Jonathan Tobin
(JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
HISTORY TEACHES US THAT CONFUSION is, more often than not, the natural
state of democracies. Unlike dictatorships, the give-and-take of debate in
a free country often creates a consensus for uncertainty rather than
decisive action.
But if there is one topic a democracy ought not to be confused about, it is human rights. Yet as I listen to the discussion about our country's decision to militarily intervene in the latest civil war in the Balkans, I find myself confused.
After following this story closely for weeks, I can't help but wonder how we arrived at a point where serious people are actually talking about sending in ground troops to fight the Serbs in Kosovo.
AN EASILY IDENTIFIED VILLAIN
Is that our duty? And, if so, what is our duty in other cases of
human-rights violations around the globe?
American Jews have a particularly important stake in this question. Drawing from our own history and the lessons of the Holocaust, we have spoken out time and again on human-rights issues. In the case of the recent war in Bosnia, it was the organized American Jewish community - as much as anyone else --- that struggled to build a consensus that America had a duty to stop Serbian atrocities.
This year, as we celebrate Passover, American warplanes and missiles --
along with those of our NATO allies -- are attacking the forces of Serbian
dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Nevertheless, the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo
are being exiled from their homes by a Serbian campaign to rid the province
of its non-Serb population.
Milosevic is a loathsome creature. It is easy to despise him and to sympathize with the pathetic refugees streaming out of the war zone. That's the part that is easy to understand. He's a bad guy doing bad things, and we Americans want to stop him.
But we also need to consider the process - if any - by which we decide which human-rights causes are worth fighting about and which we will ignore.
WHAT ARE OUR REASONS?
Are we bombing the Serbs because they are violating the human rights of the
Albanians in Kosovo? Because Milosevic is another Hitler and the lessons of
the Holocaust must not be forgotten? Or does it have something to do with
the economy and stability of Europe?
The president has trotted out all of these explanations. Taken together, they present a puzzling picture of American intentions as we fumble to do something about the horrifying spectacle of slaughter and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
No one can seriously believe the European stability excuse. The Swiss banks and the German economy will thrive no matter how many people Milosevic or his armed Albanian enemies murder.
If the goal of our campaign in Kosovo is to stop the violation of human
rights, I support it. But that forces me to ask why we are less interested
in human-rights violations elsewhere.
HUMAN-RIGHTS HYPOCRISY
In the past few years, many have advocated using American trade policy to
punish those countries that persecute religious believers and repress
democracy dissidents. In particular, China, which routinely commits
genocide in Tibet and continues to operate its own Gulag Archipelago
(called the laogai) where Chinese religious and political dissidents are
sent to suffer, has been singled out.
But to the Clinton administration -- following the path of its Republican predecessors -- thinks the use of even the mildest trade sanctions on China is too radical a solution. There, they prefer "engagement" with the bad guys.
In recent weeks, Cuba, the remaining Marxist dictatorship in this hemisphere, has cracked down hard on those who oppose Fidel Castro's regime. But in a reversal of previous policy, we are now "engaging" Cuba, too, sending them baseball teams to play, not bombers.
Not far from the killing fields of Kosovo, our NATO ally Turkey continues its own repression of ethnic Kurds in the eastern part of that country. Though it is painful to say anything bad about Israel's only regional ally and a country that has been hostile to rogue countries like Syria and Iraq, Turkey's anti-Kurd campaign is also worthy of condemnation. But on that score, the United States -- and American Jews -- are largely silent for reasons that are all too obvious.
THE KURDISH PRECEDENT
In addition, the Kurdish precedent raises the question of why we are
getting into bed with the unsavory Kosovo Liberation Army, whose anti-Serb
terrorism helped bring this conflict to a boil. The KLA bears a strange
resemblance to Kurdish terrorists whose suppression we have applauded. And
they are getting aid from some of the same Islamic fundamentalists whom we
rightly despise and fear.
Nor have we done a thing to save the victims of a score of bloody ethnic conflicts all over Africa and Asia.
In each case, I believe the United States is wrong to soft-peddle human rights. My question is, how do they square that cynical attitude with the crusade to topple Milosevic?
Nor has anyone explained to me why Iraq's territorial integrity was so important that it required sparing Saddam Hussein at the end of the Persian Gulf War, but Yugoslavia's is so unimportant that American lives must be risked to continue its breakup.
