Apple haters

[Peter Korsten]

Op 23-3-2011 14:58, diode schreef:

> - Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia were part of the Austrian-Hungary Empire before Versailles� (not saying they didn't deserve independance and so on, just they weren't independant at that time, and Princip who "started all things" somehow in 1914 killed the Archiduke in Sarajevo (Bosnia) and was a Serbian�

Yes, I took a short-cut there. They were independent at some point, but 
got annexed by the Hapsburg monarchy.

> Anyway, Balkans are a bag of sorrow for a long long time�

Still are...

> - It's in fact the intervention (bombing) of NATO that started the ethnic cleaning in Kosovo.

Yes, I remember now. Still, the trend was there.

> One point that I want stated is that NATO interventions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and maybe coming in Libya are not legit. As the treaty is a defensive one and no NATO country was attacked specifically. It's all a move from the treaty started by Clinton and Bush, but the europeans should never had accepted this.

Well, what is legit? The way that Hitler assumed absolute powers (OK, 
OK, I know, once you mention Hitler you lose the argument) was 
technically speaking legit. And any action against Serbia would have 
been vetoed by Russia in the Security Council. In fact, many people are 
surprised that the French and British managed to have such a 
far-reaching resolution pass this time around.

Afghanistan: no idea if there was a resolution.

Iraq: well, let's not go there again.

Libya: far-reaching, so open to interpretation.

Yes, NATO is a defensive organisation, but ever since the end of the 
Pact of Warsaw, it lost its raison d'être. So it could either call it 
quits, or find something else to do.

> On my own, I support the intervention in Libya (down with this bastard, he's been torturing his people for way too long) on the principles of the SC resolution. Resolution that doesn't AFAIK forbid to get rid of Kadhafi (anyway he's good for the IPC as another resolution states by his doings), nor to give arms to the rebels (and Egypt is doing so).

SC resolution 1970 calls for an arms embargo, but I don't know if it 
includes the rebels.

> What bothers me more is Sarkozy is a moron (note to the DCRI guys reading this, this is a PRIVATE list), and totally stupid at foreign policy and diplomacy. And i really don't want him to start us a "war/we are surrounded by enemies/lets kill some idiotic muslims in a remote desert country, preferably where there's oil" for the godsake of the forthcoming presidential election (2012).

Well, look at the bright side. It could be worse: it could be Berlusconi. :)

> Now after a few days, there won't be a DCA, plane, nor transmitter working for Kadhafi, and we'll see were it all goes from there.
>
> I'm still wondering why rockets and light artillery didn't made thru to the rebels YET�

This reminds me of the 'Toyota War'. This is where the Libyan armed 
forces were humiliated by a bunch of Chadians driving 'specials' 
(basically, a Toyota pick-up truck with a heavy machine gun mounted on 
it), and some anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles that were helpfully 
supplied by France.

- Peter