The Written Word
for May 12, 1999

The problem with people in charge is that they never look down the road even though they’ve been that way before.

After World War II, Germany and Japan were demolished – not in spirit perhaps but in physical terms. Both Tokyo and Berlin were flattened. People all over lived in rubble or makeshift tents and lean-tos. An entire infrastructure was smashed beyond recognition. And it was the United States which, for selfish as well as altruistic reasons, had to pay to build these and other war-torn countries up – the very countries they helped destroy.

There were the obvious humanitarian reasons and, of course, there were economic reasons as well. More importantly, I would argue, there were political reasons. It was necessary to get them if not as friends, at least not as enemies.

So what about Yugoslavia? We’re destroying their entire communications system – not just their electronic communications but their roads, bridges and railroads too. We’re dealing here with a county which at the best of times does not have a robust economy. There are few natural resources and really no way Yugoslavia will be able to pull itself up by the bootstraps.

Where’s the money going to come from to clean up Nato’s mess?

It will come out of the pockets of Canadian, British, German and American taxpayers, that’s who.

We cannot afford to leave a badly wounded Yugoslavia to face her many enemies not just out of consideration for the Serbs but for the eventual peace of the region. There are many scores unsettled in the Balkans and since these countries aren’t exactly slavering to settle them, given a match to the tinder box and the area will be in flames again.

Nato, very much including Canada, has made a pretty mess here and we’ll have to clean it up.

On another matter, I’ve changed my mind about Premier Clark’s leavetaking. Oh, he’s going all right but he can’t personally afford to go until the police investigation and the investigation of the Conflicts of Interest Commission are complete. Remember, the premier, at taxpayers expense, has hired one of the top hired guns in the country, David Gibbon. As long as the taxpayer is paying the freight, hells bells, Clark will stay because he sure can’t afford to pay them himself.

It’s the police investigation that’s taking the time – unless I badly miss my guess, Bert Oliver could determine a conflict of interest in a trice but he, quite rightly, won’t act in any way which might jeopardize the police investigation under the leadership of former Supreme Court Judge Martin Taylor.

The Premier won’t go, then, as long as it’s our money going into the pocket of the lawyer trying to save his bacon, not his own.