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Date:         Sat, 15 Aug 1992 21:58:19 -0500
From:         "Velibor M. Marenovic" <VMARENOVIC@MACALSTR.EDU>
Subject:      LA Times article
X-To:         mideur-l%ubvm.bitnet@ksuvm.ksu.edu

>
>
>          Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1992 (Section B)
>                        Murray N. Rothbard
>
>                    AMERICA, KEEP OUT OF BOSNIA
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> * People in plush offices are thirsting for  blood,  which  our
> youth will have to supply. Why?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>      Not long ago, the entire New World Order crowd, from the New
> York  Times  to the New Republic to every "foreign-policy expert"
> on TV, was defending the Serbs, who spoke  for  the  "territorial
> integrity of Yugoslavia." Every Establishment article on Yugosla-
> via was not considered complete  unless  the  beleaguered  Croats
> were  attacked  for  being "Nazis." The Serbs, on the other hand,
> were supposedly "anti-Nazi," this grossly oversimplified  version
> of  World  War  II in the Balkans presumably defining their posi-
> tions for all time.
>
>      Suddenly, it's a differnet story.  The  same  old  suspects,
> now  including  the  Clinton-Gore ticket, are denouncing the Bush
> Administration for not making war upon the Serbs.
>
>      Is there to be no conflict, no war, no problem  anywhere  in
> the world where the poor United States, already declining in pro-
> ductivity and living standards, mired in depression and  groaning
> under  a  $400-billion  annual deficit, won't send its troops and
> its treasure to set everything right? How long  is  it  going  to
> take  to learn the lesson that, just as government throwing money
> at social problems only makes them worse, so the United States is
> not able to cure all the ills of mankind?
>
>      As usual, it is the fat-cat civilians, the "experts" and the
> media elite sitting in their plush offices that are thirsting for
> blood, and the youth of the armed forces who are supposed to sup-
> ply it.
>
>      To his credit, President Bush is at least cautious  at  get-
> ting  in a Balkan quagmire, reflecting the position of the Penta-
> gon, which is very mindful of the lessons of Vietnam and Lebanon.
> Military  experts  estimate that it would take an army of 500,000
> to secure Sarajevo and Bosnia alone, and far more to try to occu-
> py Serbia.
>
>      As if our home-grown jingoes weren't enough,  we  also  have
> the  malignant Mrs. Thatcher urging the United States and our al-
> lies to give an immediate ultimatum to the Serbs. They must  com-
> ply  with  a series of absurd demands, or else face maximum mili-
> tary force. Those demands include  "demilitarization  of  Bosnia"
> and  the  entire region (fat chance) and, in particular, the pro-
> tection of the "territorial integrity" of Bosnia.  Thatcher  adds
> that  the  West's  aim  should  be to "restore the Bosnia state,"
> which must also be guaranteed as a unitary country, "not allowing
> for its partition into three cantons."
>
>
>      "Territorial  integrity"  of  Bosnia?   For  heaven's  sake,
> Bosnia  didn't  even  exist  until a few months ago.  The idea of
> maintaining Bosnia-Herzegovina as a unitary, multi ethnic  "demo-
> cracy" is idiotic. It can only cause permanent trouble for every-
> one. Since the Bosnian Muslims are gentle folk without much of an
> armed  force, they have gotten end of the de facto partition, but
> they should be happy, eventually, to take their ethnic areas  and
> forget  the multiethnic nonsense. In the Balkans, there isn't and
> won't be any "melting pot" or even a "gorgeous mosaic."
>
>      Many of the mavens acknowledge that our  choices  are  hard,
> that  the  problem  is  difficult, but they are prepared for Serb
> civilians, young Americans in the armed forces and the U.S.  tax-
> payer to pay any price needed for ultimate victory. But why?  Why
> is the United States supposed to be  the  world's  policeman  and
> nanny?
>
>      Because, we're told, we have to stop the Serbs before it  is
> "too  late." Too late for what?  My least favorite senator, (yes,
> I know, it's a tough choice)  Joseph  Lieberman  (D-Conn.),  said
> that  if  we don't stop the Serbs in Bosnia, then they will go on
> next to Kosovo, and then maybe even Macedonia.  Ooohh?   Must  we
> go  all-out  to stop them before they get to Skopje?  And if that
> happens, the war will spread, Bulgaria and Turkey  will  step  in
> (eh?)  and  then.... The rest of the sentence after "and then" is
> always left hanging. And then what exactly, senator? If we  don't
> stop  the  Serbs  in  Sarajevo,  will they swim the Atlantic and,
> daggers in their teeth, invade Connecticut?
>
>      In the space of no more than a year,  the  elite  that  runs
> American  opinion  has  discovered  no  less than five "Hitlers,"
> against each of whom we have had to be mobilized. Let's call  the
> roll:   Saddam Hussein, David Duke, Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and
> Slobodan Milosevic. All have been treated as an immediate  menace
> to the American Republic.
>
>      You'd think that after a while this baloney  wouldn't  work.
> How  many times does the kid have to cry wolf before no one takes
> him seriously?
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Murray N. Rothbard is professor of economics at the University of
> Nevada,  Las Vegas, and academic vice president of the Ludwig von
> Mises Institute in Auburn, Ala.
>
> [from LA Times without permission]
>
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