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She's Glad You Asked That Question
  23 November 1999

Questions to Clinton in Kosovo
http://www.transnational.org/pressinf/pf81.html TFF PressInfo 81
November 22, 1999

"Given that democratic countries have free and independent media,
President Clinton's visit to Kosovo on November 23, would be a golden
opportunity to take stock of the US-lead Western policies to bring peace
to the region. Here is a selection of questions with some media
advisory. In other words, if I imagine I had been granted an interview
as a journalist, this is what I would focus on," says TFF director Jan
Oberg.

(( We at SECS asked Ms. Sandyline Bergerbright, former chair of TAINT,
the Terrorism And Instability Taskforce, and still an active special
consultant to that body, to respond to Dr. Oberg's questions, since
President Clinton and other high Administration officials are unlikely
to be free to do so in the foreseeable future.  Prof. Bergerbright, who
now dignifies the prestigious Friedman Chair of Globalizationalism at
Miskatonic University in Arkham MA, has graciously consented to reply at
length to any one of the original ten questions, lamenting that the
press of affairs made it impossible for her to address the whole
questionnaire at this point in time.  We chose Dr. Oberg's seventh
inquiry as being perhaps the most searching: ))


(7) In your own speeches before the bombing campaign, you emphasised
that a major goal apart from stopping a genocide was to create stability
in the Balkan region. I think quite a few diplomats and security experts
would agree that neither Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, nor
Bosnia and Croatia for that matter, are more secure now than before
March 24. Rather, less so. I think many would be grateful for your
guidance as to where and when the Balkan situation has improved in any
proportion to the political, moral, military and economic investment we
have made here?

SB:  The first and greatest prerequisite for proper stability in a
borderland like the Balkans is that the authority of the external Powers
be unambiguously recognized.  That was true under Bismarck and it is
still true today.  Our actions, and our inactions as well, have always
been evaluated by that criterion above all.  We consider the whole
world, and not only Southeast Europe, to be much more stable today
because the checking of Serbian genocidal aggression and the
establishment of the Prishtina protectorate make very clear who is
powerful and where authority is located.  The advantages of everybody
understanding what the framework is that defines diplomatic space under
the new conditions of post-industrial globalization are immense, and
well worth all political, moral, military and economic investments made
so far.

  Indeed, the figurative "return" on our Yugoslav "investments" has been
staggering.  The post-cold war situation was actually dangerous and
potentially unstable because it was new and uncertain.  Operation Allied
Force has eliminated an immense amount of ambiguity.  Nobody of gravitas
inside the foreign policy community has any serious doubts about that
point, nor any doubts that this clarification of things is a great good.
 And, if you'll excuse my saying so, it is what *they* think that
matters, not all the ignorant nonsense you can read from self-appointed
diplomatic or security experts on the Internet.  Though we had popular
and journalistic support for our actions and inactions--support for
which we shall always be very grateful, nevertheless, at the end of the
day it is not opinion polls or newspapers or electronic media that are
fit to judge our policy, only those who are actually responsible for the
conduct of the international community's affairs.  They approve
wholeheartedly.  Indeed, their approval is the best return of all on the
investment in question.

  Best wishes to everybody at SECS.

(( We are grateful to Prof. Bergerbright for her trouble, and hope she
may subsequently find time to deal with all or some of Dr. Oberg's other
questions.  Unfortunately, a bit of a boring disclaimer must be
appended.  The Yugoslav intervention is a contentious question here at
SECS, and our colleague Mr. McDove insists that it be pointed out that
the Endowment as such has taken no official position on the matter.
After reading the above response, he remarked, "Sandy's only saying that
a happy policy community is a stable policy community.  But there *is* a
world elsewhere." ))

== Yours, Serenus Zeitblom = Socialist Endowment for Clinton Studies =


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