THE NEW YORK TiMES OP-ED Wednesday, February 26, 2003

MAUREEN DOWD

Bush's Warsaw- War Pact
WASHINGTON

The diplomatic motorcade pulled up to the White House yesterday with great fanfare. The two Marine guards at the door of the colonnaded West Wing saluted smartly. TV cameras pressed close to get pictures of the vital American ally alighting from the black sedan for his one-on-one with President Bush.

It was a summit of the two great strategic partners, America and Bulgaria.

Bulgaria?

As the world's only remaining superpower was conferring honor upon one of its only remaining friends, America smashed through-the global locking glass.

To get Saddam, the Bush administration has dizzily turned the world upside down and inside out.

Our new best friends are the very people we used to protect our old best friends from. During the cold war, we safeguarded Old Europe from the Evil Empire. Now we have embraced the former Soviet Bloc satellites to protect us from the Security Council machinations of our former paramours France and Germany. NATO was created to protect Western Europe from the Communist hordes — namely the Bulgarians, who tried to outdo the bizarro Albanians as the most Stalinist regime in Eastern Europe and.were renowned for the "thick necks" who did wet work for the K.G.B.

The U.S. is now in the process of wooing the "minnows" — as some in the Pentagon disparagingly call the small countries that could deliver the votes for a Security Council resolution on going to war with Iraq.

It's the battle of the pipsqueak powers: we dragoon Bulgaria to off-set France dragooning Cameroon.

The Bulgarians used to be the lowest of the low here. In 1998, just before the visit of the Bulgarian president. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel met with President Clinton. The visit was so icy that a Clinton aide joked to reporters about Mr. Netanyahu: "We're treating him like the president of Bulgaria. Actually, I think Clinton will go jogging with the president of Bulgaria, so that’s not fair.”


'Everybody go out and buy Bulgarian wine!

Now secretary Don Evans flies off to Bulgaria to discuss trade, and Rummy hints we may move U.S. troops from Germany to Bulgaria.

In diplomatic circles, our new allies from Eastern Europe are dryly referred to as "Bush's Warsaw Pact." As one Soviet expert put it, "Bulgaria used to be Russia's lapdog. Now it's America's lapdog."

The Bulgarians were such sycophants to Russia that in the 60's they proposed becoming the 16th republic of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Bush will not be the only one having trouble with the Bulgarian prime minister's name. We all will. In some press reports it’s spelled Simeon Saxcoburggotski, and in others Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The tall, balding, bearded prime minister was formerly King Simeon II, a deposed child czar. He is a distant relative of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, but not Count Dracula. That's our other new best friend, Romania.

Is this a good trade, the French for the Bulgarians?

Sketchy facts about Bulgaria rattle around: It has a town called Plovdiv; it wants to become big in the skiing industry; its secret service stabbed an exiled dissident writer in London with a poison-tipped umbrella — a ricin-tipped umbrella, in fact; its weight-lifting team was expelled from the Olympics in a drug scandal in 2000; it sent agents to kill the pope.

During the cold war Bulgaria was valued by Moscow for the canned tomatoes it sent in winter, and by France for sending attar of roses, distilled rose oil that was the binding agent for French perfume.

Three famous Bulgarians: Carl Djerassi, who invented birth control pills; Christo, the original wrap artist; Boris Christof, the opera singer. In "Casablanca" there was the Bulgarian girl who offered herself to Claude Rains to get plane tickets.

Avis Bohlen, a former second-in-command at the American Embassy in France and an ambassador to Sofia in the late 1990's, calls Bulgaria "a very gutsy little country" that has worked hard to improve.

Ms. Bohlen is dubious about the Bush administration's volatile snits at old allies. "You can't build a foreign policy on pique," she says.

She says Bulgaria will be a good ally: "They're really brilliant at math and science, and they have famous wine."

So, we don't need French wine after all.

——————————————————
E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com

Явно САЩ наистина са много закъсали за да се хващат със зъби и нокти за българска подкрепа. Разбира се болшинството от българите не подкрепят такава хегемонистична политика, но колко му е за американците да си купят подкрепа измежду продажните български политици. Това много прилича на събитията преди 2-рата световна когато бащата на Симеон, цар Борис беше извикан от Хитлер за да засвидетелтва подкрепа към райха. Сега Симеон прави същото за Буш. Макар погледнато от друг ъгъл позицията на Хитлер е била много по справедлива от тази на Буш и е бил поддържан от целият германски народ както и от много други по света. Докато Буш, не само, че не се поддържа от никой, но дори и от самите американци. Така, че правейки разлика м/у двамата спокойно можем да обявим Хитлер за демократ, а Буш за диктатор.

Това показва само едно, че българите в момента спят и че се страхуват.
И че тука наистина работят най-големите майстори лъжци.

Трябвада се работи в полето на информацията.
Това поле е неприкосновено.
И повече активност, и от един ред има смисъл, защото не знаеш къде ще отиде и как ще разбуди даден човек.

Мнението на някаква американска камила НЕ ме интересува.
За тези хора Слънцето изгрява и залязва за тях.

А въобще има ли нещо друго да те интересува освен биричка и картофки... и 8 часа дневно пред TV?

