T
the patriot
Guest
November 16, 2000
The Balkans, in black and white
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
It‘s always disappointing when you find a book you hope will provide insights and sensible assessments and find, instead, that it is unfair, slanted and just plain wrong in many ways.
While The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle by Carol Off is something of a judgmental polemic, that‘s not what‘s disquieting. In fact, that‘s predictable from the first sentence of her introduction: "This is a story about right and wrong, and about people who can, and cannot, tell the difference between the two."
In other words, she is the final arbiter. The "villain" of her book (the Fox) is Maj.-Gen. Lew MacKenzie, the UN commander in Sarajevo in the early days of Yugoslavia‘s breakup, and "hero" to millions who followed the news in those confusing, horrific days. Off says she blames the UN bureaucracy as much as MacKenzie for things that went wrong, but that isn‘t MacKenzie‘s impression. Or mine.
Off‘s hero (the Eagle) is Louise Arbour who, before she became a Supreme Court justice, was special prosecutor for war crimes in the Balkans. To Off, Arbour and Romeo Dallaire (the Lion), former UN commander in Rwanda, knew the difference between "right and wrong," while MacKenzie didn‘t. At least, that‘s the implication.
The one-third of the book dealing with MacKenzie and Sarajevo is, in my view, a travesty. Useless as "history." In a nutshell, the Serbs can do no right, the Muslims no wrong. When Bosnia commits atrocities, it is "revenge" and somehow justifiable. MacKenzie insisting the Balkans can‘t be divided into good and bad guys (only degrees of both) is seen as favouring Serbs. Off implies the outside world was against Bosnia in the war, when the reverse is true. MacKenzie‘s comparison of Serbs, Croats and Muslims in the "peacekeeping" days of the Balkans as serial killers of 15, 10 and five victims, with none regarded as "good guys," is dismissed, even though it‘s a pretty fair assessment.
Instead, Off puts Bosnia on a pedestal - especially President Alija Izetbegovic, whose word meant zilch in negotiations and whose life MacKenzie saved when the Serbs had him hostage.
MacKenzie contends The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle contains numerous errors of fact. He‘ll probably have something to say in print about the book (which will likely help its sales).
Particularly upsetting is the author‘s technique of innuendo. Off quotes an alleged war criminal, Borislav Herak, saying he witnessed MacKenzie at a Serb-run "rape camp" driving off with four Muslim women "for the purpose of satisfaction of personal lust." After setting the scene, Off then knocks down the allegations - Bosnia‘s ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Sacirbey, rejected the allegations, as did an investigative Newsday reporter, Roy Gutman. A UN inquiry found MacKenzie had never been to that site - and had left Sarajevo a month before the alleged incident. It later turned out that Herak was tortured and had told so many lies he was useless as any sort of war crimes witness.
So why give any credence to obvious falsehoods if not to damage the target?
BOMBED THEIR OWN PEOPLE
Although there‘s considerable evidence that Bosnians bombed their own people in a bread line and market to gain sympathy in the West and blame Serbs, Off casually rejects these findings.
Few things are black and white in Balkan issues. Yet Off has few doubts. Those seeking "truth" might examine Kosovo where the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) committed atrocities in order to provoke Serbs into a reaction they hoped would persuade the U.S. that genocide was under way.
It worked, to a point, even though few of the mass graves cited by Louise Arbour, have materialized. Now it‘s Serbs who‘ve been "ethnically cleansed" from Kosovo, with NATO "peacekeepers" helpless to protect the innocent. Curiously, Off‘s book unintentionally validates those who think like MacKenzie and warned that foreign intervention in the Balkans is not a long-term solution. Even the eventual partition of Bosnia was a MacKenzie recommendation.
Peace will last as long as foreign troops guarantee it.
It can be argued that the creation of an independent Bosnia was a huge error. A state that can‘t defend itself or exist without perpetual foreign support is a questionable proposition.
While MacKenzie feels this book is a hatchet job, I suspect reasonable readers will conclude that basically MacKenzie was right and his decisions did Canada proud while the UN dithered. Off, of course, is also right in condemning the UN bureaucracy, but for the wrong reasons.
She would have the UN interfering more, MacKenzie would have it doing it less. Guess which side I‘m on?
