Saturday, September 15, 2007

The truth, the half-truth, and none of the truth, part II

The lovely little post La Julia included the "freeper" post from 2000 in is all chock full of "sins of omission" (not to mention sins of distortion, sins of non-sequiter, etc, etc....). Here I'll take apart another of them.

She starts out the post by quoting conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson, in another futile attempt to equate with Anti-Semitism those who don't think Serbia and the Serbian National(Social)ists should have a free pass to do anything they want and have it be OK, by means of a wholly artificial (to say nothing of never truly explained) linking of the Serbian people with the Jewish people (a topic itself I plan to tackle here at a later date), hence making the fallacious equation that, for all intents and purposes, "Serbs=Jews".

She then latches on to a fleeting reference to British MP Claire Short and runs with it, next featuring an excerpt (with link) to the autobiography of Gen. Sir Michael Jackson, currently being run in the UK paper Daily Telegraph. Here's the part of her post "relevant" to that:


Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, arrived in Skopje on Easter Sunday. She successfully bullied the Macedonians into allowing the refugees to leave no-man’s-land and to be dispersed into camps. Less helpfully, she tried to bully me, breathing fire about the need to “defeat Serb aggression” and accusing me of being “weak-willed” in not wanting to march straight into Kosovo. I countered that we had no authority to do any such thing…


Now, let's follow the link La Julia convieniently provided, and see what really happened:

Gen Sir Mike Jackson: Crossing Clare Short

Last Updated: 2:04am BST 04/09/2007

The Kosovo crisis was of intense interest to the world's media, attracting hundreds of journalists to Skopje. During the bombing campaign, as thousands of refugees streamed out of the province, our headquarters received innumerable visits from VIPs, many of whom were nothing more than a nuisance, and some of whom appeared to be seeking photo-opportunities. I became irritated with the constant refrain: "I'm here to help."

After hearing this for the umpteenth time, I handed one of the worthies a spade. "Take this up to the camps," I said, "and start digging latrines."

Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, arrived in Skopje on Easter Sunday. She successfully bullied the Macedonians into allowing the refugees to leave no-man's-land and to be dispersed into camps. Less helpfully, she tried to bully me, breathing fire about the need to "defeat Serb aggression" and accusing me of being "weak-willed" in not wanting to march straight into Kosovo.

I countered that we had no authority to do any such thing, and when she sniffed, I suggested that we withdraw to my office for a private chat. When we were alone I didn't mince my words. I explained to her the facts of life - that I had at that time approximately 8,000 soldiers under my command to oppose a Serb army more than 20 times that number; moreover, we had only 20 or so tanks, a mere 380 fewer than the Serbs. "I'm too old for a heroic but futile gesture," I told her.

She calmed down after that. I offered her a whisky, and we parted on good terms. My staff, who had earlier heard raised voices coming from my office, were surprised to see her come out grinning.


*************************************

OK, now one might feel that Gen. Sir Mike should have still gone in anyway, but I'm willing to grant that at least he did have a rational reason on that occasion for not going after the Serbs with what he had at the time (unlike the famous Prishtina airport incident, where I would say he showed a decided lack of "backbone" compared to Gen. Clark). But of course, La Julia doesn't bother to include the rest of the article, which points out that Ms. Short did not know the realities of the situation, and quickly backed off when she understood that a direct assault on Serb forces who outnumber you 20 to 1 might not be the most sensible idea at the time. And by omitting the end of the article, you also don't discover that Gen. Sir Mike isn't saying he doesn't have the authority based on some sort of "moral" or "legal" grounds, but rather that as a CO, he'd be making a big mistake to send troops under his command after the Serbian forces at that point. Again, one may either agree or disagree, but the fact remains, that is why he opted not to go in, NOT because of the reason La Julia insinuates. Also, in omitting the fact that Ms. Short backed off of Jackson when she found out the specific reason he did not want to go in, she naturally makes Short out to be some sort of rabid nutcase soley obsessed with stopping the Serbian forces-ostensibly because of some unreasoning hatred of Serbs-and not caring about the legality of such an act, which is clearly not the case according to the article. What the article does make clear is that she wanted the Serb forces stopped, naturally, but not at the cost of a futile skirmish. But then, that's just one more instance of the "Haters" leaving out "inconvienient" little details-after all, can't let facts get in the way of "The Truth", right?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well Done! Unlike Julia Gorin, who gets paid to skew the truth--heck to do away with it entirely-- you show the truth for no reason other than it's THE TRUTH!

--jamsjam