ENKELE GEDACHTEN OVER AMERIKA EN DE REST VAN DE WERELD

Men heeft wel eens gezegd dat Amerikanen niet bepaald veel talent hebben wat diplomatie betreft. Onze relatie met de Europeanen bewijst dat wel - met elk jaar dat voorbij gaat zijn de Europeanen minder te spreken over ons dan voorheen.
De transatlantieke bondgenootschap bestaat nog maar nauwelijks, Europa is ons in vele opzichten liever kwijt dan rijk. En het is duidelijk dat de Europeanen hun eigen affaires beter regelen kunnen zonder door ons lastig gevallen te worden.

Ook wij hebben niet zo veel meer aan de Europeesche connectie.


Joegoslavië

Balkan een en twee zouden, zonder inmenging van de VS, nog grotere slachtpartijen zijn geweest dan ze al waren. Niet dat dat goed zou zijn geweest, maar die inmenging heeft ons echt geen lof gebracht - nu nog worden wij daarvoor verboemand door velen die liever geen confrontatie met de Serben hadden gehad en zich door onze betweterij gekrenkt wisten.
[Ware wij instede afzijdig geweest, dan zou de hele wereld hebben geweten wat een stel hypokriete nietsnutten de Europeanen zijn. Eerlijk gezegd zou dat mij goed uitkomen.]

Stel nu dat er ergens weer een oorlog plaatsvind - Is het niet hoogtijd dat Europa er wat aan doet? Daargelaten dat ze normalitair daar net doen alsof er niets aand de hand is en er geen str*nt aan hun fikkes kleeft.


Irak & Iran

Wat Irak betreft, dat was een geweldig stomme zet van ons. Niet alleen omdat die oorlog geen valide basis had, maar meer omdat het zo'n pracht opportuniteit was voor onze "bondgenoten" ons voor aap te zetten. Die opportuniteit heeft de Bush regering hun stomblind geschonken, de Duitsers en Fransen gingen met die opportuniteit vrolijk aan de haal, en genieten er nog van na.

Sindsdien kunnen we om enige medewerking wel fluiten, vooral wat het midden-oosten betreft. Geen mens in Europa die zich aantrekt wat de VS over Irak of Iran zegt, of het zou slechts om te spotten wezen.
We moeten maar dulden dat de Fransen en Duitsers, kalm en doordacht, op subtiele en intelligente wijze, door geduldige diplomatische onderhandelingen met hun ambstgenoten in Iran, het op den duur toch niet presteren de Iraniers ervan te overtuigen dat die kernwapen ontwikkeling stop gezet moet worden. Het word beslist een mislukking, maar wel een zeer beschaafde mislukking. Een monument van jamitsneemaar.

Als we straks Iran plat moeten bombarderen krijgen we waarschijnlijk weer van de Europeanen te horen dat we te ongeduldig en te ongenuanceerd zijn, werkelijk, onderhandelingen waren bijna geslaagd, heus waar, maar wat wil je, die Amerikaansche cowboy mentaliteit.......


Scheel

Laat Amerika zich maar niet in andermans oorlogen mengen, en zich niet met andermans natuurrampen bemoeien. Als ergens de boel in puin is, triest, maar wie kan het eigenlijk schelen? Wat mij betreft klaart de wereld maar hun eigen perkara.

Ik begrijp wel dat zo'n opvatting asociaal is, kinderachtig, onrealistisch, onhumanistisch, en typisch Amerikaans. Doet me weinig.
En ik weet wel dat het onze eigen schuld is dat de rest van de wereld de pest aan ons heeft. Maar ge raad het wel..... ook dat kan mij allang niet meer schelen.

Kijk, de internationale populariteits contest hebben we al verloren. Venezuala, Rusland, Iran, en Cuba zijn ons op dat gebied ver en blijvend vooruit. Het heeft dus geen punt om nog te competeren.

DUTCH HERO ARRESTED!

The following is a letter sent to friends in the Netherlands, regarding the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. It is entirely "oyf Niederlandish" - this blogger is expressing his deepest sympathy to them over the eventual light that will be cast on the Dutch role at Srebenica. And also mentions, in passing reference, the active participation of their nation during WWII (no, they were not quiescent during the occupation - given their support for the German cause, it may be incorrect to keep calling it an "occupation"), and the glorious history of the Netherlandish involvement in South East Asia.



