What Joe Biden told Boris Trajkovski
It sums up the entire attitude of the out-of-touch Western elites
In early May of 2001, during the height of the war being waged by Ali Ahmeti and his so-called “National Liberation Army” against Macedonia (“liberation from what?” one might ask), Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski made a trip to Washington, D.C., at the invitation of U.S. President George W. Bush, to discuss the situation as President Trajkovski sought support for Macedonia.
As is normal in such a visit, President Trajkovski visited members of the U.S. Congress and sought their support as well. On May 3 he called on Senator Joe Biden who had been the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier that year, and, due to an unusual year, politically, in the Senate, would again become the chairman in June of that year. In their discussions, Senator Biden told President Trajkovski regarding the attacks from Ahmeti and his NLA, “This is not about what is right or wrong, this is about what is possible.” The takeaway from this shocking statement from the Delaware Senator was that the Macedonians should make the problem go away. In other words, who was right and what was right, and who was wrong and what was wrong was not important in this situation — the issue of right versus wrong did not factor into the equation — what mattered was ending the conflict — whatever it takes. The phrase for this is “political expediency” which means, according to the dictionary definition, “doing what is convenient rather than what is morally right.”
(Compare Biden’s statement with the statement from the White House, and President George W. Bush, via his spokesman Ari Fleischer: “The president wants to make certain that Macedonia is able to take the action they need to combat a problem that has been created by the extremists.”)
For the American politicians who were facing increasing calls to “do something” this was certainly the case. Many, but not all, neither cared about nor were concerned with what was going on in Macedonia but because they were facing calls to “do something” well, what better way to “do something” than to meet with the President of Macedonia, tell him that right and wrong didn’t factor into the equation, tell him to make the problem go away, and then move on to the next thing. Don’t get me wrong: President Trajkovski and the Government of Macedonia were desperately trying to end the conflict in a correct manner: by killing or capturing the terrorists of Ali Ahmeti and his NLA. That did not happen for a variety of reasons beyond the scope of this column but of which I am well aware.
My main point in this column is Biden’s attitude which sums up the entire attitude of out-of-touch Western elites. We all know these people. They are in the US State Department and serve in the US Embassy in Macedonia and around the world. They are in the EU bureaucracy, in the NATO bureaucracy, in the mainstream media, center-left think tanks, much of academia, and those civil society organizations that have a global reach and platform.
And they talk down to everyone. So much so that by the time it came for Joe Biden to run for the president of the United States last year (his third attempt), he was saying that Trump supporters are “a small percentage of the American people, virulent people, some of them the dregs of society.”
Their attitude should point to a much larger issue: when leaders ignore what is right and are willing to do what is wrong because they want results, well then, bad things happen. In Macedonia’s case, these elitists eventually pressured Macedonia into a bad peace which, almost 20 years later, brings us to where we are today: Macedonian society divided, Macedonia humiliated, Macedonia’s name, identity, and much more taken away, general crime and lawlessness on a steep increase, increased government corruption, the rule of law slipping away, precious little economic growth, an increasingly muzzled media, a verbose and belligerent leadership among Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians demanding, if not federalization then something very close to it, and much, much more.
Finally, what do you do with these elites, especially those with power, or supposed power? I would not want to end this column without at least making some suggestions. Granted these suggestions are not easy to carry out and they will take hard work, courage, and sacrifice, but, at least in my opinion, saving Macedonia is worth it.
First, and to the extent possible, ignore them and stop giving them the attention they crave. Work with them when you can but when they start threatening you and telling you that right and wrong don’t matter, then it is time to stop dealing with them. Second, use humor and satire to ridicule them; their inflated egos do not deal well with such things. I would like to see more cartoons, for instance, of the Western elites in Macedonia, making fun of them. Third, of course, resist them, tell them “no” and fight them when you are able to, and when they need to be told “no” just like children do, at times.
Remember, those who believe in nothing, or even political expediency, will amount to nothing. But those who believe in what is right live on, as do their visions.
