On July 17, 1995, George Kenney's position was being relayed in the New York Times by none other than Thomas Friedman (about whom, see below). Kenney argues, through Friedman, that Bosnian Muslims should be confined to a small enclave in central Bosnia (what is an effect another European ghetto for non-Christians), and peace declared.
The Kenney-Friedman plan is similar to the demands of Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic ("some compact territories near Tuzla"). Kenney has supported these demands publically since his December 2, 1994 article in the International Herald Tribune. There he advocated giving the ethnofascist, genocical government of Pale most of the 70% of Bosnia is has "ethnically cleansed," including all of East and Northwest Bosnia, characterized the Bosnians as "intemperate Muslims" and wrote warmly of the Karadzic governments sincere desire for peace.
Kenney's plan would abandon the Bosnian people to an unviable and indefensible enclave surrounded by a the Serb army which has displayed itself before the world at Srebenica. That new Sarajevo-Tuzla enclave would would then be open to the fate of Srebenica. Western promises to protect it from the determination of Serb General Ratko Mladic to exterminate the Bosnian Muslim people and culture would be as valuable as the solemn pledges of the NATO nations to protect the Safe Haven of Srebenica.
To understand how far Kenney has come from his original position, it helps to focus both on the medium and the message. The message is "peace" by giving the Serb government in Pale what it demands (and considerably more than Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has demanded), and abandoning the Bosnians, unprotected, in a "Srebenica"-type enclave in Central Bosnia. The medium is NEW YORK TIMES columnist Thomas Friedman.
As the Serbian army was preparing for its "ethnic cleansing" of Srebenica (with winks and nods from UN officials that Srebenica and the other Eastern "Safe Havens" were fair game to Serb army-genocide), Friedman wrote:
(New York Times, Op-Ed page, 6/7/95).
As I wrote in a previous post:
"""As innocent Bosnian women, boys, and children, unarmed, in UN declared "SAFE HAVENS," are turned over to rape, mass-murder, and torture by Western leaders who solemnly promised to protect them, As the Europe, NATO, and the UN fall into geopolitical debacle, As the seeds for future generations of conflict and misery are sown,
Let us recall these words of New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.
The Bosnian people never ASKED for Friedman to give his two cents. (But a narcissist like Friedman cannot imagine a people that are not somehow coming to HIM for help).
Perhaps Friedman would care to look into the eyes of those children whose parents have perished in Milosevic's rape-camps and death camps and explain what crime they have committed."""
It is not clear whether it was Friedman who sought out Kenney or Kenney who sought out Friedman for the Kenney-Friedman column. Perhaps they just found one another.
Michael Sells