Beste luitjes,


De arrestatie van de held van Srebenica kan onmogelijk goed uitkomen voor Nederland, daar hij wellicht transparantie zal schenken over de rol van Nederlandsche jongens in dat evenementje. En hoewel het merendeel der Nederlanders beslist het uitroeien van Islamieten en andere untermenschen goedkeuren (vandaar dat het zo lang geduurd heeft voordat men zelfs afwijkend over Srebenica sprak, of 'slands rol in WWII onder de loep nam, laat staan de glorieuze historie van Neerlands Oosten), is de rest van de wereld niet zo te spreken over zulke ellendige 'Ollandigheden.


Ik leef met u mee. U gaat moeilijke tijden tegemoet. Zelfs uw eigen verrotte pers zal eindelijk eens iets negatiefs over Nederland moeten schrijven. Ten diepste triest.


Met diepe sympathie,




------B.O.T.H.


====================================

I apologize to my English-speaking readers for not providing a translation.

I do not mean to insult you.

TIME TO REMIND Y'ALL OF SOME THINGS THE DUTCH WOULD RATHER YOU FORGET

At this point you are probably already familiar with the abysmal record of the Dutch, particularly their bureaucracy, police forces, banks, and railways, during WWII.
[Spoiler alert: this post is a rant, and is somewhat lengthy. Nor will I claim that it is entirely rational - some pettiness may have crept in.]


No?


WWII
Quick refresher: Collectively the above mentioned were responsible for enabling the Germans to efficiently and expeditiously exterminate eighty percent of Dutch Jewry. After the war all the above pointed fingers at the Germans, denied any and all intimate knowledge of the details of what had happened or how, and conspired to obfuscate their role in the events. The banks, in particular, profited from the German organized despoliation of Dutch Jews - after the war, much that had been confiscated was never returned, and the state made itself the official owner of whatever it had not the energy to find heirs to.

[Key search criteria for a representative overview: Pieter Menten (Dutch war criminal protected by his contacts in the post-war establishment); Jacques Goudstikker (whose art collection was finally given to his heirs after more than six decades of Dutch government denials and obduracy); Maror gelden (bitter money - the paltry recompense offered to the survivors after much sniping and pettiness by the Dutch government); NSB (National-Socialistische Beweging - the Dutch Nazis, many of whom occupied prominent places before the war, some of whom occupied prominent places after the war); Dutch SS (the various volunteer legions raised in the Netherlands to fight alongside the Germans on the Eastern Front).]


Anyhow, now that that is out of the way, how about some Dutch East-Indies history?
Just a sampler - there is far too much to illuminate everything.


BANDA: 1621
Let's start with the extermination of the native population of Banda. The Dutch, under their great military commander Jan Pieterszoon Coen (later made governor of the East Indies) were determined to enforce their trade monopoly in mace, nutmeg, and cloves, and decided that as the natives of Banda did not agree with them on this issue, it would be profitable to exterminate them utterly. They were right; it was profitable. Over fifteen thousand people were slaughtered.


DJALAN RAYA POS: 1808
The Great Post Road (Groote Postweg) across Java was a military road which was constructed by order of governor Daendels in 1808. Native rulers along the route of the road were commanded to provide workers from the local populations - if their portion of the road was not completed on schedule, the rulers and their workers were killed and their heads displayed along portions yet being built. Thousands died because of the harsh conditions, thousands more perished because of hardships created by the mobilization of so large a proportion of the population. Certainly Daendels qualifies as a tyrant and a criminal. He is lauded as one of the Netherlands greatest men.


COMPULSORY PLANTING: 1830 to 1870
The Kultuurstelsel (Culture System / Cultivation System) forced millions of natives into poverty and starvation with its exactations - food crops took a backseat to required cash crop planting, harvests going to the government. It was extremely profitable - mansions in Amsterdam are still occupied by the heirs of men who benefited by that tyranny.
Along with enforced trade monopolies it enriched Holland while gutting the victims of empire. A splendid achievement.


THE ATJEH WAR: 1873 to 1910
For over a generation, the Dutch colonial army engaged in savage repression of a former ally and friend. Initially the aim was to assert control and so keep the other powers (particularly the Americans) from involving themselves in one of the last independent territories of the archipelago, but after the ignoble defeat of the first expeditionary force the Dutch ramped up their efforts. In a scorched-earth campaign they leveled villages, destroyed crops, imprisoned native leaders, and massacred thousands. The war was so savage that returning soldiers carried the sobriquets 'kaki mera' (red feet, from wading in blood) or 'tangan mera' (red arms, from being in gore up to their elbows).
The Dutch colonial army at that time, in addition to professional soldiers and Moluccan mercenaries, included the dregs of Europe - murderers, thieves, brigands, and rapists - who sought safety and anonymity by enlisting for Holland and leaving Europe.
The list of heroes on the Atjenese side is endless, that of the Dutch, short. This war was not marked by gallantry.


