Perhaps the strangest thing I’ve seen on television this year was the clip last week of National Security Advisor Sandy Berger saying that the U.S. is not the world’s policeman and that the situation in East Timor is an Asian problem and would have to be solved by Asians.
Just six months ago, Mr. Berger and the rest of the Clinton administration was arguing that we had to go into Kosovo, because we are the only superpower left, and as such, we are the world’s policeman.
Six weeks ago, we were telling China to stay away from Taiwan. Apparently, hostilities there are not an Asian problem and do not have to be solved by Asians.
What are we to think of all this? First, I don’t think we should believe anything Sandy Berger says. Not only does the man seem incapable of telling the truth on camera, he can’t even lie in a manner that is logically consistent. How such a poor liar made it to the top ranks of government is a mystery to me.
But what’s really going on? For starters, the White House considers Taiwan too important strategically, economically and politically to ever let mainland China mess with it.
Kosovo is not strategically or economically important, but there is no way the U.S. is going to surrender its military hegemony in Europe. The U.S. is the number one military power in Europe, and that’s the way it will stay, we don’t care how many Europeans have to die to prove our point.
Actually, to compare East Timor to Kosovo is unfair. Kosovo is, after all, a Serbian province. The situation in East Timor is more like the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In 1975, Indonesian troops, with a nod and a wink from Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger, invaded a sovereign nation, occupied it and have been committing atrocities against its people ever since.
This week, the UN announced its troops will be allowed into East Timor by Indonesia. That’s like the Allies asking the Germans to allow them to come to France in 1944. Of course, the Indonesians are putting all kinds of conditions on the UN troops, and for some strange reason, the UN seems willing to go along with this.
Sandy Berger is back on the tee vee, saying again that this is not our problem and that the U.S. will only play a limited role in the peacekeeping mission. On the other hand, the U.S. has played an active role in the oppression of East Timor. Indonesia, and its murderous military, has been a client state of the U.S. for decades. We train their army officers, we send our people in as observers, we conduct joint exercises with their military. The so-called “independent militias” are using tactics devised by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War and refined by the Contras. They come right out of the CIA textbooks. For God’s sake, could we at least stop selling arms to the Indonesian military until they get out of East Timor? Is that too much to ask?
Here’s what’s really going on. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country, so it’s a big market. In leftover Cold War mentality, Sandy Berger and company think we need to suck up to Indonesian generals, no matter how bloodthirsty, to balance the influence of China and Vietnam in the region. Indonesia is full of minerals and oil and sweatshops where American clothes and electronics are assembled.
On the other side of the coin, the East Timorese side, you have a people who have survived 25 years of attempted genocide. In the face of state-sponsored terrorism, they still turned out in record numbers to vote for self-determination and democracy, the things the United States claims to stand for.
But as Sandy Berger would say – that’s not our problem.
Doublespeak
Perhaps the strangest thing I’ve seen on television this year was the clip last week of National Security Advisor Sandy Berger saying that the U.S. is not the world’s policeman and that the situation in East Timor is an Asian problem and would have to be solved by Asians.
Just six months ago, Mr. Berger and the rest of the Clinton administration was arguing that we had to go into Kosovo, because we are the only superpower left, and as such, we are the world’s policeman.
Six weeks ago, we were telling China to stay away from Taiwan. Apparently, hostilities there are not an Asian problem and do not have to be solved by Asians.
What are we to think of all this? First, I don’t think we should believe anything Sandy Berger says. Not only does the man seem incapable of telling the truth on camera, he can’t even lie in a manner that is logically consistent. How such a poor liar made it to the top ranks of government is a mystery to me.
But what’s really going on? For starters, the White House considers Taiwan too important strategically, economically and politically to ever let mainland China mess with it.
Kosovo is not strategically or economically important, but there is no way the U.S. is going to surrender its military hegemony in Europe. The U.S. is the number one military power in Europe, and that’s the way it will stay, we don’t care how many Europeans have to die to prove our point.
Actually, to compare East Timor to Kosovo is unfair. Kosovo is, after all, a Serbian province. The situation in East Timor is more like the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In 1975, Indonesian troops, with a nod and a wink from Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger, invaded a sovereign nation, occupied it and have been committing atrocities against its people ever since.
This week, the UN announced its troops will be allowed into East Timor by Indonesia. That’s like the Allies asking the Germans to allow them to come to France in 1944. Of course, the Indonesians are putting all kinds of conditions on the UN troops, and for some strange reason, the UN seems willing to go along with this.
Sandy Berger is back on the tee vee, saying again that this is not our problem and that the U.S. will only play a limited role in the peacekeeping mission. On the other hand, the U.S. has played an active role in the oppression of East Timor. Indonesia, and its murderous military, has been a client state of the U.S. for decades. We train their army officers, we send our people in as observers, we conduct joint exercises with their military. The so-called “independent militias” are using tactics devised by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War and refined by the Contras. They come right out of the CIA textbooks. For God’s sake, could we at least stop selling arms to the Indonesian military until they get out of East Timor? Is that too much to ask?
Here’s what’s really going on. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country, so it’s a big market. In leftover Cold War mentality, Sandy Berger and company think we need to suck up to Indonesian generals, no matter how bloodthirsty, to balance the influence of China and Vietnam in the region. Indonesia is full of minerals and oil and sweatshops where American clothes and electronics are assembled.
On the other side of the coin, the East Timorese side, you have a people who have survived 25 years of attempted genocide. In the face of state-sponsored terrorism, they still turned out in record numbers to vote for self-determination and democracy, the things the United States claims to stand for.
But as Sandy Berger would say – that’s not our problem.