Абе, не мога да отмина думите на тъпата камила, защото за съжеление те се четат от много хора и просто си представям картинката, която мислено всеки от тях си рисува за България. То вярно, че са малко американците, които виждат нещо повече от собствения нос, но все пак такова невежество от редакторка при това в голям вестник- просто непростимо. Имам чувството, че някой й е платил така да се подиграва с нас. на всичкото отгоре тези неща, които ни се приписват отдавна са опровергани. Не знам дали някой от "великите" ни политици ще реагира, но това си е направо обида не само към страната ни, а и към нас самите.

Какво да се прави очевидно е че е ограничена и страда от много комплекси и затова си го изкарва на чужд гръб.

Ами каквото повикало такова се обадило, каквото постелеш на това ще легнеш, още да ти обяснявам ли? Цял свят ни упреква, а ние още нястояваме, че другите са кривите а ние правите. Е ако продължаваме така далече ще стигнеме ... само до трета национална катастрофа. Голяма работа, преживели сме две ще изкараме и трета. Вие катастрофи дайте!!!

За съжеление си прав!!! Що се отнася до трета национална катастрофа се надявам да не ни сполети, но както е тръгнало просто не знам, какво ще става?!

bati ujasa...bez dumi

Letter to the editor of NYT
ddt
Wed Feb 26 20:17:21 2003

Letter to the editor of NYT

Dear Madam,

I read with great interest Maureen Dowd's article "Bush's Warsaw War Pact," published on February 26, 2003. I assume that the author has done extensive research on Bulgaria (drawing upon reliable sources such as "Casablanca") and feels competent to offer a definitive view on who the Bulgarians are and how they should be treated by the rest of the civilized world, and particularly the US.

Somewhat surprisingly, however, important facts about this rather insignificant country have escaped Dowd's omniscient gaze. Here is one example: just as the French Vichy police was busy transporting Jews to the death camps, various groups in Bulgarian society made a concerned effort to save their compatriots, as a result of which German plans for implementing the "final solution" in the country were stalled and all 50 000 Bulgarian Jews survived the war. Here is another example: after 1989, the Bulgarian majority and the Turkish minority in Bulgaria have maintained ethic peace and cooperation, thus transforming the country into the Balkans' most stable democracy. And yet another: during the Kosovo crisis of 1999, the Bulgarian government offered indispensable logistical and diplomatic assistance to the international forces that sought to bring the carnage of ethnic Albanians to an end. One may wish that Dowd's pronouncements on the apparently easy subject of Bulgaria had somehow integrated these facts as well. But then again, perhaps we have outgrown the times when illuminating the complexities of a particular issue counted as first class journalism. Profound contemporary thinkers such as Dowd seem to believe that burdening their readers with contradictory details may ultimately endanger the clarity and sharpness of an author's messages.

And what, indeed, are Dowd's main messages? First, that it is fairly easy to grasp the essence of what some deluded individuals might believe to be complex entities, such as "Bulgarians." Dowd characterizes this particular species as "sycophants" and "thick necks" who deservedly "used to be the lowest of the low here." Her merciful restraint in that regard should surely be appreciated - after all, she might have easily added "prostitutes" and "foul-smelling assassins." In at least some circles in America such treatment of entire nations might be considered a tag simplistic and perhaps even somewhat impolite. But such considerations leave Dowd unperturbed: that there may be "Bulgarians" who in fact opposed communist tyranny and spent long years in prison, or "Bulgarians" who write music and poetry, or "Bulgarians" who are simply "normal" and in no way implicated in the policies of their governments is not a view she seems ready to entertain.

The second message is: the rules of diplomatic decorum are truly unbearable, because they seem to prescribe that the same courtesy is extended to the leaders of ridiculously small nations as to the patrie of Jean-Paul Sartre. Why, indeed, should there be marine guards and motorcades, when the visitor simply represents a group of alien and strange creatures whose fully human status is, as far as Dowd is concerned, subject to further verification? One can, indeed, empathize with Dowd on that count. May be she should contact the United Nations and share with them the idea that the world will certainly become a better place if the Security Council decrees tomorrow that diplomatic etiquette will be applicable only to its permanent members - with perhaps some exceptions for countries whose wine Dowd characterizes as "truly exquisite."

The third, and ultimate, message that this article conveys is that small countries should be ghettoized while the enlightened, civilized and infinitely insightful leaders of the big nations socialize around a "limited sitting" table and, sipping good wine of whatever origin, resolve the world's problems. It is Dowd's view that countries like Bulgaria, whether they are composed of good or bad people, should be banned from this deliberative process. America should deal only with those that equal her - and treat the rest with the contempt and chilling sarcasm that permeate Dowd's unapologetically wicked article.

Now, I submit that there are two possible ways to assess Dowd's messages. One may say that American public opinion has finally matured enough to embrace the view that the world is cluttered with nations that fully deserve to be ignored and ridiculed, and therefore US foreign policy should be focused exclusively on relations with nations that have a legitimate claim to "greatness." Or, alternatively, one may conclude that the media pundits that dominate the contemporary public discourse, blinded by partisan passions, are chronically prone to succumb to ridiculous simplifications and crude insensitivity. I hope that at least some readers of your newspaper will find the latter interpretation of Dowd's Op-Ed piece more persuasive.

Respectfully,
Venelin I. Ganev
Ethnic Bulgarian
Professor of Political Science
Miami University, Ohio.

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