The Washington Times
Sunday, March 1, 1998

THE THREE MUSKETEERS

By Bob Djurdjevic

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Some of the original text which was excised by the WT editors is shown here in square brackets.

It was a night to remember. At least for those American patriots who work during the day, and who may have missed the live, daytime showing of the evidently coordinated effort by the Clinton administration to whip up the American people's hatred for the Iraqis, and our support for yet another needless, overseas war.

No go. Heartland America showed that it's heart is still in the right place. Some 6,000 participants of the Columbus, Ohio, "town hall meeting" with the "Three Musketeers" of the Clinton administration's foreign policy - Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State; Sam Berger, the National Security Advisor and William Cohen, the Secretary of Defense [all three of Jewish descent - an important consideration since they advocate killing the Iraqis and risking American lives and property for the sake of Israel's national security]- turned what was supposed to be a triumphant PR trip into a fiasco.

"One, two, three, four, we don't want your racist war," a part of the crowd roared throughout the one-and-a-half hour CNN program.

"Hey, hey, LBJ, how many have you killed today," echoed a refrain in this writer's mind.

One of the two feeble CNN hosts, Bernard Shaw, made a fool of himself by trying to silence the "all 12 of you" (the hecklers), as he put it. Not only was that an insult to all the CNN viewers' ears worldwide, but a Columbus newspaper reporter who was there, estimated that the "12 hecklers" represented about one-third of the audience of some 6,000. And that about half of the remaining people were sympathetic, as they clapped in support of the "12 hecklers."

Guess the next time the Clinton administration tries to orchestrate the nation's support for its genocidal foreign policy, they'll have to do it more deftly. [Original text: ... they'll have to do it either in the dungeons of the Foggy Bottom or in Tel Aviv?]

For, the fascist idea - that killing certain human beings (the Iraqis) so as to protect some other ones (the Israelis and the westerners) - as advanced by the Feb. 12 Wall Street Journal editorial (by Karen Elliott House - "Let the Bombing Begin") - evidently fell on deaf ears in the (thank God!) still predominantly Christian Heartland America. [For, "thou shall not murder..." is one of our beliefs.]

"Madam Secretary, you're not answering my question," railed Jon Strange, a 22-year old substitute history teacher. "What about Indonesia, which is slaughtering people in East Timor... and Israel, which is slaughtering (the) Palestinians?," Mr. Strange demanded an explanation from an evidently flustered Albright. "We should be consistent in our goals."

The best Mrs. Albright could do to counter such a direct challenge was to try to deflect it. "There are various examples of things that are not right in this world," she said. "I am really surprised that people feel the need to defend Saddam Hussein, when we should be trying to eliminate his weapons of mass destruction."

[Strange.] Did Mr. Strange ever mention Saddam Hussein? Not unless he [extra-terrestrially] whispered into Mrs. Albright's ears past the CNN microphones.

No wonder the exasperated and flustered U.S. Secretary of Hate finally collapsed her foreign policy fences, and fell back to her professorial ramparts. "You should study what the U.S. foreign policy is. As a former professor, I'd be delighted to spend 50 minutes with you and go over this."

Another invitation to the woodshed! Gosh... What's the matter with these Clinton administration people? [She is 60 and divorced. He is 22 and handsome. And she wants to give him a private foreign policy tutorial for 50 minutes? What gives? Why can't the Clinton officials make their case in public, with their pants and skirts zippered-up, rather than trying to explain themselves in private, like the tutorials that Monica Lewinsky allegedly got?]

After all, isn't it in the American PUBLIC interest to know why American (or any other) lives should be sacrificed to deflect the nation's attention from the President's zipper? Or for another country? If this were a "town hall meeting," isn't the entire "town" (read the USA) entitled to hear the explanations about why its sons or daughters are being sent into harms' way?

No wonder some called her Mrs. Halfbright. And here's a proof of it: While Mrs. Halfbright was still the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., she reportedly confronted the then Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, by chiding him - (paraphrasing) - "what good is it having the most powerful military in the world if you don't use it?"

That's like saying - "what good is it owning a gun if you don't kill people with it?"

Nor was that the only time when Mrs. Halfbright demonstrated her less than impressive grasp of foreign policy. She was once before heckled and asked by the demonstrators outside the United Nations in New York City why she was so awful to the Serbs. "Because they are awful," the Secretary of State replied, then the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., according to a Jan. 22, 1997 Associated Press report.

"Awful?" An entire nation is "awful?" The last time a war was fought over the racist remarks like that, it was in World War II. Once again, it was a broad, racist swipe against an entire people, not just a jab at some accused (not convicted!) individuals.

What if Mrs. Albright had said - "all Jews are awful?" Or - "all Blacks are awful?" Or - "all Hispanics are awful?"

Chances are, she'd probably be still back-paddling her way all the way across the Atlantic to her native Czech Republic, rather than serving as the Secretary of State of the "world's greatest democracy."

"One, two, three, four, we don't want your racist war!"]

BOB DJURDJEVIC

Phoenix, Ariz.

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