Two months ago, Bill Clinton and the leaders of Europe thought they could
launch a video game-like war in Yugoslavia that would be painless, casualty
free and quick. Ten thousand bombs later, the political will to continue
this senseless and tragic war is collapsing.
Let me be the first to proclaim that the War in Yugoslavia is over. NATO
lost, Slobodan won. Oh, NATO will still drop more bombs, kill more civilians
and make more excuses. But anything that NATO does from now on is only rigor
mortis setting in.
Gerhard Schroder, Chancellor of Germany, says he will prevent the use of
combat ground troops. Gerhard, who is also Chairman of the European Union,
has uttered words that tell Milosevic that he has won.
Everyone knows that the air war has failed. Everyone knows that the
Kosovo Albanians can’t return to their homes. So if NATO can’t use ground
troops, NATO might as well stop the bombing and negotiate settlement with
Slobodan Milosevic on his terms.
The Italian parliament has passed a resolution urging NATO to impose a
48-hour bombing pause after the U.N. Security Council passes a resolution
outlining a peace settlement. A single ” no” vote can kill any resolution of
the U.N. Security Council. Russia and China are both members of the U.N.
Security Council. Russia and China both want NATO to lose face.
This dirty little war has empowered Russia and China to reassert their
power on the world stage. Russia and China will insist on a “peace
settlement” that will be acceptable to Milosevic. The war is over my
friends, and NATO lost.
Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema warned that public support for the
NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia could falter if we attacked nonmilitary
targets. Well, Mr. Prime Minister, you are too late.
We are tired of NATO bombing hospitals. We are tired of NATO bombing
embassies. We are tired of NATO bombing homes, apartment buildings, busses
and trains. We are tired of NATO killing innocent civilians.
We are tired of this war that we never wanted in the first place. We are
tired of the big lie that if we just give NATO a few more days and a few
more bombs, Slobodan will be broken.
The Butcher of the Balkans has won. He has kicked most of the Kosovar
Albanians out of Kosovo. Continued bombing of hospitals, homes, bridges,
electricity generating plants and factories seems nothing less than mindless
and wanton violence just for the heck of it.
Why can’t Bill Clinton make the connection between the murders in
Littleton, Colo., and the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo? Decent law-abiding
kids and an adult died at Columbine High School because only the killers and
a security guard had guns. The same thing happened in the 1991 Luby’s
massacre in Killeen, Texas. If law-abiding citizens had the right to carry
guns at Columbine and Luby’s, few if any people would have died because they
would have had the means to protect themselves.
We have seen the results of right-to-carry laws in Florida, Texas and
other parts of the nation. Nothing stops violent crime better than allowing
law-abiding citizens to protect themselves with guns. However, Clinton, and
now the Republican Congress, just don’t get it.
The ultimate flaw in all gun control programs is that they assume that
criminals will obey the law. Duh. The definition of a criminal is
someone who consciously breaks laws. Criminals love gun control laws. Gun
control laws make it easier for criminals to abuse the law abiding because
the only people who will obey gun control laws are those who don’t commit
crimes. When Bill Clinton promotes gun control legislation, he is playing
into the hands of violent criminals.
Kosovo is a perfect example of why Clinton’s and Congress’ dream for
America is a living nightmare. In Kosovo, only the police and the Army had
“legal” guns. When armed thugs told Kosovar Albanians that they had only ten
minutes to leave their homes, the residents were powerless to resist. If the
Albanians of Kosovo had our Second Amendment right to bear arms, they would
have done something other than run when confronted with armed intruders. If
the Albanians of Kosovo had exercised their right-to-carry, most of them
would still be living in their homes.
Where does this all leave us? Ethnic cleansing is over. Milosevic has
cleansed the Kosovar Albanians. The KLA, a shadowy “terrorist” organization
that was supposed to rise and get rid of the Serbs once the bombing started
has been destroyed. Germany, the mother of two world wars in this century,
has forbidden the use of ground troops. Without ground troops, NATO cannot
prevail.
Let me say it again. The war is over. NATO lost. Milosevic and the forces
of ethnic cleansing have won. No one, not Milosevic, not Clinton, will be
held accountable by the courts for the slaughter of innocents and the
needless destruction of Yugoslavia.
However, they can’t escape another court. Because God will judge each of
us when our time on this planet is up. Those “leaders” who orchestrated this
needless, tragic, and savage war will be held accountable by the only power
that counts. And God doesn’t care what the definition of the word “is” is.
Let’s curb the kangaroo court of anonymous sources
Tim Graham