Hillary, Bosnia and Iraq

Christopher Hitchens has some strong feelings about Hillary’s laughable Tuzla story. He doesn’t think it is funny, however, and says why. What is forgotten in the Democrat’s rush to abandon Iraq is how we get into these things in the first place. Saddam invaded Kuwait, imitating the Japanese who united the USA in 1941 by attacking Pearl Harbor. Had they nibbled away at Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, which is what they really wanted, they might very well have gotten away with it as we focused on Europe. What is different today is the influence of television.

We went into Somalia because CNN was showing thousands of starving Somalis and got out when Clinton’s attempt at nation-building caused casualties.  Why did we go into the Balkans ? CNN was showing the massacre of Bosnian civilians by Serbs. We had no strategic interest in Somalia or Bosnia. In fact, the first Bush administration made the decision to stay out of the war, a decision criticized by Bill Clinton during the 1992 campaign. After he was elected, he dipped a toe in the water a couple of times and finally decided to bomb Serbia from high altitude to avoid casualties. The Serbs eventually got out but the example set by Clinton probably encouraged Saddam in his ambitions toward Kuwait.

What would happen if Obama were to be elected and a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq resulted ?

Zbigniew Brzezinski thinks he knows:

Contrary to Republican claims that our departure will mean calamity, a sensibly conducted disengagement will actually make Iraq more stable over the long term. The impasse in Shiite-Sunni relations is in large part the sour byproduct of the destructive U.S. occupation, which breeds Iraqi dependency even as it shatters Iraqi society. In this context, so highly reminiscent of the British colonial era, the longer we stay in Iraq, the less incentive various contending groups will have to compromise and the more reason simply to sit back. A serious dialogue with the Iraqi leaders about the forthcoming U.S. disengagement would shake them out of their stupor.

So, a pain-free withdrawal happens. Fine. What if he is wrong and genocide results ?

Kevin Drum is not concerned:

there’s no point in denying that U.S. withdrawal might lead to increased bloodshed in the short term. It most likely will. But it’s highly unlikely to lead to a catastrophic regional meltdown of the kind that the chaos hawks peddle on cable TV. What’s more, Brzezinski is also right that the risk of increased violence is inescapable at this point and, in fact, probably grows the longer we stay in Iraq. The events in Basra over the past week ought to make that clear.

What neither of them address is what happens when the TV networks show massive genocide of Sunnis followed by a Sunni intervention by the Saudis to avoid an Iranian takeover ?

They don’t say.

Obama in a clumsy interview says he would have a “strike force” ready to do whatever…. That sounds like “Blackhawk Down” all over again. If I were an Army ranger who had been yanked out of Iraq just as we were on the verge of winning, what do you think my attitude would be about being ordered back ?

Especially by a wimp like Obama ?

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11 Responses to “Hillary, Bosnia and Iraq”

  1. doombuggy says:

    Good post.

    >>>>Obama…says he would have a “strike force” ready to do whatever

    I sometimes fear we are going the way of the French in the 20th century, who would promote leaders with grand military ideas but no infrastructure to implement them.

  2. Obama knows nothing about the military or how to conduct a military operation. Tony McPeak, his “adviser” was a loose cannon distrusted by the Air Force which heaved a sigh of relief when he retired. Wes Clarke was retired early by Clinton. What does that say about the Democrat’s experts?

  3. doombuggy says:

    If the commentators on Kevin Drums site are representative, the Democrats want experts like themselves. I find it irritating to read a bunch of bloviating about how Iran is the REAL source of stability in the Middle East, how America is evil, etc. Some people like to be contrarians, but one should have a little class about it.

  4. Kevin Drum’s blog also deletes comments that disagree wth the leftist slant and does not acknowledge that it does so. That to me, is dishonest.

  5. doombuggy says:

    I call it propaganda.

  6. cassandra says:

    Whenever the media start beating the drum about this massacre or that, I wonder what on earth do they want us to do now. It’s a case where I wish they really did have an explicit agenda because maybe it would make more sense than, neener neener, we intervened in genocide X but not genocide Y..then do a 180 when we do intervene. They did that for Vietnam, too. Are we going to Lose Vietnam like we Lost China??

    Bush I did well to walk the line as he did. You know good and well that if Bush II had not gone into Iraq, we’d being hearing daily how Something Must be Done about Saddam and the WMDs everyone knows he has. Bleah.

  7. It’s an interesting thouhgt experiment to wonder what would have happened with Iraq if we had folded our tent and left Saudi Arabia. That was the only other option. It bothers me that the left does not acknowledge the true choice. They used to pontificate about how Saddam was “in a box” when we all know the box was collapsing in Oil-for-food.

  8. doombuggy says:

    The Left now wants Hillary to ‘surrender’ and get out of the Race. Ha ha. This is rich.

  9. MTK Jr. says:

    “The Serbs eventually got out but the example set by Clinton probably encouraged Saddam in his ambitions toward Kuwait.”

    Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Clinton didn’t become president till January 1993.

  10. Good point, Mike. I should probably have said Osama since he mentioned the Somalia experience in his fatwas about us being a paper tiger who would quickly give up if attacked. It may however have influenced Saddam in his behavior toward the UN inspectors. Glad you’re reading. I’m trying to add more sailing and science to help with your blood pressure.

  11. MTK Jr. says:

    Yes, please. Sailing related whoppers are much more innocuous and fun to read.