged in a war rally.  Apathy appears to be a good thing, like greed.

We witness carnage in Colorado.  Are we are civilized?

Unbelievable.

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