dean endorses unilateral military action in letter to the president

[bearfartinthewoods]

I think your policy up to this date has been absolutely correct. We must give, and have given, this policy with our allies and with the United Nations every opportunity to work. It is evident, however, that the cost in human lives in allowing this policy to continue is too great. In addition, and perhaps more importantly for the United States, we are now in a position of ignoring, as many did in the 1940s, one of the worst crimes committed in history. If we ignore these behaviors, no matter where they occur, our moral fiber as a people becomes weakened. As the Catholic Church and others lost credibility during the Holocaust for not speaking out, so will the United States lose credibility and our people lose confidence in themselves as moral beings if the United States does not take action.


Since it is clearly no longer possible to take action in conjunction with NATO and the United Nations, I have reluctantly concluded that we must take unilateral action. While I completely agree with you that no ground troops should be committed for other than humanitarian purposes in Bosnia, I would ask that you take the following steps in Bosnia. First, lift the arms embargo as it applies to the Bosnian government. Second, enforce a full embargo of the sort that is now in effect in Iraq on the Bosnian Serbs and upon Yugoslavia. Third, break off diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. Fourth, commit American air power to support the Bosnian government until the situation is stabilized and the civilian murders and atrocities by the Bosnian Serbs have been stopped.



President clinton that is....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-01-14-dean-letter_x.htm

[ShimokitaJer]

1. And your point is...?

That we should not have intervened in Bosnia?

That Bush was justified in invading Iraq?

Let me guess: you're trying to suggest that Dean was flip-flopping for approving unilateral military action to stop the slaughter in Bosnia and then not approving military action to stop the... well, the lack of giving us oil? the wishing for WMD? the what?... in Iraq.

Good luck with that.

[maddezmom]

2. dupe

edited to add link : http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=115080&mesg_id=115080

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. of course that was a completely different situation than Iraq

and to anyone who happened to be in Europe at the time, like me, knows that the Europeans were lobbying hard for American assistance. Peacekeepers from Sweden, France, Holland, Norway, and several other countries were already on the ground in Bosnia but aid convoys were hijacked or blocked and peacekeepers were prevented from engagement by the wording of the UN Resolution that put them there.

Still more countries like Germany, Spain, and Italy absorbed hundreds of thousands of Bosnian refugees.

By the time the US entered the fray our European partners were strapped for cash in the worst sense and experiencing backlash from their own citizens over the money spent to fund the peacekeeping effort (that by all accounts was failing if you watched any European TV) and the money spent absorbing refugees.

Compounding the problem was that the participants were no strictly Serbian, they were Bosnians of Serbian extraction led by Radovan Karadjic and funded by the government in Serbia proper, the Croatians of Bosnian extraction funded by Alia Izbegovic's government in Croatia who used Bosnia as their personal chessboard to further the territorial desires of their respective countries.

It was a humanitarian disaster, but there was NOTHING unilateral about the US involvement. I was in England during the seige of Sarajevo and during the massacre at Mostar. Unlike the US Media, who ignored these events or relegated them to the back page, the BBC and ITV covered these events in all their gruesome detail.

But to suggest that the US acted irrespective of the UN is not only incorrect, it's almost slander.

[Moderator]

4. Dupe

Please continue here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=115080

Thanks

[Webster Green]

5. Nice!

Do you teach ancient history?