I have a good friend who is in the National Guard. Last summer he was deployed on a 16 month mission to Kosovo, leaving behind his wife and two children. This morning I received an e-mail from him and I don’t think he would mind if I shared a few lines of it with you. Not everyone in that part of the world is happy with his presence but in his sector
The ethnic Albanians constitute about 90% of the population here. They are nominally Muslim, as most drink alcohol and the women dress in blue jeans. There are no burkas here. The Albanians genuinely love Americans. There are pro US posters everywhere. At Thanksgiving, several hundred local citizens staged a parade outside of our main gate, and each one of them was carrying an American flag. They have a Bill Clinton Boulevard in the capital, and hold a huge pro-American rally every fourth of July.
It made me think – on St Patricks Day the Irish will celebrate, and Mexicans will throw parties here for Cinco de Mayo, but I highly doubt there are any American ex-pats or even anyone of American descent living there. What are the odds that you could find a group of Americans anywhere, not of Albanian descent, celebrating their national holiday?
Its good to know that not everywhere is the American flag looked at with disdain. Its even better to know that in a world where we have done so much harm that there is still a few things we have gotten right.
I have several good Mexican-American friends. I THINK they are all citizens, except one, who is working on it. I help them celebrate Cinco de Mayo, every year, without fail. (El Sies de Mayo, as a consequence, can get pretty rough!) And every year, they are ALL invited to my infamous 4th of July backyard All-American Independence Day Celebration, WEAG (Watermelon Explosion Advocacy Group) Contest,* Big-Band Emulation, and Horsehair-Lariat Goat-Rope (we have a BIG backyard!).
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Seriously, you have a point. I wish to heck everybody in this GREAT, high, wide and handsome country would stop apologizing to the rest of the world for being American, and realize that we are as good as it gets, and that those in Kosovo KNOW it.
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*This is effected by “plugging” the watermelon, inserting a lit M-80, quickly re-inserting the plug, and running like hell. Participants with the LEAST amount of pink on their Tee-Shirt back at the end of the evening are declared winners. Probably this is too much fun to be legal in Mass. . . .
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Erin Gae Bragh!
Chuck
…and one of the few great powers to criticize the Turks.
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I realize that seems like a long time ago, but much of the fighting in the Middle East goes back to Ishmael, Issac, and Abraham, so a mere century may not seem like much.
It has been reported here in Europe that the USofA wants to install a Raketenabwehrsystem (anti-missile missile system) in Poland and the Czech Republic. The missiles would go into Poland, and a large radar system would be placed in the Czechland. I don’t know how the Poles feel about the missile system*, but at least one Czech town in the neighborhood of the proposed radar installation voted overwhelmingly against it.
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*Poles believe that the USofA saved them from Soviet communism and, so, in the near term, they are willing to kiss the US government’s hind end. The belief is idiotic, of course, but that’s where they stand. Irrespective of that, Poland is run with an iron hand by a pair of twins, Tweedledum and Tweedledummer. Maybe someday they’ll have a democracy there. Not now.
raj, the Poles understand the reality of what happened when the Wall fell. German though you may be, you seem to have a problem getting into that august understanding group.
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Or, just perhaps, you have a problem with the need to support the guys on the other side of the now nonexistent wall?
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At this juncture, Europe has NOT, repeat NOT, been asked about putting a nonexistent Raketenabwehrsystem into Poland and the Czech Republic. Your Reuters source probably was distracted by recreational substances at the time he reported it. These things happen, I am given to understand, to those who work at this particular news source. . .
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Seriously, if you imagine that the Good Ole Stoopid Yew Ess of Ayy is still, somehow, under some illusion that the thoroughly dismantled Uoou ESS ESS Are can, somehow influence the future, you need to stop smoking that stuff. Those of us who know do not accept this fable.