War in Iraq? Kosovo people's opinions'
We have been very hesitant to write about this topic although many of you have asked about it, so we thought we would share the perspectives we’ve gathered from the past couple of weeks. Disclaimer: we don't know too many people yet ;-). February 2003
I think we find it difficult to talk about the impending war with Iraq because many people here are not finished with their own war. We hear quite a bit about loosing entire families and villages and post-traumatic stress problems; and, we hear a lot about resiliency and the tough Albanian people. We have talked with a number of folks about their war experiences. We are amazed at how open they are to talking about it-at least those we have been courageous enough to ask. And, up until now, we can't talk about one war without the other.
Backdrop: The horrors of their war and their experiences seem fairly common (if not directly experienced, they have a family member with a story, so it now becomes their story). These include:It is difficult to explain the war vibes here. No one wants war. They know the horror, pain, grief; and especially, the aftermath. But they love Americans and would never speak against us. The Albanian people (90% of the people in Kosovo) are so, unconditionally, pro-American because we "saved them" from complete ethnic cleansing.
Although most don't really like George Bush (most we have spoken with seem to be pro-Al Gore because he was in the same party as Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright) but they are "good patriots" and friends of the U.S., they won't speak against "the President of the United States." One stated, they would be the 51st state if they could. And once you elect your president, don't you support him? Sounds like some Americans we know, eh? Kosovarans have an interesting perception of how democracy works and what the role of the citizen can or should be. The role of the minority or opposition party in public policy making is a conceptual-stretch in our conversations with folks.
I was expecting that some would not like what Bush is doing because they are also very Pro-European and want desperately to be an independent nation within the European Union. I thought they might say, the U.S. needs to be united with the UN-or at least wait until the EU was united. But instead, we are reminded that Bill Clinton acted independent of the UN to initiate the NATO bombing of the Serb army. "If Clinton waited for the UN, where would we be? Most of us would be dead."
Then, depending on the person, we might discuss GW's other motives - those other than "saving" the Iraqi people, like: oil & profits; distractions from the US economy & corporate scandals; likely increase in terrorism; or finishing the war his father couldn't; etc ... At this point, we usually engage and they move off of the unconditional pro-US position. We are finding that there is actually some cognitive dissonance on the part of those we spoke to us about it.
I suspect most are confused and distracted with gratitude and how to be in opposition and a patriotic democratic citizen at the same time. Or, others are pre-occupied enough with their own war recovery, that its hard for them to think about it deeply. We'll see... We are still taking a poll whenever we get an opportunity. All the internationals we've met, including Americans, are against the war. We get much anit-war email from them like we can do anything about it. We've started sending them stuff from organizations back home to let them know that there is a movement of those against the war and they are doing they can. Nonetheless, this is probably the safest place to be in the world right now.
Observing in Kosovo