fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Very Soon, We Will Be Rid Of Him

And, returning to Kosovo, he [Blair] insisted that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states must give way in the face of genocide or ethnic cleansing. ~James Traub Yes, he did insist on that, which would have really had something to do with Kosovo had either one of those things been happening there.  […]

And, returning to Kosovo, he [Blair] insisted that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states must give way in the face of genocide or ethnic cleansing. ~James Traub

Yes, he did insist on that, which would have really had something to do with Kosovo had either one of those things been happening there.  Since they weren’t, it was a uniquely bad example for the idea he was defending, but then the intervention in Kosovo was fairly unique in its total lack of justification.

As for Blair’s supposed rhetorical gifts, I have to say that I have always been unimpressed.  There is no doubt that he is an effective speaker as far as the needs of politics go, but no one will ever confuse him with the great orators of the past.

Then there is this silliness:

More than that, he believed that forcibly disarming the Iraqi dictator was wholly of a piece with the decision to confront Milosevic, another tyrant who posed a threat to his own people and to the West [bold mine-DL].

This is a particularly egregious bit of revisonism by Mr. Traub.  Nobody ever seriously tried to claim that Milosevic was a threat to the West, certainly not in any military or political sense.  Hence the need for prattling on about “values” and human rights.  According to Blair and friends, it was no longer sufficient in a world with Milosevices to defend concrete interests and provide for your own security, but you also had to look out for what other governments were doing internally and in their immediate neighbourhoods.  Sovereignty had to give way to “human rights,” because, as the humanitarian interventionists saw it, there were no longer meaningful external security threats directed at the West, and it was now time for the West to police the internal workings of other states.  Truly, no one claimed Milosevic to be a threat to the West, except in the most roundabout way that he challenged our “values,” which is another way of saying, “This government is not doing anything to us, but we really don’t like it anyway and want to find some reason to get rid of it.”

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here