Left Wing Peaceniks Have Evolved Into Militant Warmongers

One of the most interesting aspects of the post-Cold War period is the transformation of the San Francisco Democrat types from pacifists to militant warmongers in the area of foreign policy. Today in a class of mine, the year old Kosovo intervention was discussed and debated. And lo and behold the same 25 kids that daily denounce my “insensitivity,” “mean-spiritedness” and “intolerance” whined that we “didn’t hit the Serbs hard enough.”

I pointed out to these kids that NATO bombs killed an estimated 15,000 innocent Serbs and left Yugoslavia more destabilized than when we came in. I also pointed out the little factoid about Bill Clinton’s cruel policy of keeping economic sanctions on the Serbian people unless their dying, starving, elderly and young overthrow Slobodan Milosovec.

Oh, and of course the more inconvenient facts that after all the talk of “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and a “New Hitler,” the hysteriacs on the left only have slightly over 2,000 dead Kosovars to show from Serb atrocities. Tragedy? Yes. Holocaust? No. I also asked why the media, which foamed at the mouth to bring destruction on Serbia, has been so silent since the bombs stopped falling? Then there is that good stuff about pushing relations with Russia back to Cold War levels and accidentally dropping a bomb on a Chinese embassy, but we won’t delve into that.

The truth is that intervention in Kosovo was a waste of time and another pathetic attempt of nation building by Bill Clinton. Under Bill Clinton we have seen: The loss of American soldiers in the Somalia debacle. Intervention in Bosnia. Intervention in Iraq. Intervention in Kosovo. A planned invasion of Haiti which was skirted at the last minute, and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan blown up to divert attention from news of Clinton getting Lewinsky’ed. What has any of it accomplished? Absolutely nothing, unless of course you count the deaths of tons of innocent people as progress.

Not long ago the left would have been sympathetic my analysis. But times have changed. The left has joined up with the Weekly Standard wing of the Republican Party(those who miss the good old days of the cold war) and have decided to endorse intervention just about anywhere for any reason. But while the Weekly Standard’s goal is “benevolent global hegemony,” the left endorses imperialism and murder in the name of “humanitarianism.” The motives of the left are always pure and righteous. After all, this isn’t about an irrational fear of Communism or the shedding of blood for oil or for evil transnational corporations; this is about preserving “human rights” and “social justice.”

We have a big problem when a large segment of Americans think foreign policy should revolve around some utopian dream of nation building and “humanitarianism.” I for one don’t see anything “humanitarian” about dropping bombs on innocent civilians, but of course the left in all their purity dismiss such silly talk. Most Americans still believe that we shouldn’t send young men and women to fight and die in a war unless a compelling national interest is at stake. But such crazy ideas are now roundly dismissed as “isolationist” from people who want to “withdraw” from the world.

The term “isolationist” is now part of the collection of political boogie man words like “anti-Semitic,” “homophobic,” or “xenophobic.” Wanting to stay out of wars that are none of our business is not just wrong according to the war coalition; it is irrational and plain evil. The obvious goal of the “isolationists” is to see a “New Hitler” arise to persecute the masses overseas while we just point and laugh. “Isolationism” also leads right to a “New Munich” where the “New Hitler” will overrun countless territories and eventually threaten the United States. That is quite interesting considering the latest Hitler, Slobodan Milosovec can barely keep his own country together.

The “New Hitler” hysteria is a favorite tactic of the left since Hitler is still an obsession for left wing militants even though he and his Nazi party have been dead for over 50 years. Communism, which is still around today, continues to inflict death and suffering on its people. However, the Compassion Czars on the left fail to direct much outrage over the evils of Communism. And while reflecting on Hitler’s atrocities directed towards the Jewish people is still a daily ritual of the left, “Uncle Joe” Stalin who murdered many more than Hitler, is pretty much forgotten and forgiven.

The left should stick to making themselves look like morons protesting the IMF and World Bank instead of trying to pass themselves off as foreign policy strategists. The loopy ideas that they and their imperialist allies like Bill Kristol hold are dangerous and will only lead to more instability. It won’t be until we are bogged down in some remote country loosing countless American lives in the name of “gender rights” or “ending hate” that the left will trade back their machine guns for their tie-dye shirts and lava lamps. And then it will be too late.

April 22, 2000

Bill Barnwell is a freelance journalist and co-creator of www.thepotatoe.com