THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
Friday, February 9, 1996
BOSNIA: WHAT'S THE FULL TRUTH?
By Bob Djurdjevic
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (italicized text was excised) |
How right you are!
In fact, the cracks are getting so wide that they have already started to attract foreign visitors, especially from Islamic countries (think World Trade Center bombing).
But your theory is right for the wrong reasons...
You say that "Bill Clinton et. al." looked the other way when the time came to bring the Bosnian war criminals to justice.
True enough.
But you fail to explain why there is "today, silence," as you put it.
Did it ever occur to you that maybe it is because Washington was afraid that the public might learn "the full truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" That even some of our government officials may have to be brought to justice, if the full truth were known? That Clinton might be scared that his "Bosnia Lies" may thwart his reelection, just as the "Whitewater Lies" are threatening to? That the lying in the Clinton administration, if not congenital, certainly appears habitual?
In other words, Clinton seems prepared to risk the lives of 20,000 Americans, and to make a deal even with the devils - just to get reelected! (i.e., with Slobodan Milosevic, Franjo Tudjman and Alija Izetbegovic, each of whom could drag the U.S. officials down with them if they told the whole truth).
How do I know that?
You see, I was in Bosnia when the alleged Srebrenica massacres were supposed to have been committed. I spent most of the three critical days (July 13-15, according to the allegations), in the company of the Bosnian Serb President, Dr. Radovan Karadzic and other top government officials. So I have a pretty good idea what he and others in the Bosnian Serb government knew or didn’t know at the time about the situation in Srebrenica. And I can assure you that the allegations of massacres of 5,000-6,000 Muslims, which Madelaine Albright levied at the U.N. on August 10, 1995, and which the subsequent (second) indictment of Dr. Karadzic referred to, are simply ludicrous.
Which is why I offered to testify before the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, if Judge Richard Goldstone could convince me that his Court was not a "Kangaroo Court." As it turns out, this South African "Hanging Judge" doesn’t seem interested in learning "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Only in politically motivated lynching.
(Just for the record - I wish to state I am no fan of Dr. Karadzic. I think that "Dr. Karadzic et. al." should be prosecuted - by the Bosnian Serb people who have suffered badly because of his naïveté and foolhardiness. But that’s their business, not ours, nor that of some international lynch-mob style court.)
Meanwhile, it’s the existence of "Kangaroo Courts," like Judge Goldstone’s, that helps widen the cracks in the Western Civilization. It’s the "Agent Orange" and the "Iran-Contra" cover-ups. It’s the denial of medical benefits to thousands of Gulf War veterans so as not to have to admit that they have been gassed by Iraq. It’s the "O.J." justice - money talks; jury balks; defendant walks. It’s Washington doing business with thugs and hooligans world over, while preaching chastity, that’s destroying our moral authority to lead the world.
True leaders lead by example, not by empty rhetoric. Or by flashing a fat pocket book.
If our Presidents return to that simple tenet which has guided our Founding Fathers’s politics - "do as I do, not as I say" - the cracks of the Western civilization may narrow once again. Otherwise, the second half of the "American century" may also be remembered by historians as the "Era of the Big Lie."
You can go to jail for the little lies, you know...
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Bob Djurdjevic is a Phoenix-based writer and founder of the Truth in Media (www.truthinmedia.org).