From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Subject: Re: Remember those names come election time.
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Keywords: usa federal, government, international, non-usa government
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In article <C5ztEt.Dwz.1@cs.cmu.edu> anwar+@cs.cmu.edu (Anwar Mohammed) writes:
>In article <C5u4qI.Mz4@apollo.hp.com> nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson) writes:
>>                                
>>  BTW, with Bosnia's large Moslem population, why have nations like 
>>  Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and others with either money 
>>  or strong military forces not spoken out more forcibly or offered 
>>  to help out Bosnia?   
>
>Obviously, you really don't know.
>
>They *have* spoken out (cf Sec'y of State Christopher's recent trip to the ME),

  Note the clause "more forcibly", above.     My point is that they have
  made a few pro-forma, perfunctory remarks, and sent in a few C-130's and
  so forth, but it's clearly not something they're losing much sleep over.
  They're just going through the motions, while Moslems are being "ethnically
  cleansed" out of what used to be Yugoslavia.   The US has been speaking
  out far more loudly than the Moslem nations in the UN and other world
  forums.


>>  Besides, there's no case that can be made for US military involvement
>>  there that doesn't apply equally well to, say, Liberia, Angola, or
>>  (it appears with the Khmer Rouge's new campaign) Cambodia.   Non-whites
>>  don't count?
>
>Hmm...some might say Kuwaitis are non-white. Ooops, I forgot, Kuwaitis are
>"oil rich", "loaded with petro-dollars", etc so they don't count.

  Precisely.   Humanitarian concerns were not the primary justification
  for US involvement in the Gulf - oil and geopolitics were.  If the 
  the Kuwaitis didn't have oil (and assuming Iraq still saw fit to 
  invade them) I doubt you would have seen Operation Desert Storm.


---peter



