Contrary to the thinking of the American Liberal, the majority of people in the United States have no interest in protesting the actions of their government. The vast majority of people have better things to do with their time then protest the minor failings of what is arguably the finest government in the world. Average Americans would rather spend their time working to support their families, shopping at Wal-Mart, catching a movie or any number of activities rather then spend their valuable time yelling slogans on local street corners at passing cars.
Not for the American Liberal. That’s the type of guy that refuses to shop at Wal-Mart or enjoy a cup of non-unionized Starbuck’s coffee, the protest for them is a religious affair. Like church (with no God, of course) it is a social activity and a good way to make friends with other annoying types who have nothing better to do but revile their country. Now, I have to be fair "some of my best friends are liberals", they have no doubt voted for John Kerry and call themselves liberals because somehow that makes them feel progressive or reminds them of the fun they all had in the sixties
But the American liberal is a hypocrite. Where were these "men and women of conscience" when President Clinton supported NAFTA, resulting in the loss of almost a million union and non-union jobs to third world nations? [i] The murder of American citizens aboard the U.S.S. Cole and at two United States embassies in Africa by Usama Bin Laden did not lead to American Liberal’s besieging the streets. They simply accepted Clinton’s policy of appeasing Bin Laden by not taking any substantial action against Al-Qaeda. And no, by the way, firing a cruise missile into a baby food factory and another at nearly empty Al-Qaeda camp is not considered “substantial action” from a military perspective.
However, the American Liberal raced to the street to defend their President after the United States House of Representatives impeached him for perjury, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power. [ii] They also protested President George W. Bush’s war against Iraq by repeatedly screaming the words “War for Oil”. I think the current price of gasoline at the pumps proves that their “War for Oil” theory was fundamentally flawed. The war against Iraq, with or without Weapons of Mass Destruction, was a proactive attack designed to stabilize the Middle East and free a people from one of the most inhumane dictators since Stalin.
You may be asking yourself: Doesn’t the American Liberal protest every war? The answer is “no”. Need one be reminded of President Clinton’s personal war against the nation of Yugoslavia? O r Serbia as most people call it today? At a time when Saddam Hussein was killing Kurds, North Korea was developing nuclear weapons, a massive undisputed genocide was taking place in Africa and Al-Qaeda was planning its attack on the World Trade Center, President Clinton decided to fight a war he knew he could win.
Shortly after Clinton came clean about lying to the American public and his own wife about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the Clinton family went on a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard to heal the damage that had been done to their family unit. It appears that being stuck on an island with Hillary wasn’t the best thing for World Peace. On the second day of this healing vacation- replete with the requisite appearance by “Spiritual Advisor” (and fellow adulterer) Jesse Jackson- President Clinton had to rush back to Washington to become a War President, always a good idea when people are trying to force you from office.
It appeared that William Jefferson Clinton had just discovered that the Yugoslavian Army was fighting a war against an insurgent movement within its own boarders, against the Kosovo Liberation Army (better known as the KLA.) Clinton claimed that there was genocide against the Islamic Albanian population taking place in the Serbia province of Kosovo. Whether or not there ever was any genocide taking place in Kosovo is a topic that is hotly debated to this day. Today there is strong evidence that no such genocide ever took place. [iii] There are two facts concerning Kosovo, however, that are not in dispute.
The first is that President Clinton faced virtually no opposition to attacking Yugoslavia. The American Liberal looked proudly on as President Clinton used the US military to prevent what they believed was a new holocaust in Europe. This, he accomplished, by bombing civilian and military targets in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, which is located hundreds of miles from Kosovo.
The massive bombing campaign resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of innocent civilians. It was the type of action that the American Liberal might have called a “War Crime” if a Republican president had been involved. The Right, even those familiar with the situation in Kosovo, stayed silent rather than appear not to “Support Our Troops”. One of the authors of this article, who had spent considerable time in Yugoslavia, joined this crowd and put his pen down while American soldiers were in the field. Unlike the American Liberal, members of the so called Right tend to keep their opinions to themselves when our boys are under fire. This lack of protest, in retrospect, may have been a mistake.
A second fact related to the failure of Republicans and other conservatives to protest the war against Yugoslavia was that many knew the reality of the situation in Kosovo. This list included members of the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Military, the House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and members of the conservative media. It was a well known fact that Usama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda had been operating in Albania since 1994 with the support of the Albanian government. [iv] Albania shares a boarder with Kosovo which is very similar to the one the United States shares with Mexico. It was around this time that Bin Laden began to supply the KLA with money, troops, and supplies to fight for independence from the government of Yugoslavia. This was the same KLA or Kosovo Liberation Army that President Clinton sent American troops to defend when they were being attacked by the Yugoslavian Army. This administration was aware of the KLA’s connection to Al-Qaeda. [v]
Need one remind the reader that this took place after Al-Qaeda had attacked United States property and interests at least three times? That this took place after the US military had already been attacked by Islamo-nuts in Somalia in 1993? Now American soldiers were being sent to support Bin Laden’s troops in a war against Yugoslavia on direct orders from President Clinton, all done to divert public attention from his lying about a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Had there ever been a time for protest this would have been it. This time, however, it wasn’t just American Liberals that were missing in action.
