Posted on 12/17/2010 10:02:34 PM PST by TheMole
This week, the Globe and Mail asked General Lewis McKenzie (Retired) to write the obituary of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke.
It was a good idea. The two men had crossed paths more than once on the global stage of the Great Game.
McKenzie declined. Holbrooke had just died and the general knew that what he had to say would hardly produce the standard panegyric.
When I caught up with McKenzie, he was shoveling snow after a spell away from home. I asked for an interview and to my surprise, he agreed.
“I’m just going to tell you what I thought of him through my own prism. All of my experiences with Holbrooke were all bad.” The men were both involved in Vietnam. Holbrooke was Henry Kissinger’s primary assistant at the time of the Paris Peace Accords. McKenzie was part of the International Commission of Control and Supervision. “It wasn’t an accord at all, it was just a way of getting the U.S. out of the war. They just wanted diplomatic cover to get the troops out. And of course you know what happened next.”
On Friday March 13, 1992, McKenzie arrived in Sarajevo as part of a United Nations Protection Force. Holbrooke was part of the American diplomatic effort. The Portuguese ambassador had already brokered an accord between the combatants which would have seen the “canonization” of Bosnia. But U.S. Ambassador Warren Zimmerman advised Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic to turn the plan down. Three years later, virtually the same plan was adopted with thousands killed in the interim.
“The war was for nothing. The Serbs had already committed to Dayton after the Croatian offensive in southwest Bosnia. Clearly the bombing was unwarranted. And that is the real history not the myth. I don’t think Holbrooke had a positive influence on the Balkans.” And then, in 1999, there was Kosovo, where Holbrooke played a role.
“We had NATO bombing a sovereign country on behalf of the Kosovo Liberation Army, (KLA) a listed terrorist group. Now we have the president of Kosovo mixed up in an organ-harvesting ring. Unfortunately, Canada is one of the 72 countries at the UN that recognized Kosovo.” Diplomat Richard Holbrooke and soldier Lewis McKenzie met face-to-face on U.S. network television in the wake of 9/11. With millions of furious Americans watching, Holbrooke leveled an accusation that has “peed off” the general ever since.
“We were on Ted Koppel’s Nightline. Holbrooke said ‘General McKenzie, it is my understanding that all the terrorists who flew planes into the Twin Towers came on a ferry from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Bar Harbor Maine.’ ” The general’s cousin, owner of McKenzie Security, was responsible for that ferry run and the soldier knew that the diplomat was out to lunch.
“I was absolutely livid. That was the start of the myth of how the 9/11 terrorists came through Canada and executed their attack.”
Holbrooke re-emerged when the Democrats swept to power in 2008, but General McKenzie wasn’t cheering.
“When I heard that Obama had appointed him envoy to Af-Pak, I couldn’t think of a worse personality to put in that job. Rest his soul, and yes, I admired his intellect, but the man was a bully.”
No one, not even in death, bullies the general.
mharris@cfra.com
(( ping ))
a Freeper nailed it when he commenetd that Holbrooke spent his diplomatic career making sure the US would not win a war
“one of America’s finest.”: to whom are you referring?
The early Athenian Democracy chose their representatives by lottery - very similar to your proposal.
Holbrooke was no hero..his tentacles raced everywhere==
I agree!
Good for General McKenzie to go on the record. I have always respected his history, experience and knowledge. I did not know that it was Holbrooke who started the rumor about the 911 terrorists entering through Canada, but I have always considered him to be slime.
There is a reason that he was not part of the GWB ‘diplomatic’ corps.
Holbrooke was the most ARROGANT B@STARD in the Govt....and that's saying something.
We KILLED INNOCENT people to help the KLA, a TERRORIST GROUP!!<P.That Bosnia fiasco was SO confusing and it was the first time I thought our country was doing really bad things.
The stain and damage of these 60’s liberals will continue to add to our decline and demise.
May Holbooke burn in hell.
Thanks TheMole.
Kissenger was the ultimate pragmatist.
IIRC it was March 24, 1999 when the bombing started. That date was picked for 2 reasons:
1. Rush Limbaugh was on vacation that week
2. March 20, 1999 is the day Hillary's planned “Scorched Earth Policy” was kicked off. That's a plan straight out of the Weather Underground playbook for the violent overthrow of the govt. of the USA. A few weeks later is when Eric Holder arraigned for the release of the FLAN terrorist.
The plan calls for orchestrating civil unrest and race riots, then carrying out a terrorist attack.
Kind of odd isn't it?
Clinton climbs into bed with al Quadas ally the KLA, and al Quiada repays him by attempting to carry out a terrorist attack?
I am sorry for Holbrooke's untimely death and his family's loss, but he is no great loss to US sovereignty, which he considered effectively over. Our good is to be a member of a global society, ruled by an International entity made up mostly of our enemy states, don't you know?
vaudine
Finally.
I sent an email to you. If you desire I will humbly await your condemnation of my words.
I always thought it was because March 24 was my wedding anniversary ;)
Balkans ping!
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