You may have to just skip this post. It is / might be one of the those posts that I write for me. I am nearing the end of a trip with a lot of time alone. And a lot of time alone allows me to mull over and that makes me think ... and well, here is where all of you readers will miss Eddie because he can't tell me to shut up.
And, to be a good essay writer for my teacher friends, I will tell you what I am going to tell you and then do it. I am going to question the easy answer and label that liberals / conservatives, Democrat / Republicans and even religious / atheists put on each other.
The picture above is from Jajce. Just below the old castle were three bombed out houses in a row. And it is like questions - personified (housified?).
I was reading an interview with Glen Greenwald the other day and he said that an interesting thing about day to day life in Brazil is that the political question of invading someone else never comes up. That is, the Brazilian people and government would never think of invading, say Syria, for what it is doing. And I though, "how great!", "how refreshing".
And then I drive through Bosnia Herzegovina. Where first the European Union, then the UN and then the United States never thought of invading. And it was the oppositie of great. What started as a violent land grab for diplomatic reasons turned into an all out attack on their literal neighbors when no one stepped in. Had the Europeans acted somehow desisively, maybe it culd have been avoided.
But everyone was okay when Slovenia left Yugoslavia, Germany made sure Croatia had support when they hightailed it out of Yugoslavia. Russia made sure Serbia had support. Greece hates Macadonia, but wouldn't let any fighting happen on their doorstep. So pity Bosnia Herzegovina, with a multiethic population, virulant nationalistic neighbors and a world that didn't care, everyone decided to grab it and devide it up. People went nuts.
And they really did go bat-shit crazy (a reference FYI - to rabies). Serbians fire bombed (with phospherous!) the National Library! Not just because it was old,or because it was Austrian - but because they wanted to erase the very idea of a Bosnian identity. Croatians in Herzegovina celebrated the retreat of Serbian forces by cleansing towns of Muslims. In Stolac, they forced out the 1/3 of the people that were muslim, and then blew up their homes so they couldn't go back. Both sides expected to be combined with their nationalistic home countries (Serbia and Croatia) and tried to grab as much land, and remove as many people as possible. The effects are everywhere.
It didn't stop until Clinton stepped in, where many of us (and I say us, because my guess I was one of them) said he shouldn't. Wasn't our fight. But we had the airpower and that crazy-kid on the playground look that starts punching before he thinks. And ultimately, it worked.
How much TV time was spent (at the time and forgotten now) on "how this helps in the next Presidential race?" "Has this hurt his legacy?" On the crap poles we americans are subject to about everything from income tax to the First Lady's bangs? You will never drive through a magical, beautiful place like Bosnia Herzegovina and think, "did we do right to intervene?" - you will drive through and wonder how anyone could not. What the hell made us wait so long.
They thing about Americans, the amazing thing, is that we think we can solve anything. Seriously, if the people of the world would just listen to us, we could solve everything. We can't agree on shit within our country, but we could sort out the world. I know it isn't true, but while I sit here, in Mostar - a place where everyone turned on each other and killed them, I listen to the evening call to prayers of the Imans at 5:45 and I heard the churchbells calling for Mass at 5:00PM. I listen to laughing, and drinks and coffee and NOT gunfire. And I am glad that Clinton did something - I would have been happy if it was Bush or Reagan. I am quietly proud that we were able to help - even though I am sure we did it bluntly and clumsily, like Americans do everything. But we often do it. And then, like Frankenstein's monster with the flowers, we ponyed up money to restore monuments - rebuild rubble and basically say, "Oops, sorry about that ancient monument, we'll jsut clean that up..."
It doesn't work all the time - I totally get it. We left a mess in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe Lybia. But we can't fix their systems. We can only be like that Dad that turns around and yells at the kids int he back seat to stop it. No matter how quiet they get, Ed will still put his finger on Phil's side of the back seat. You can't fix everything.
Bosnia Herzegovina is now stuck with a unwiedly government and a odd internal system, but BUT... It is its own country, Serbia and Croatia didn't grab the bits they thought they would. And the people - when forced to stop attacking each other - they get along again. Sure not like before, but it's only been 17 years. They remembered their eariler differences after 500 years! Seventeen years is nuttin'.
It is a beautiful magical place with beauitful people, I hope they figure it out. Now, of course, if they would only listen to me, I have the answers....