Actually, this was one of those rare instances where the aqendas of the neocons and the libs crossed, but for two different reasons.
The Democrats wanted to narcissistically pretend that it was WWII and they were "saving the Jews" -- and Clinton needed something to take the US' minds off of Monica.
For the Neocons, the 50th anniversary of NATO was coming up with not a single engagement in all of those 50 years. But neocons didn't want NATO to disappear so NATO needed to validate its existence ASAP, because if it didn't, NATO would be an easy target for the political scrap heap.
A neocon lightbulb moment!: What better way for necons to validate NATO's existence and silence Lib objections to NATO's continuation than to makes its first engagement for a lib "humanitarian cause"? And that is precisely what the 1999 NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia was billed as!
The "1999 NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia" was nothing more than "a dirty political deal" brokered to satisfy the unwritten agendas of both the Neocon Republicans and the Liberal Democrats. The fact that people died, a country was destroyed, and we blew open the gates of Europe to Islamofascists was irrelevant to guys like Lieberman & McCain -- "The Donkeys and Elephants marched hand-in-hand and NATO was saved!" was supposed to be the real story -- even if where they marched was "into Hell"!
If NATO is supposedly a peacekeeping force, then why are they just standing around watching the Islamofacists torch Christianity in Kosovo. By definition, what kind of peace is NATO attempting to keep? NATO forces claim they are helpless to intervene, because they don't want to get in the crossfire. Why the hell are NATO even in there? When is that territory going to be returned to it's rightful owner?  Support the war on terror... |
And Clinton got to establish (for the generally oblivious public, at least), Democratic defense "creds" -- in a multi-lateral (we had "friends!") air war where our military could be nuanced by our oh-so-wise Euro allies, with no question of using ground troops, and minimal risk of US casualties.
The media obliged by painting the muslims as pathetic victims, and the Christians as viscious animals.
A perfect Democrat war, the illusion of which needs to be maintained until, of course, the reality of Islamic conquest can be blamed on our subsequent evil untilateral agression which radicalized those poor muslim victims.
I doubt that Schwartz will be taking any more bus trips in that area of the world. Reality can be harmful to your health.