Subject: RE: LMF
ZazieZazie@hetnet.nl
Date: Mon Jul 08 2002 - 14:12:18 EDT
Hmmm,
I don't know about this. The article in the NYT was pretty accurate, except that 1966 should've been '1996', obviously and I haven't read anywhere about
an election motive with regard to the resignation.
About Srebenica:
Of course, we could blame the Americans for this as well. With their constant sabotaging of the UN, like not paying their UN subscription fee (or whatever it's called) and their part in contributing to weakening the UN as a whole, one could lay the blame partly there.
But i won't. I guess Prime Minister (and not President, Cecilia, but could you care less?) Wim Kok (this means 'cook' for those of you who wonder)
got it right when he said that the international community failed as a whole.
I just felt that Cecilia's nutshell oversimplified things. The article in NYT is much more balanced.
I mean it's a dillemma: What do you do when you have to choose between a certain death for your 300 men AND 25.000 'Muslims' (I cannnot call Bosnians real Muslims since they're so secularised as non-orthodox jews in New York) you're supposed to protect, or a possible death of 7000 men,
and saving the lives of your soldiers and the Bosnian female refugees with their children?
I can well imagine, that a Dutch general, not accustomed to a rough life and blind hatred and unreasonability (sorry, is this a word?)
would take his chances and gamble his reputation and the lives of the 7000 men. After all, the enemy might not have the guts to do an unspeakable thing like slaughtering 7000 men in cold blood.
And yet ....
I too, would have wanted him to stand up to the Serbians, would have wanted him to put the UN for a fait accompli, by making a stand and not moving by saying something like 'if you don't give us air support NOW, 300 Dutch UN troops and 25000 Bosnians are gonna die'
Maybe the UN would've reacted and rescued them. And maybe not.
It's not that the Dutch are boring (the use of this word and this concept in the context of a 7000 people massacre is kinda sick) but that they, in the end put faith in the reasonability of people. Americans, Israeli's apparently have a more 'crazy' attitude. Or more balls.
jj flikweert wrote
Hya,
I guess with Zazie off the list I'll have to defend the orange flag. Or
whatever.
The whole Srebrenica situation was of course one big mess of
UN/Nato/Dutch miscommunication and naivety in the face of the real
tough war criminals from Serbia. The resignation of cabinet & prime
minister may just be the least naive part of it all because it happened
6 weeks before the scheduled general election and the coalition was
way down in the polls. And people now applaud the cabinet's
bravery in taking the blame or something. Nothing like a good
conspiracy theory.
But you people are right: we Dutch are boring. Even more boring
than Canadians, Belgians and Swiss, who at least have more than
one language.
I know one should never ask what Scottie's subject headers mean
(they're often the best part of his mails, just like Salinger's story
titles). But what *is* LMF?
Bye,
JJF
-----Original Message-----
From: "owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org" <owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org> on behalf of "Jim Rovira" <jrovira@drew.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 4:08 PM
To: "bananafish@roughdraft.org" <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Subject: Re: LMF
eesh... what a mess. Thanks for the link, Cecilia.
And yeah, we are almost talking live, Valerie :). We should start up a
bananfish chatroom somewhere...
Jim
Cecilia Baader wrote:
>
> --- Valerie <kate.beown@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> > Sorry, I live in a bunker and have no contact with the human race, so
> > tell me, please, what this report reveals about the Dutch,
> > because I had no idea
> > that the Dutch could be involved in...anything special....
>
> You can read the report in The New York Times:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/17/international/europe/17NETH.html
>
> (As with everything on the New York Times website, you'll have to register
> to read it, but registration is free. And worth it.)
>
> In a nutshell, it seems that the Dutch were present during the Bosnian
> massacre, yet they did nothing to stop it. The whole Dutch cabinet has
> resigned in the midst of the scandal and the president has indicated that
> he will not run again.
>
> Best,
> Cecilia.
>
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