**************************************************
-the patriot-
The Balkans, in black and white
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
It‘s always disappointing when you find a book you hope will provide insights and sensible assessments and find, instead, that it is unfair, slanted and just plain wrong in many ways.
While The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle by Carol Off is something of a judgmental polemic, that‘s not what‘s disquieting. In fact, that‘s predictable from the first sentence of her introduction: "This is a story about right and wrong, and about people who can, and cannot, tell the difference between the two."
In other words, she is the final arbiter. The "villain" of her book (the Fox) is Maj.-Gen. Lew MacKenzie, the UN commander in Sarajevo in the early days of Yugoslavia‘s breakup, and "hero" to millions who followed the news in those confusing, horrific days. Off says she blames the UN bureaucracy as much as MacKenzie for things that went wrong, but that isn‘t MacKenzie‘s impression. Or mine.
Off‘s hero (the Eagle) is Louise Arbour who, before she became a Supreme Court justice, was special prosecutor for war crimes in the Balkans. To Off, Arbour and Romeo Dallaire (the Lion), former UN commander in Rwanda, knew the difference between "right and wrong," while MacKenzie didn‘t. At least, that‘s the implication.
The one-third of the book dealing with MacKenzie and Sarajevo is, in my view, a travesty. Useless as "history." In a nutshell, the Serbs can do no right, the Muslims no wrong. When Bosnia commits atrocities, it is "revenge" and somehow justifiable. MacKenzie insisting the Balkans can‘t be divided into good and bad guys (only degrees of both) is seen as favouring Serbs. Off implies the outside world was against Bosnia in the war, when the reverse is true. MacKenzie‘s comparison of Serbs, Croats and Muslims in the "peacekeeping" days of the Balkans as serial killers of 15, 10 and five victims, with none regarded as "good guys," is dismissed, even though it‘s a pretty fair assessment.
Instead, Off puts Bosnia on a pedestal - especially President Alija Izetbegovic, whose word meant zilch in negotiations and whose life MacKenzie saved when the Serbs had him hostage.
MacKenzie contends The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle contains numerous errors of fact. He‘ll probably have something to say in print about the book (which will likely help its sales).
Particularly upsetting is the author‘s technique of innuendo. Off quotes an alleged war criminal, Borislav Herak, saying he witnessed MacKenzie at a Serb-run "rape camp" driving off with four Muslim women "for the purpose of satisfaction of personal lust." After setting the scene, Off then knocks down the allegations - Bosnia‘s ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Sacirbey, rejected the allegations, as did an investigative Newsday reporter, Roy Gutman. A UN inquiry found MacKenzie had never been to that site - and had left Sarajevo a month before the alleged incident. It later turned out that Herak was tortured and had told so many lies he was useless as any sort of war crimes witness.
So why give any credence to obvious falsehoods if not to damage the target?
BOMBED THEIR OWN PEOPLE
Although there‘s considerable evidence that Bosnians bombed their own people in a bread line and market to gain sympathy in the West and blame Serbs, Off casually rejects these findings.
Few things are black and white in Balkan issues. Yet Off has few doubts. Those seeking "truth" might examine Kosovo where the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) committed atrocities in order to provoke Serbs into a reaction they hoped would persuade the U.S. that genocide was under way.
It worked, to a point, even though few of the mass graves cited by Louise Arbour, have materialized. Now it‘s Serbs who‘ve been "ethnically cleansed" from Kosovo, with NATO "peacekeepers" helpless to protect the innocent. Curiously, Off‘s book unintentionally validates those who think like MacKenzie and warned that foreign intervention in the Balkans is not a long-term solution. Even the eventual partition of Bosnia was a MacKenzie recommendation.
Peace will last as long as foreign troops guarantee it.
It can be argued that the creation of an independent Bosnia was a huge error. A state that can‘t defend itself or exist without perpetual foreign support is a questionable proposition.
While MacKenzie feels this book is a hatchet job, I suspect reasonable readers will conclude that basically MacKenzie was right and his decisions did Canada proud while the UN dithered. Off, of course, is also right in condemning the UN bureaucracy, but for the wrong reasons.
She would have the UN interfering more, MacKenzie would have it doing it less. Guess which side I‘m on?
**************************************************
-the patriot-
