As a matter of fact, the "Kissingers of this world", specifically Henry Kissinger, is adamantly opposed to our intervention in the Balkans, probably because of his involvement with the politically orchestrated debacle in Viet Nam.
I'll tell you this once Beavis. Don't lecture me on things you don't have a clue about. I was one of those conscripts and some of those 50,000 dead were my good friends. I left some of my own blood there mixed with that of our enemies. I understand what went on there in a way you will never know. Just as I have a hell of a lot better idea of the dynamics involved in the Balkans, having served there and having served in "peace keeping" missions on every continent except North America. So I'll share a bit of hard earned wisdom with you, no charge. Every single "peace keeping" mission in history has failed unless it was preceded by destroying the war making capability of the forces that it was there to enforce the peace against. Time and again, in just the last twenty years, US and NATO troops have been placed in the position of "peace keepers" when there was never any peace to be kept in the first place. It's like pissing on a bonfire. It hisses and smokes and then bursts back into flame as soon as you zip up your fly and turn your back and you stand a good chance of burning your dick in the process. Maybe NATO has finally learned the lesson that it is useless to waste it's resources and risk the lives of it's troops on a UN orchestrated "meals on wheels" cluster fuck, unless we've already made damn sure in advance that the parties involved have no capacity to restart the bonfire that we are there to put out.
Since you seem so interested in casualty statistics, how about this one? Since the turn of the century in excess of 500,000 U.S. servicemen and women have lost their lives in combat. Not one of those died on U.S. soil and at the times of their deaths there was always an outcry against our involvement because the naysayers said that it wasn't our business to get involved and that we lacked the authority to act. In retrospect, you would be hard pressed to find anyone, except perhaps our defeated enemies who isn't aware that the world would be a lot worse place today if it wasn't for the sacrifice of those men and women and forever grateful for their efforts to fight aggression and tyranny around the world on their behalf.
The U.S. has evolved as the world's social worker and when social work has failed, we've become it's policeman and security guard. I'm not sure why, because most of the time it would have been a hell of a lot easier and less costly to turn our backs and let events take their course. Maybe it's because of the unique nature of our country, our freedom and prosperity, that has made it a moral imperative for us to respond when we see those things denied others.
There are several users on this thread that I have never agreed with once, but I will listen to them and debate them, albeit sometimes acrimoniously. They've earned the right to challenge my statements because their experiences and the events that formed their perceptions of the truth give the the credibility that comes with having been there.
You obviously haven't. |
