TheAgitator.com
Blowback
Sunday, September 21st, 2003Brendan O’Neil on how U.S. involvement in Bosnia taught al-Qaeda the value of the “roving mujahedin.”
In other words, we effectively trained them to kill us.
And for what? A regional war with no compelling national security interest, and on a humanitarian mission that put in power worse scoundrels than those we threw out.
I’m fairly confident we’ll be reading articles like this five, ten years from now as well, about how our presence in Iraq triggered a whole new movement of jihadists, a whole new breed of terrorists.
Actions have consequences, and wars never work out exactly the way we’d like them to. Which is why we shouldn’t engage them unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Thank you Radley, that was truly an excellent article. It truly has become an “open secret” never to be discussed how Clinton helped al-Qaida in the 1990’s in the Balkans. I know Raimondo isn’t the most popular guy around here (and his cocky attitude deserves some blame) but I found this info in his column long before the 9-11 massacres, yet major media (even FOX News) has never even breached the subject once.
And one thing in there didn’t suprise me. That being that not only Iran but also Turkey, that darling of neocons, epitome of all that is good and pure for that crowd, was one of the front nations for this effort. Logically, in order for a nation to have been a go-between that state should have strong pre-existing ties with the groups in question. This to me proves the Turkos have long been in bed with bin Laden beyond any doubt. It figures that a racist, imperialist, fascist, socialist, genocide denying state which considers “gaiours” (non-Muslims) to have no rights whatsoever is friends with Osama. Modern Turkey isn’t far removed from their Mongolian Horde savage ancestors at all, either at the society or state level.
But Radley, didn’t you hear, with our new Iraq Flypaper Strategy, we will soon have drawn all the terrorists out of places like Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Indonesia, Colombia, Ireland, and Montana into Iraq where they will easily allow themselves to be shot. Then we will win the war on terror! Why do you question this, Radley? Why do you hate America so?
–G
“By 1993, there was a vast amount of weapons- smuggling through Croatia to the Muslims, organised by âclandestine agenciesâ of the USA, Turkey and Iran, in association with a range of Islamic groups that included Afghan mujahedin and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.”
What a crock! The U.S. was actively involved in blocking arms shipments to Croatia and Bosnia. Thanks to James Baker III and (Milosevic long-time friend )Lawrence Eagleburger the assumption was that the Serbs would win quickly and become clients of the U.S. The Serbs never lived up to their reputation as fierce warriors and the whole thing became an embarassment to U.S.
The Saudis bankrolled the project. The armaments went through Croatia which took a percentage to arm themselves. There was no meaningful U.S. role until the muhajedeen influx was well under way.
Claude:
Weaponry was blocked not only to the Muslims but also to the Serbs and Croats, and after Serbia signed a cease fire with Zagreb the Croats effectively ceased being a combantant in the Yugo War. Besides, Baker/Eagleburger left office on 20-1-93, and the War went on for two more years under an admin which had some different ideas on geopolitics. The only reason the Islamos held out as long as they did was because two stupid men, Milosevic and Tudjman, in Belgrade and Zagreb didn’t want to work together to fight the al-Qaidan Bosnian government of Aliyjah Izetbegovic. Now the Kemalo-Nazis in Ankara (really Ancyra once it is liberated from the Turkic occupiers of Anatolia) have two ticking time bombs in Europe’s fragile underbelly, other being Albania/Kosovo. And yes while mujahs arrived before the US assistance and for that matter would have kept coming anyway, we shouldn’t actively aid them as that, well, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever…
Iraq is not Bosnia, and this campaign is different in both type and scale.
The only way to remove the threat is to remove the reason it exists. I think the simple reasons are desperation and envy.
Ask youself why militant Nazi and KKK groups aren’t more prevalent in the United States? Is it because they haven’t received “Bosnian Training” or because in general the populace is content to make changes within the system, if at all?
As far as Muslim terror in the Balkans goes, the threat isn’t the Turks, the threat is Saudi Wahhabism. They’ve paid for the construction and reconstruction of mosques, but there are strings attached. The buildings are rebuilt in spartan Wahhabi style (think ‘concrete parking garage’), and the preaching is Wahhabi extremism, rather than more moderate forms of Islam.