BALI: 1906, 1908
The royal courts of Sanur and Kelungkung, realizing that they stood no chance against the superior might of the Dutch, deliberately marched out against the invading army and met their end. Thousands perished rather than surrender - princes, nobles, commoners; men, women, children. These events are known as the Puputan of Badung (1906) and the Puputan of Klungkung (1908) respectively.
[A puputan is a defiant and suicidal final battle. It is the last resort of those facing certain defeat.]


TURK WESTERLING: 1946 to 1950
Let's also mention Raymond (Turk) Westerling. This gentleman, in the employ of the KNIL (Koninklijke Nederlands-Indisch Leger - the Royal Dutch East-Indies Army), commanded special forces in Sulawesi (Celebes), and engaged in a relentless reign of terror against the Nationalists and native villages sympathetic to their cause. Tactics employed by Turk and his men were later echoed much more modestly by Americans in Vietnam - what happened in MyLai had already happened several times over in Sulawesi. After 1949 he went awol, and attempted to overthrow the republican government of Indonesia. Despite his blood-drenched past, he was welcomed back to the Netherland where many considered him a hero. He died peacefully in 1987, having never stood trial for his crimes.


POLICE ACTIONS IN JAVA: 1947 & 1949
And further, consider the first and second Politionele Acties (Police Actions) in Java during the Indonesian war of independence - what the Americans later did to the Northern Vietnamese with airplanes and napalm, the Dutch Marines managed to do entirely by hand. They were just as effective - the enemy was steeled in its resolve and despite horrendous losses continued the struggle.
What is truly remarkable is that if the Dutch had resisted the Japanese with even only a fraction of the fury of their fight against the Nationalists, it is extremely likely that the Dutch East-Indies would never have fallen to Emperor Hirohito's forces.


Had enough?

How about just a little more, in brief:

South Africa - Cape Dutch (Boers/Afrikaners), Apartheid.
Ceylon - Brutal exploitation and mass bloodshed.
Brazil - Profitably exploiting the slave-society stolen from the Portuguese.
Suriname - A brutal colonial economy created on the backs and blood of hundreds of thousands.
The African Slave Coast - Major player, manifestly not a civilizing role.
Malabar - Extortion, bloodshed, and trade in spices.
Etc.

--- --- --- --- ---

SREBRENICA

Now, why am I highlighting all this?
Because it looks like those canny, mercantile, subtle Dutch are going to weasel out of admitting any responsibility for Srebrenica.

See this article (in Dutch) in the Algemeen Dagblad:
http://www.ad.nl/buitenland/2379724/Nabestaanden_vangen_bot.html

And this article (in English) on the BBC site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7461310.stm


Frankly, this is not surprising. The Dutch have a talent for denying responsibility, and often take delight in leaving someone else holding the bag. Having lived there for several years, I am more than familiar with their penchant for casting blame while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge fault.
Dutch law, furthermore, is the Napoleonic Code with modifications - a legal system which absolves the authorities and hampers acknowledgement of governmental culpability.

I am rather disgusted with this turn of events. But again, I am not particularly surprised - I lived there for sixteen years (1962 - 1978). While I personally like many Dutch, and would trust those that I like on an individual basis, as a group and institutionally I prefer to keep them at much more than arms length.


PERSONAL NOTE
There is a certain pleasure in exposing all this juicy dirt - my ancestors were effectively sold to the English when the Dutch West-Indies Company divested themselves of New Amsterdam in 1664. The history my family shares with other Netherlanders actually ends in 1635, when Isaac Abrahamsen van Deursen (my first New-World ancestor) was born in Kings County; my lineage is in no way implicated or complicit in subsequent Netherlands-Dutch events - we and the other New York Dutch were left to our own devices and solved our own problems (teaching natives how to scalp, manufacturing soupy ale and cheap gin, and putting up with Presbyterians, among other things).

We (all of us Americans) may indeed be co-guilty of all the sins of America, as my beloved classmates in Valkenswaard averred; we may also be horrid barbaric Yanks (see previously mentioned averring); and we may be co-responsible for ending WWII (atom bombs, also under the rubric of previously mentioned averring); and certainly too Vietnam was one of our country's errors (again, that averring biz)..........

But Srebrenica, boys, is all yours. You did something incredibly nasty there. You handed unarmed men, women, and children over to murderers. You stood by while the men and boys were marched off to be slaughtered. You 'observed' as women were gangraped, and children were violated or had their throats slit. You did all this, not us. Your officers ordered it, it was their authority that made it happen. Your men, in your country's uniforms, and representing your nation, saved their own hides by sacrificing those who were entrusted to your care.
You did it. You bear responsibility for Srebrenica.
You.

