Rumour. An Albanian woman here says that she heard from a relative in Tirana (I do want to stress we are not talking even Fleet Street standards of confirming a story) that the Americans were charged with disenabling a warehouse full of Ceaucescu era armaments, but left it to local labour who, untrained, set the things off. There has been a chain of explosions all morning, several reported dead, looters emptying the houses of those who fled.
It may be there is a grain of truth in this story but perhaps the more important thing is that whenever there is any kind of disaster the Americans are held to blame, and the rumours spread like wildfire.
The current presidential candidates will try to disassociate themselves from any foreign disasters but the last thing the world needs is for America to withdraw to within its own borders.
Most people now decry the Iraq war, but an isolationist America isn’t going to be good for the rest of the world, either. And if we blame them for everything, they will turn isolationist, sure as eggs is eggs.
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