Bombingen av den kinesiske ambassaden i Beograd sier kanskje noe om
"presisjonsbomber". Eller kanskje ikke. I seg selv er det ikke noen
større ulykke, at representanter for et regime som det kinesiske
blir truffet, krigen har tusener av langt mer uskyldige ofre.
Imidlertid finnes det en ubehagelig mulighet som avdekkes av denne
begivenhet: Det synes påfallende, at netopp som fredsprosessen var
ved å komme i gang for alvor, skjer dette. Kinas støtte i sikkerhetsrådet
er avgjørende for å få med FN. Det er absolutt ikke utenkelig, at
ambassadebombingen slett ikke er noe uhell. Kanskje krefter i NATO
(les USA) ikke ønsker fred? Her kan en ha i tankene de som styrte
Iran-Contras-affæren. Det er ikke uten interesse,
at vi befinner oss i en situasjon, hvor verdensøkonomien vakler og
hele det neoliberale fatamorgana er brutt sammen.
Det er nok naivt å tro, at en person av Clintons kaliber har
særlig innsikt i eller oversikt over hva som skjer. Spørs-
målet er, om noen i det hele tatt kan ha det. Her er det
andre krefter som styrer.
Vh. Karsten Johansen
Comment: Elvis impersonators add touch
of farce to the war
By Mark Steyn
EVERY morning, Washington's foreign policy establishment tries to figure
what's going on inside the head of Slobodan Milosevic, a far-away man of
whom we know little, except that during the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia he
liked to go to Ohio bars and sing Love Me Tender.
But, if you were Slobo sitting in Belgrade, what would you make of that other
Elvis impersonator, the one in the White House? Last week, Serbia's senior
foreign policy analysts would have informed their president that Bill
Clinton had
just given his lengthiest address in a month - at the annual White House
correspondents' dinner.
Mr Clinton reported that he'd been disappointed to discover that in a list
of the
century's Top 100 news stories his sex scandals had come in only at Number
53. "Fifty-three?" he said. "I mean, what does a guy have to do to make the Top
50 around here?"
In the midst of micromanaging the biggest military operation in Europe since
the
Second World War, the President apparently has time to do impeachment
shtick. He's been exposed as a liar and sexual predator, tried in the Senate,
accused of rape, found in contempt of court, had his penis examined for a court
deposition and, only this week, a jury in Virginia has been listening to
Kathleen
Willey's account of how he grabbed her breasts. But hey, if that ain't funny,
what is? Sitting alongside him, the First Lady cracked up.
Maybe, mused Milosevic, I'd get a better press if I hired some new writers: "So
I said to the wife, 'Darling, I love your new book, IT TAKES A PILLAGE . . .'
" But by then his analysts would have pointed out Mr Clinton's decisive
response to America's own humanitarian disaster: the President said he was
sending $1.5 million from the Federal Crime Victims' Fund to aid the people of
Littleton, Colorado, with the cost of "funerals, uninsured medical expenses,
lost
wages and counselling" and to set them "on their long journey toward recovery".
That's nice of him. Except that, if there's one thing Littleton isn't short
of, it's
money. Median household income is $51,000, against a US average of around
$35,000. Of course, $1.5 million isn't a lot of dough - about three-quarters
of an
air-launched cruise missile, which Mr Clinton is dropping in such extravagant
quantities on Yugoslavia every night.
Still, Milosevic must have marvelled at a government that gives taxpayers'
money to meet the burial expenses of families with seven cars: the Kosovar
Albanians don't have seven cars between 'em, and Slobo ain't stumping up for
their caskets.
He might have concluded that Mr Clinton's America has no sense of proportion,
a judgment that would have been resoundingly confirmed by his release of the
three US prisoners of war to America's Number One shakedown artist, the
Rev Jesse Jackson.
Afterwards, Mr Jackson flew home to appear in a sketch on the CBS Late
Show about trying to get David Letterman released . . . from his contract.
Don't
worry, he's not serious.
But then, in Bill Clinton's America, who is? Congress has abandoned the
President, the public's indifferent, and the armed forces risk-averse. This
is not
how a great power conducts itself. Slobo and Saddam and the North Koreans
and the Chinese are watching and smiling: Bill and Jesse! you gotta admit
they're pretty funny.