Photo Credit: Michael Totten
A while back I wrote a piece praising Bill Clinton for having the gumption to reform welfare and called it, “his best legacy.”
I wasn’t exactly wrong. But I was ignorant of something excellent which goes unnoticed and should be added to Clinton’s legacy. I know better now, thanks to Michael Totten, who spent a few weeks in Kosovo and filed this report: An Abominable Blood-Logged Plain
Strange country, Kosovo.
It’s European, but it isn’t Christian. It’s majority-Muslim, but it is not anti-American. Foreign soldiers are hailed as liberators and protectors rather than occupiers. Most Western countries recognize the majority-Muslim nation’s recent declaration of independence from Serbia, but not a single Arab country has done so…[...] But Kosovo is a brand-new Muslim-majority nation forged in violence and war with the help of American soldiers. Most countries still have not recognized its independence. Like Israel and Taiwan, its very right to exist is on trial. It deserves more attention than it has been getting.
[...]
President George W. Bush is deeply admired in both Kosovo and Albania, but no U.S. president tops Bill Clinton in the public affection department. A main street leading into Prishtina’s downtown was renamed Bill Clinton Boulevard….Vizier Mustafa is sculpting a statue of Clinton which will soon be erected somewhere on Bill Clinton Boulevard. “He is our savior,” Mustafa told a Reuters reporter. “He saved us from extermination.”
…
Restaurants abound with American names: Memphis, Hemingway, Route 66. I even found a patisserie and disco bar named Hillary, after Hillary Clinton.
I stood in front of “Hillary” and snapped a couple of pictures. A man rose from an outdoor table and said something to me in Albanian.
“Do you speak English?” I said.
“I asked you why you are taking pictures of my café,” he said. He sounded slightly annoyed and suspicious, but only slightly.
“I’m American,” I said. “And I like your sign.”
“You are from USA?” he said. “Please come in!”
The piece is actually too long and too good to be excerpted in any way that can do it justice. I urge you to read it and to pass it on to others and tell them to take the time to read it, too - even if they “hate” Bill Clinton. It’s not just about him. It’s about people living in a brutal place and trying to find a way to live securely and peacably with their neighbors and with history.
But sticking to Clinton, and to the value of the American Presidency - it is worth noting. We are too enthralled with our partisanships and our “hates”, sometimes, and we over look the fact that - as with the papacy - the Office of the American President brings out qualities in the person called that we (and perhaps they) do not always recognize at first. It allows him to do “what needs to be done,” even if the world tells him not to do it, even if the world “hates” him for it.:
…the American Presidency is…larger than the person who occupies the office, and it is noble. The American President freed slaves when too many would not entertain the notion. The American President has carried the big stick used to overthrow tyrants and bullies both foreign and domestic. The American President has put his airmen to use to keep his vanquished enemies in Berlin from starving in a brutal winter, he has used his navy to bring aid after tsunami. The American President has dreamed great space voyages into reality, has opened closed markets, has encouraged a people to tear down walls. The American President has envisioned tens of millions of people raising purple fingertips to the sky, and made it so.
The Office of the American President was not created for pageantry, and the man (or woman) voted into it is not there to be “loved.” He is there to protect and defend his nationals and and articulate the primacy of human liberty throughout the world, even if he never gets much credit for it. Kosovo loves Bill Clinton. Iraqi’s and Kurds love George W. Bush.
Nations and people who have lived under jackboot and tyranny always love the American President. And nations ruled by tyrants have always loved his foes. Something to consider as we head into an election.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Thanks for the heads-up on Kosovo. I had no idea…
July 15th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Yeah, when I consider how small and silly Al Gore has become over the last 8 years I shudder to think of how close he came to being president. But then I comfort myself — I think he would have turned out a different person had he been elected. And probably done ok as president.
(Although I suppose Jimmy Carter would be an exception to that!)
