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No Big DealA berkeley designing commentary 12/2/01 At about noon on February 26, 1993, a typical New York City afternoon was shattered when a bomb went off at the World Trade Center. A major terrorist attack on the United States had attempted to collapse the building and kill hundreds of thousands of civilians -- but it didn't. It killed just six people and injured over a thousand, leaving terrified school children trapped in a smoke filled elevator for hours. No big deal. More important would be an attack in Somalia on a Pakistani peacekeeping force, some months later, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Big Deal The Somalia attack, was orchestrated by a former friend and ally, Gen. Aidid, said Bill Clinton, who at that time was, by law, holder of the title of Commander in Chief, and it was a big deal -- a very big deal. With Aidid denying responsibility, the U.S. replied "We think he was responsible", but the press seemed less than eager even to learn why Somali men and women would come to risking their lives and well-being by attacking a powerful U.N. force out of mere dedication to a single previously U.S. friendly "warlord" with unclear motive. This "big deal" led to a bloody ambush on U.S. Rangers on a mission to "get" Aidid, killing 24 U.S. soldiers, and defeat of the U.S. mission in Somalia -- later learned to have been orchestrated with the help of the mastermind of the failed World Trade Center bombing, Omar bin Ladin. Aidid was quietly executed about a year later, by somebody, and the Somalia chapter ended as no big deal. Another big deal, and another tyrant soon emerged, as Haiti boat people attempted to reach the United States, fleeing poverty. General Raul Cedras, who had assumed control of Haiti after a coup, was the bad guy, and Bill Clinton made it clear that his ouster was mandatory. Even with a refugee problem under reasonable control, and a U.S. delegation headed by a Democratic Congressman returning with the news "We can work with Cedras", Clinton understood that Cedras "had to go", and a full U.S. attack on Haiti was headed off by last minute efforts by a former President and the current Sec. of State, Colin Powell, just as the attack was underway. This was a "big deal", and ended in a successful U.S. mission. While the Haiti problem of poverty and civil unrest would remain unchanged and in some ways worsen, what was left of the boat people problem would be better controlled with the U.S. occupying Haiti. Very big deal. Later, 1998, came the the foreign embassies attacks, killing about 245 people and injuring more than 1600, overseas -- orchestrated by bin Laden, and this was kind of a big deal, but not exactly. Clinton hurriedly launched a single cruise missile raid on Afghanistan, and blew up a medicine factory in Sudan, but the latter failed to produce evidence of the U.S. charge -- chemical weapons. This somewhat big deal quickly became no big deal with a U.S. determination that hitting the "wrong factory" warranted no follow-up action on finding and hitting the "right one", and the failure to hit fast moving terrorists with the slow moving cruise missiles amounted to "no big deal" and no continued effort. With bin Laden's repeated attacks amounting to "no big deal", Mr Clinton found another "no big deal" in his effort to deny the civil rights of a woman suing for sexual harrassment, because it was "about sex". With a House and Senate divided equally over whether felony perjury was a "big deal" or "no big deal", Mr. Clinton led his party and ultimately the country to the "right" policy -- "No big deal!" With just 17 more U.S. sailers to die from a last attack on the Clinton government, Mr. Clinton found another big deal -- not the USS Cole attacked in foreign waters by Omar bin Laden, but in an entirely different "tyrant" -- Slobeden Milosevic. With a bloody civil war raging in Kosovo, Mr. Clinton saw another big deal, a very big deal that would engage U.S. air forces for many months, cost a couple thousand Serbian and Kosovan lives, and topple the elected regime of Milosevic. Heavy handed government tactics to put down civil unrest may not have sounded as a big deal, but the simple declaring of Milosevic as an evil man out to kill his own citizens for simply ethnic reasons made it one. It was a big deal. Milosevic was defeated and brought to justice. With less than a year into the next administration, the -- this time -- successful destruction of the World Trade Center was -- "a big deal", but what if the administration had merely lifted their hands and said "oh, well", and proceeded to look for a small easy to defeat enemy of no real threat to the United States? Would it have been a big deal? Of course it would have been! Unlike the bin Laden bombing that killed just six and injured thousands, or the attack that killed just 17 U.S. servicemen and injured only 39, this one was too big to ignore. It was as like, well, the 24 Pakistani soldiers or the heavy-handed tactics of Milosevic putting down civil war, or the boat people problem with Cedras. It was just like them -- response-wise, anyway. This time, bin Laden "had to go". Back to News Page |
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