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3.1.05

Victor Hanson letter and reply

Sir;

[My comments are in black, Mr. Hanson's in blue.]

Thanks for your comments and questions. My answers follow your questions.

>
> Dear Sir,
>
> In reference to this article:
>
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3711&search=Hanson
>
> I'm wondering if you've been to Mostar, if so, when
> was the most recent trip you've made there? I have not been to Mostar, and my most recent trip to Bosnia was in 1999. But, if I read the import of your question correctly, it seems to be that if I haven't actually been there, then there is no credibility to my assertion that over 200 Muhajadeen settled in the area. My answer is that I was in the hip pocket of intell and civil affairs officers who tracked the presence and movement of said jihadists. I suppose they could have been deceiving me, but I don't think they were.
>
> Do you believe that the majority of Bosnians are
> thankful of the American presence? I have no idea if the majority are thankful or not. The Bosniacs in the Mihatovici refugee camp were certainly thankful, Bosnian-Croats were so-so, and Bosnian-Serbs were very hostile.

If not, why not? Probably because either by design or by pure luck, the US and NATO picked a side, and that side happened to be the Bosnia-Croat Federation. We essentially provided their close air support at the end of 1995, so that the Bosnian Serbs were in full retreat on the battlefield. If I was a Bosnian Serb I wouldn't like NATO and the US either. I would recommend my earlier article, Curtain call in the Balkans http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3653&search=Hanson that gives a summary of the history of the region and a brief analysis of the 92-95 Balkan War.
>
> Upon what do you base your statement that al Qaeda
> fighters are using Bosnia as a training and recruiting
> base of operations? From this article http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/26/wbos26.xml in The Telegraph (UK). The author was based in Sarajevo at the time. This also was reprinted in the NY Sun http://daily.nysun.com/Standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=NYS/2004/07/26&ID=Ar00103&Section=Foreign, but a password is required for this particular article. You might also read this report http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/hezbollahUS.htm based on information provided by Bill Gertz, The Washington Times ace Pentagon reporter. This was over two years prior to my article.
>
> I received an email from an NCOIC of an aviation unit
> currently stationed in Bosnia who thinks your article
> is way off base, and that it amounts to little more
> than a Clinton bash. I am no supporter of Bill
> Clinton, nor is he, not by any stretch, but surely
> there are enough factually accurate stories to use to
> demonstrate Clinton's repeated failures as to
> alleviate the necessity of concocting fictional ones. Again, read my earlier piece http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3653&search=Hanson that gives a pretty good rundown of Clinton's foreign policy contradictions and the downright deceptions of the press in order to build support for a Balkan intervention. I don't bash Clinton or anyone else for my good health, nor do I have to concoct fictional reasons for my criticisms of his administration. He and his national security team did just fine without me having to make stuff up. The NCO you reference probably does have different perceptions than I did, after all, we are five years removed. But I can't change the history of what happened there, nor the resulting terror problems. BTW, I did participate in an intensive train-up in 2003 in Germany for a future Bosnia rotation as a senior trainer. All feedback from soldiers who had returned from the Balkans on a reconnaissance indicated that the situation had improved, as well it should after nine years, but the continuing need for armed troops speaks for itself.
>
> Sincerely,