July 15th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
[...] The Anchoress explains being Presidential, for the satirically challenged: The Office of the American President was not created for pageantry, and the man (or woman) voted into it is not there to be “loved.” He is there to protect and defend his nationals and and articulate the primacy of human liberty throughout the world, even if he never gets much credit for it. Kosovo loves Bill Clinton. Iraq loves George W. Bush. [...]
July 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Of course, the case could be made that we bombed the wrong side…helping a terrorist organization (the KLA…affiliated with Al Quaeda at the time) take over the Christian province of Kosovo who have since virtually eradicated the Christians there…and desecrated ancient monasterys and churches by the dozen.
Through our bombing campaign, we did what the Ottomon Turks could not: establish a Muslim state in Europe. It’s the equivalent of returning south Texas to the Mexicans.
In fairness to the Clinton Administration, Milosevic was a thug and his heavy handed reprisals against the Muslim Kosovars for the KLA’s attacks on police and military targets didn’t help. And they probably didn’t know about the KLA-Al Quaeda link either (tho I think they should have since AQ was involved in Bosnia and Chechnya).
Take a peek here and see what you think: http://www.rastko.org.yu/kosovo/crucified/default.htm
July 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Well, maybe you have to have a certain level, or perhaps type, of character to have your better self brought out by the job (even if only in spots). Though he turned out to be a hugely disappointing president in so many ways (from my conservative POV, of course), Clinton was plainly capable of both grace and greatness.
But, as cathyf notes, as president, Jimmy Carter just kept on being what he already was, only more so. And since he left office he’s picked up some exceedingly unattractive additional qualities.
Of the candidates we have now, who knows? McCain’s vanity and Obama’s control-freak tendencies seem pretty clear, but how that will play out in office? Impossible to guess.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Ditto to Airman. The ethnic cleansing has been more orderly since the Americans came, and is going in the other direction. An ancient Christian land has just been reduced to dhimmitude. It’s not something to rejoice over.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Crusader, I asked Totten about concerns similar to yours. He’s going to be writing a piece for next week that may bring some clarity to the “sectarian” narrative.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I fail to see how Clinton deserves any credit for welfare reform, since he abandoned it the minute he was elected, and vetoed the welfare reform bill.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Anchoress, Thank you Ma’am…I actually wrote a paper in Staff College that made the case that we bombed the wrong side, using scholarly journals and memoirs of heads of states and generals as sources. Unfortunately, the orthodoxy of the “bomber will always get through” and that Op Allied Force validated airpower is very ensconced in the USAF. My arguments were not well received to say the least!
When Secretary of State Madeline Albright is quoted as saying, “The Serbs deserve some bombing and they’re going to get it,” you know something is amiss. The Administration became so attached to the idea of being morally superior to Milosevic, that they failed to exercise a little “realpolitik” on the situation. It’s pretty amazing that at the same time the Clinton Administration was hunting AQ in the ‘Stans, they were actually enabling them by opposition to legitimate governments’ campaigns in Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosovo.
It what happens when ideology drives policy rather than analytical examination of the facts. This is something the Leftists are particularly good at doing…decisions on “feelings” and “moral superiority” rather than what’s really in the national interest.
July 16th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Great piece Anchoress. Sadly I hate to say elements of the right too make this out to be a failure.
In addressing Crusader.Airman I guess that is what I am talking about a tad and I am glad Totten will address that.
Because honestly I am confused. However I cannot note that there are a vocal segments of Catholics, Orthodx, and Muslims in that region that seem to just hate each other and there is nothing you can do about it.
I have heard about horirble things and Conspiracies and plots regarding Fransciacan Priests, Orthodox Monks, and ISlamic Clerics and all think each are the devil.
To say the least I get confused but I have to admit I am taking with a grain of salt what I am hearing from ORthodox Bloggers.I think there are a tiny minority within each community that just cannot let go of hates that are hundreds of years old. Totten piece gives me hope and I am anxious to see his response to Admin Crusaders concerns
July 16th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Anchoress, have you seen this new JibJab about the election? It’s hilarious!
http://sendables.jibjab.com/
July 17th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
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