Saturday, February 23, 2008

A Documentary About Bill Clinton's Love For Black People

Watch all of the excerpts from this excellent award winning PBS documentary. (best viewed with RealPlayer option)

The full documentary is no longer available online, but there is still plenty of video. The entire 2 hour documentary is available for rent or purchase at most retailers. Most major libraries also carry the film. I have seen the documentary approximately 6 times, and it punches me in the stomach with the same power everytime I watch it.

It's interesting that Clinton risked everything to stop a white Civil war in Eastern Europe that was barely a genocide...(only a few thousand killed 3,000-10,000 is most often mentioned, which occurred in the Kosovo Civil War over a 2 year period). In fact Clinton sent the U.S. & NATO into 2 wars in the Balkans (even to the point of risking a wider war with major powers), yet hundreds of thousands of Africans meant zero, when the risk of taking action would have been politically and militarily small for the U.S. and other Western Countries.

I'm not attempting to diminish the deaths in Kosovo. By all accounts, it was a particularly nasty Civil War. And Slobodan Milosevic was a maniacal thug who proved difficult to negotiate with. But in terms of the magnitude of the genocide, there is no comparison between Kosovo and Rwanda, or Kosovo and several other genocides, such as the genocide ongoing in the Congo, or previous genocides such as Sierra Leone, East Timor, and others that the U.S. turned a blind eye to...(or at least seemed indifferent to).

2 comments:

Constructive Feedback said...

I see Angry Independent is working the delete button on me again.

If he doesn't like the challenge that I make upon his views - it is far easier to erase all challenges than to debate.

I am sure that my friend Rikyrah defends my right to speak during the editorial board reviews that you all have. Right Rikyrah?

Anonymous said...

I was in Uganda when Rwanda was breaking down. Nigeria was in trouble and war between Chad and Sudan had displaced a half a million people. Clinton only had eyes for Somalia, and tried to get African leaders to join his battle there. There were so many needs in Africa then as there are now. We need a rational discussion on where and how we use our resources abroad.

On the other hand, Clinton was right to insist on Kosovo, against many in his party and most in the GOP. Same with Haiti. These appear to have been principled stands by Clinton, and I cannot fault him for them. Concentration camps in Europe are just too vivid a memory for us to ignore.