And now your legal system may miscarry justice in this matter.

Nice.

You 'Ollanders often claim to be the Acme of the enlightened First World, and represent the best of Western Civilization.
We wish that you wouldn't. You make us look no better than do the rest of that lot on the other side of the Atlantic, and if they know their history, they too may have some questions about the appropriateness of your claims.

Judging from your history, it might be best if the Netherlands-Dutch stayed out of the rest of the world for a while.

IN WHICH I SPEAK UNFAVOURABLY OF THE DUTCH, THE EUROPEANS, AND THE UNITED NATIONS

No, this has naught to do with Israel. Or Jews. I have in the past slammed the Dutch, Europeans, and United Nations several times for their abysmal two-facedness and reprehensible record regarding Jews and Israel. Not this time.

This time I speak of their abysmal two-facedness and reprehensible record regarding Muslims and the Balkans.


SREBENICA

In 1993 General Morillon (a Frenchman, currently member of the Euro parliament) told the besieged town of Srebrenica that they were under the protection of the UN, and he would never, never (!) abandon them. He left the army within the year.

In April of that year, the UN Security Council officially declared that Srebrenica was a UN safe area, and that it would be safeguarded from attack.

By spring of 1995 the situation was desperate: the Serb terrorists were determined to capture Srebenica and expunge the Muslim inhabitants, the UN had done nearly nothing to ensure the safety of the sixty thousand people in the town despite looming disaster, supplies were running low, and the Dutch peacekeepers were becoming keenly aware of the apathy of their NATO colleagues about the situation.


NOTE: I should mention at this point that the Dutch had become overly friendly with the Serbians during their time in the Balkans - Lieutenant Colonel Karremans (now hiding out in Spain, where no one particularly cares about his role in the debacle), in command of the Dutch at Srebenica, seems to have had a drinking-buddy relationship with Serb terrorist commander Ratko Mladic, to whom he looked up, and from whom he accepted favours.

There have also been well-attested incidents of ethnic Dutch soldiers hazing (abusing) fellow soldiers of Moroccan and Turkish ancestry in the Dutch army - including one incident in which they poured gasoline over a companion and threatened to burn the damn' heathen. Certainly they did not look upon the Muslim Bosniaks in an overly kind fashion, and an argument can well be made that the bigotries of small town Holland affected their concern for their charges in Bosnia.


JULY 1995

Between July tenth and July twenty first, Dutch forces witnessed several incidents which indicated that Serbs neither respected the inviolability of people in the UN safe area, nor intended to honour the assurances of safety and civilized treatment of the refugees that they had given the Dutch - there were numerous murders, rapes, and incidents of brutal torture. There is consequently no way that any of the Dutchbat soldiers and officers could then, or can since, claim ignorance of what was going to happen.

On the 21st of July 1995, after surrendering the Bosniaks to the Serbian terrorists, Karremans and company left the area of Srebrenica for safer climes. Apparently the four hundred Dutch soldiers did not develop any psychological problems despite what befell the refugees they abandoned, as not long after they were happily carousing in Sarajevo. Since their return to the Netherlands, however, the Dutch government has kept them mostly under wraps, claiming that they are 'traumatized'.
Which conveniently keeps them out of the light, and away from the somewhat disinterested eyes of the Dutch press.


Now the survivors of their compassion are seeking justice. And suing the Dutch government.


Article from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7457239.stm

Quote: "They allege the Dutch state was liable for its troops' failure to protect some 8,000 Muslim civilians killed when Bosnian-Serb forces overran the town."

And: "Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the UN Dutch battalion (Dutchbat) allowed the killings by handing over Muslims to the Bosnian-Serb forces, and that the Dutch state was liable because it had command of the military."



It took the Dutch seven years to conclude that perhaps something went disastrously wrong. Now let us see how the Dutch courts deal with the issue, and who will get splattered - there is more than enough blame to pass around.
The Dutch, the Europeans, and the United Nations; all bear guilt for the slaughter of eight thousand Bosniaks.


On a related note, if it weren't for the US, the Serbians and their Greek and Russky volunteers would've pogrommed Bosnia and Kosovo right off the map. The Europeans were ready to sit back and watch it happen, the UN would've done nothing more than pass the usual resolutions, and a majority of the international community would've ignored the issue in return for their own flaws being overlooked.

I sometimes think that when we bombed Belgrado in 1999 we should've dropped a couple of stray thousand-pounders on the other European capitals.