15 April 1999

Kosova

The images play across the screen...

... more twisted, ruined bodies lying in the streets, scattered along the roadways ...

... semi-somber faces of the leaders of various nations, trying hard to look appropriately strong but mournful ...

Voices rise and fall, saying how it will "go on and on until it is done."

The CNN docudramas run wild, just as they did during the Gulf War. Just like they did during the most recent Iraqi crisis.

Even here in Washington D.C., which ought to be agog over what is going on "over there", is disturbingly blasé, hopelessly insulated and far too unconcerned. "It could never happen here," everyone seems to assume.

It's happening again. Bombs from the United States are raining down on yet another hapless, troubled area of the world.

CNN reports on an accidental bombing of an ethnic Albanian refugee convoy by NATO. The Serbs blame NATO, NATO blames the Serbs for starting the whole thing in the first place. Lots of finger pointing, nothing being accomplished but more dead ethnic Albanians.

Every time I hear the reports, all I can think of is my friend Arben, who was my suite-mate during the year I spent studying in Geneva, Switzerland.

I wonder if he is still studying or if he has already returned home, with his degree in economics and international relations. He wanted to use that degree to make things better for his country he said.

Arben is Albanian.

I wrote to my suite-mates not long after I came back from Geneva. They sent back a card. Then I lost track of them, as one by one they moved out of the apartment we'd all shared.

I wonder where he is now ... and think about what he'd have to say about this.

I wonder if I'd even be capable of looking him straight in the eye as an American citizen.