From: jakhan@IASTATE.EDU (Javed A Khan)
Subject: Re: How can we help Boznia.
Reply-To: jakhan@IASTATE.EDU (Javed A Khan)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 14:02:09 GMT

In article <5cpP03of615R00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>, fierro@uts.amdahl.com (Doug
Fierro) writes:
> In article <l8vtc7INN20b@pageboy.cs.utexas.edu> hyder@cs.utexas.edu (Syed
Irfan Hyder) writes:
> 
> >Well, today after 16 years the price has decreased from $30.
> >Even though various economies depend on it and it has been a
> >major lever, the producers have not been able to get the
> >market price. Who supports the people in OPEC cartel?
> >Why was Shah Faisal killed if not for realizing the oil as
> >a weapon.
> >
> >In USA the price of oil as fuel is 3 times less than 
> >Britain or Germany. Why did the coalition got together
> >against Iraq and not agains Serbs?
> >
> >Why would the USA not support democracy in countries that
> >do produce oil?
> 
>   Well, kinda off the subject of economics here, but a few things to
> point out between these two wars-
> 
>   1) Serbia did not take any U.S. citizens hostages
> 
>   2) The Balkan countries are involved in a civil war more or less-
>      kind of like Hussein trying to purge the Kurds from his country.
>      Notice that the U.S. did nothing to stop this before in Iraq- it
>      was the invasion of a soverign neighboring country that forced the
>      U.S. to take action.  Judging from the past U.S. actions, it is
>      unlikely that the U.S. will involve itself in a military conflict
>      over what the current administation preceives as a civil war.
>



The US has already recognised Bosnia-H as a sovereign country as has the
rest of the world.



 
>   3) There is no clear protagonist in this conflict that Bush can easily
>      confront and verbally attack; it is a complicated situation and the
>      Bush administration would prefer to pay lip service rather than touch 
>      that tar baby during a crucial election year.
> 



You're wrong. The clear aggressor is Serbia as has been acknowledged by even
the US. If you have been watching the interviews with Bush and members of his
administration and officials of NATO and the Pentagon, you wouldn't be in any
doubt who the US thinks is the aggressor and who is the victim. 

You're right when you say that Bush wouldn't involve himself in BH in this
crucial election year. He knows only too well that the American public wouldn't
forgive him if he manages to lose any American lives fighting a war which does
not benefit the US either financially (oil for eg.) or strategic.

 


>   4) If anyone should be leading an effort to stop the war between the
>      Balkan countries, it should be Europe (the EC council or whatever), not 
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>      the U.S. (MHO of course)
> 
>  
>    Doug
> -- 
>                                                      Doug Fierro
>                                       |\             UTS System Software
>   O                         __________|_\______      CASE tools development
>   \_.______________________| * * * * * * * * */      fierro@uts.amdahl.com
>  __\____                   |=================/       (408)746-7102
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Why didn't the same logic apply in the case of the gulf war ? The Arab League
and many Arab countries (like Jordan) always maintained that that was an Arab
problem and best solved by Arabs. 

The only reason the US and the rest of the industralised world bombed Iraq
was to secure their control over oil by proping up their stooges in the 
gulf.


--Javed.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.arabic:3235 soc.culture.yugoslavia:7900 soc.culture.greek:7441 soc.culture.bulgaria:1142 talk.politics.soviet:6922 soc.culture.turkish:8792