Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: A gut-wrenching war

Tuesday, April 20, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

A YEAR AGO and even as recently as February, my negative feelings about U.S. military forces becoming involved in Kosovo were explained in this column. I haven't changed my views, but don't want to delve into these aspects as long as we have Americans facing combat in this NATO confrontation with the Serbs. This doesn't mean that my mind is closed and have turned off what information is coming from that area.

The age of a person observing what's taking place in the Balkans may determine his or her state of confusion. People my age recall the Serbs standing up to the invading Nazis and helping downed American airmen escape their grasp. We also can recall the Germans bombing Belgrade and executing the Serbs. Today the grandchildren of those German bomber pilots and the grandchildren of those escaping American airman have joined together and both are now bombing Belgrade.

We can also recall the Albanians providing troops to help the Nazis. Their grandchildren are the ones that NATO is helping by bombing the Serbs nightly. This is much like the help we gave the Croatians against the Serbs a few years ago. During World War II the Croatians, like the Albanians, also provided help to the Nazi invaders and sent them troops.

Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times, writing from Strausberg, Germany, touched more than a few nerves in that country. Williams revealed the German justification in their participation when writing, " 'It would be a shame if Germany were to shirk its responsibility in this instance,' Michael Wolffsohn, a professor of modern history at the University of the Federal Army in Munich, said of the killings and expulsions in Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic. 'Those who want to draw lessons from history should take note of the fact that now the children and grandchildren of the former murderers are trying to prevent genocide.' "

Wolffsohn's view isn't universal, though. "Germany should do its share within NATO, but it is wrong to be involved in this particular conflict. Germans inflicted enough agony on the people of Yugoslavia during the last war," Claus Bernegger, a 65-year-old retired soldier, told Williams.

Steven Berlanger of the New York Times interviewed Aca Singer, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz now living in Belgrade. Singer told Berlanger, "When the Americans bombed the death camps at the end of World War II, I was very happy ... Then I thought, 'Kill me if necessary, but kill the Nazis.' And a lot of Jews died at the end from U.S. bombers, and we were not unhappy to see the bombs." Today as he ducks NATO bombs he wants to live despite having been forced into a small apartment because his home is next to a target. "But if I didn't get killed in Auschwitz, I don't want to provide this pleasure to anyone else," he remarked.

The Serbs helped protect thousands of Jews from Hitler's forces and they haven't forgotten this. So where's Israel today? Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon is worried about Kosovo eventually becoming part of a greater Albania and providing a larger haven for Muslim terrorists. Both Israel and the rest of the world have had about all of this they can tolerate.

Despite this concern, Sharon has approved several airplanes carrying food and a 100-bed field hospital with doctors to care for the refugees. As always, Israel was one of the first nations to respond when tragedy struck people who couldn't help themselves. Yes and within days after the NATO bombing started, Israeli airplanes loaded with ethnic Albanians from Kosovo were landing in Israel.

This act of humanity by the Israelis doesn't surprise people who know them. Six years ago I watched Muslims from Bosnia settling in Israel after fleeing the fighting in that country. One airplane carried 34 children, 29 men and 31 women to be cared for in Kibbutz Maagan Michael.

The Jews who have suffered and eventually escaped to create Israel don't see the color of a person's skin or judge them by their religion. They see refugees who remind them of their own suffering and they extend their hands and hearts to them. Thousands of black Ethiopians now living in Israel can also attest to the compassion of the people who brought them there. Israel is a small country with a big heart that cares for those who need help. Even as its people help, they haven't forgotten those people who helped them during those terrible years that Nazi Germany existed.

Watching what is happening in the Balkans today can be confusing, but even during the time of war and terror, acts of good often rise above the stench of evil. Americans can learn several lessons as we watch history unfold in Kosovo. Right now our military families want the task of war completed and a safe return of their loved ones. When that happens writers like me will be better prepared to sort out the good from the bad.