European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday september 14, 1995 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 Bosnia is a pattern for disaster 0i9951 a. M. Rosenthal american bombs fall every Day on a group of human beings who never raised a Finger or a gun against americans and offer not the faintest threat to american Security or National interests. Most americans do not care. Compared with the murder trial in los Angeles or the breaking of a baseball endurance record the bombing barely exists in the american mind. Some americans do pay attention a mostly journalists academics and politicians who snare a Pride in the hardness of their noses. Bomb these Folk dry . Flatten bosnian serbs they scream in strange ecstasy then go kill serbs in Serbia / ,. A Quot never underestimate the lower of callousness about faraway peo de whose relatives in America do not Tave much Campaign Money to spread around. But americans also have been taken in by distortions untruths and their own disinclination to learn a Little history. When they do give thought to the bombing americans charge bosnian serbs with atrocities aggression and ethnic cleansing. There is no arguing about atrocities too Many witnesses saw the Muslim Graves and serbian prison Camps. And to has shown us Muslim refugees pushed out of their villages. But at least As Many serbs have been forced out of their Homes by muslims but even More by croats. Any War trials should be for accused of All groups. Bosnian serbs would be in the Dock but so should Franjo Tadjman the president of Croatia. With the West looking on in satisfied silence in one operation alone his army drove out More than 150,000 serbs who had lived for centuries in what is now Croatia a made Independent in 1991 and supported militarily and politically by the West. About aggression americans have it firmly in their minds that the serbs of Bosnia invaded their own land. This myth is strenuously promoted by the muslims american politicians and the world press. When Yugoslavia fell apart serbs were living All Over the country As they had for centuries. One third of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina a an area not a country a was serbian the rest were Muslim with a croatian minority. The muslims and some croats wanted one Independent Bosnia. Bosnian serbs orthodox christians believing it would be Muslim dominated wanted out. They asked the same right of self determination Croatia had achieved and muslims were getting. Bosnian serbs said they would fight for that right nobody doubted them. So the goal of Europe should have been to Hammer out a settlement before creation of a Muslim led Bosnia. All three sides did agree to partition a until Muslim leaders reneged. They believed they would get International recognition for their All Bosnia Rule and did the civil War exploded. For a while bosnian serbs got serbian military Aid. Despite the . Embargo muslims and particularly Croatia also got foreign military supplies Large amounts. Now Slobodan Milosevic the former communist Boss of Yugoslavia conspires with Tadjman to carve up Bosnia Between them. The bosnian disaster was rooted in Muslim insistence a and Western acquiescence a on. Pulling into the new Bosnia a Borders a people who did not want to be governed by them. And the net result of years of Western diplomacy is that the United states and nato now bomb the bosnian serbs ostensibly to make them accept a partition Deal under whatever name that they would have taken before bosnian blood was shed. The bombing of serbs is also supposed to satisfy muslims a enough so they take the partition Deal. Quot consistently the muslims knowing they could not establish Rule Over Bosnia themselves counted on others to give them Dominion a the european Community the United nations nato the islamic nations and above All America. Now president Clinton driven by presidential politics has brought the United states smack into the bosnian War against their enemy. Assistant Secretary of state Richard Holbrooke a sophisticated Diplomat is struggling for a settlement. With serbs the Job is to use the bombing to get them to take what they would have accepted four years ago. A c now York times now sharing Little John John Kennedy whose occupation in grown up life has been As a new York celebrity Bachelor and a tabloid a hunk a has landed a Job doing serious work in the editors chair of a new Magazine called George. Why its George is apparently one of those cute a a in things that John f. Kennedyjr. And the new York celebrity crowd know about and know that the rest of us Are too dumb to ask. Actually As its been explained a for some people who need a lot of explaining to George is what you might Call a a poli trainmen to Magazine that la skim celebrity news off politics and entertainment. And All of it from reports of the inaugural Issue will be put Down in pictures and print in the keen edged style of new _ York celebrity Small talk a clash of ideas and intellect while non new yorkers and other people Are allowed to listen. Setting the George tone in the first Issue is a piece full of political observations written by someone named Cindy Crawford As she interviewed someone else named Izaac Mizrahi who discusses style As it might be encountered among politicians. Hillary Rodham Clinton and he supervision of the White House get Low Marks on style but the real Sauci Ness a and probably the Point of the whole piece a is some hip Leonard Larsen celebrity Gutter talk served up As devastating wit. Concerning Newt Gingrich the Republican speaker of the House of representatives the arbiter of style offered this insight a the looks like an evangelist. You just know that everything is pierced underneath a nipples other political sweepings packaged in Issue of George include an a if i were president essay by Madonna and a professional astrology Isth a look at the Star guided lives of presidential candidates that among its observations finds that Lamar Alexander was Leonardo a Vinci in an earlier life. In a lot of towns this stuff would be a or used to be a cranked out on an old mimeograph machine Down in the basement and passed around at the High school until the assistant principal woke up to the bathroom humor and crude innuendo and sat everybody from editors to delivery boys Down in his office for a talking to. But George has arrived As a Glossy new Magazine with an inaugural press run of.500,000, its bathroom humor and dreary political liberalism fattened with 175 pages of advertising. Its an expensive undertaking bankrolled by Rich folks who la reportedly write off As tax deductions the months or years of losses it la take to see if the thing might Ever show a profit or even break even. And All of it this cheap and tawdry package of political smut and pseudo sophistication is More evidence that the celebrity Chase Hasni to yet bottomed out not even when the full time celebrity son of a martyred president Sells himself off to peddle trash. In another Day of vaudeville performer Sand sideshow freaks the former John John might have gone on the Road to display himself As the orphaned child of a murdered president perhaps Reading his daddy a last letter Quot a a a a ,. \ a a that of course was when celebrity might have been Worth Only a few pennies paid by the rubes at the Box office before there were careers in celebrity and the celebrities themselves like Kennedy could turn celebrity into another career like Magazine editor. Of some passing interest As the new Magazine George sets up for business where celebrity and politics intersect might be a hot Button political Issue that needs _ examining by a Smarty pants Liberal leaning Magazine and its celebrity editor affirmative action. In that report probably on the Republican threats to affirmative action George might explain the situation at the Magazine and How it was old fashioned affirmative action a connections a that got Kennedy his Job that and his celebrity Appeal. The final insult is that this Magazine George this collection of titillation and cheap political gossip this new outflow of celebrity name dropping and pants dropping this celebrity Appeal to the clucks out there is going to be called journalism. Scripps Howard news service the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing those of the stars and stripes or the . Government