Instead, all we hear is more Tom Clancy-like idolatry of military technology and talk about how NATO's credibility must be saved (after the air war inevitably fails), even if it means all-out ground warfare.
If President Clinton's war is about an American doctrine of active intervention on behalf of human-rights victims and punishment of persecutors wherever they may be, then count me as one of his greatest supporters. But does anybody really believe that to be the case?
The lessons of the Shoah are not political toys to be picked up and played with whenever a leader is feeling morally indignant about a situation. They must be applied consistently throughout our foreign policy, or they are revealed as hypocrisy.
I am cautiously in favor of American intervention that will help save lives in the Balkans, though I doubt the NATO offensive will work. The lack of foresight and grasp of strategy by the Clinton administration has brought about the worst of all possible outcomes: the toll of human suffering in Kosovo has increased exponentially while the understrength armed forces of the United States are about to be drawn into a bloody land war whose outcome is by no means certain.
That this is being done to end a massive human rights violation does not
justify the Holocaust-tinged rhetoric of the president or excuse the
impending disaster. A compelling case has not been made to show that
escalating the conflict will save lives. Good intentions are not enough.
What we need is leadership. In its place, all we get is spin.
I remain puzzled as to where it will end. The problem is, the president is
even more confused than I
JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
03/19/99:Jewish Art, Jewish Artists: Making beautiful music is no guarantee of goodness
03/17/99: When Jewish Foes Come Together
03/11/99: The Lingering Romance of the Jewish Left: When naming names was a righteous cause
03/05/99: Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburgers
02/25/99: Changing Our Minds on School Choice
02/18/99: Morality Play: Mixing Politics and Values Is a Tricky Business
02/11/99:Of Human Rights and Wrongs
02/05/99:The Bibiphobia Conspiracy
01/27/99: Israel and Us: Putting Up or Shutting Up
01/20/99: The High Cost of Jewish Education
01/14/99The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Have American Jews finally arrived?
01/06/99 Israel: The Millennial Theme Park
12/30/98 Memo to Bubba: Israel ain't Monica, keep yer hands off!
12/22/98 Calling Things by Their Right Names
12/12/98 Good news...and bad news
11/05/98 What price free-speech?
10/30/98: Haunted by the past
10/23/98: American Jewry: Ethnicity or faith?
10/15/98: Converts, saints and Jews:
Confronting the story of Edith Stein
10/02/98: Bibi: No Messiah, just a politician
9/11/98: Politics ‘98: By their enemies shall ye know them
9/04/98: Pro-terror groups' cry of discrimination rings hollow
8/28/98: Defending the undefendable;Or, the AJCongress should stop wasting Jewish resources
8/21/98: Is 'Jewish journalism' an oxymoron?
8/14/98: Holding on to our heroes
8/07/98: Three strikes, but they continue to play
7/23/98: Zionist vs Zionist
7/17/98: Summer news stories: Large and small
7/13/98: A step closer to school choice
6/26/98: The Holocaust Museum and Mort Klein
6/12/98: What price Jewish education?
6/5/98:
Ten books for a long, hot summer:
A serious vacation reading list for Jewish history lovers
5/29/98:
Double standards here and there:
Hypocrisy raises its ugly head in Israel and the U.S.
5/26/98: Hartford Seminary tangle points to bigger issues
5/22/98:The importance of being Bibi
5/14/98:
The ‘dream palace' of the anti-Zionists:
Hartford Seminary controversy has historic roots
4/26/98: All-rightniks versus the alarmists:
Focussing on the Jewish bottom line
4/13/98:Of ends and means and victims
4/5/98: Hang up on Albright
3/29/98: Bigshots or activists?: Clinton's three clerics return from China
3/27/98: Will American Jews help Clinton push Israel into a corner?
3/22/98: Anti-Semitism then and now
3/15/98: Still searching for Jews at the opera
3/11/98: Remembering Eric Breindel
3/8/98: Getting lost in history
3/5/98: Follow the money to Hamas
2/22/98: Re-writing "Anne Frank" - A distorted legacy
2/15/98: Religious persecution is still a Jewish issue
2/6/98: A lost cause remembered (the failure of the Bund)
2/1/98: Economic aid is not in Israel's interest
1/25/98: Jews are news, and a fair shake for Israel is hard to find