Word: timorously
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Moreover, Indonesia faces dismemberment by separatist revolts in several of its 17,000 islands. If we bludgeoned our way into East Timor the way we did Kosovo, we would encourage separatist rebels on Aceh, in West Irian and throughout Indonesia...
...third rationale: strategic. East Timor, said Berger, is nothing more than "a humanitarian problem," while Kosovo involved "strong security and strategic consequences...
...this too is nonsense. Yes, East Timor is purely a humanitarian problem. But so is Kosovo. It matters not a whit to the U.S. whether Kosovo is ruled by Serbs or Albanians or Tartars. It has no economy to speak of, no industry, no military. It doesn't even have a seacoast. It is a destitute, landlocked geopolitical wasteland. East Timor is much the same, except for the beaches...
When China oppresses Tibet, Russia ravages Chechnya or Indonesia reduces East Timor to rubble, we do not intervene. China, Russia and Indonesia matter. But Serbia doesn't. So when Kosovo is overrun, we strike...
Strategic calculation must affect where and how America intervenes in the world. Clinton's Timor policy--pressuring Indonesia into granting entry for non-American peacekeepers for a "permissive" occupation--is wise and restrained. It is a pity, however, that the President cannot say plainly what he has done...