Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Ungrateful Bosnians?

An article in Slate asks the question as to whether Bosnians are ungrateful for our role in saving them from Serb genocide in the 90s. In my personal experience I found Bosnian Muslims to be generally appreciative and friendly towards Americans. Yes, this doesn't always mean that they are supportive of our foreign policy, but at least on a personal level. Could they be a little more appreciative of what we did? Yes, probably, but this is a problem throughout the world. The US military intervened to save the lives of Muslims in Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, but we never got any credit for that in the Islamic world or elsewhere. Also one has to keep in mind that in Bosnia, just like in every other country, there is a red/blue mix. The opinion of a poor farmer or shopkeeper in Bijeljina is going to be much different then some politician or journalist in Sarajevo.

No comments: