Once again, follow the money. Whatrncountry leads the whole world in therngrowth of its gross domestic productrn(GDP)? Answer: Bosnia! Bosnia’s GDPrnincreased by 50 percent in 1996, the firstrnpost-Dayton year, according to thernEconomist. What nation came second?rnAlbania, another country which has justrnhad a close brush with civil war, andrnwhere international troops and monitorsrnare now deployed as “peacekeepers.”rnCloser to home, we’ve seen similarrntactics at work in Panama, El Salvador,rnand Haiti. A planeload of Americanrnbusiness executives, ready to start writingrnreconstruction contracts, arrived inrnPanama City in 1989 while the streetrnfighting was still going on. The formerrnhead of OPIC (Overseas Private InvestmentrnCorporation), Fred Zeder, told mernthis when we met in Washington in Junern1990. Ron Brown’s ill-fated 1996 missionrnlanded in Bosnia and Croatia evenrnbefore all the I-FOR troops had been deployed.rnSee a pattern? First destroy them,rnthen take over and rebuild them. It putsrna “black humor” spin on an old oneliner:rnWhat’s the difference betweenrnmechanical and civil engineers? Answer:rnMechanical engineers build thernweapons; civil engineers build the targets.rnEither way, both the destructionrnand the rebuilding helps keep thernbankers and multinationals humming;rneither way. Big Business wins.rnIsn’t it interesting that seemingly unrelatedrnevents —Bosnia, the expansion ofrnNATO, the perpetual Middle Easternrncrisis—all have one common denominator:rnincreased spending? The objectrnis not to win. It is to prolong the foreignrndeployment, because this means increasedrnspending. More money for thern”Princes”; more tax burdens and bodyrnbags for Main Street.rnWhich is why it’s worth recalling PresidentrnDwight Eisenhower’s warning tornthe nation in his farewell speech in 1961:rn”In the councils of government, we mustrnguard against acquisition of unwarrantedrninfluence, whether sought or unsought,rnby the military-industrial complex. Thernpotential for the disastrous rise of misplacedrnpower exists and will persist. Wernmust never let the weight of that combinationrnendanger our liberties or democraticrnprocess.”rnBob Djurdjevic heads up Annex Researchrn(www.djurdjevic.comj andTruth inrnMedia (www.beograd.com/truthj.rnREGIONALISMrnMaryland, thernSouth’s ForgottenrnCousinrnby Joyce BennettrnAs recently as the 1930’s, elderlyrnblack people in rural Marylandrnwere still keeping headstrong children inrnline with the admonition that somethingrncalled “pattiroll” would “get” them ifrnthey didn’t behave themselves. “Pattirolls,”rnor patrols, were gangs of UnionrnArmy soldiers who rode throughout thernmoonlit countryside enforcing curfewsrnin occupied Maryland during the WarrnBetween the States, and they are just onernsmall aspect of the era’s ironic and intriguingrnhistory, a history often misquotedrnby Northern liberal. Southern sellout,rnand cross-burning bigot, each to his ownrnend.rnIn the spring of 1967, I saw the KurnKlux Klan parade down York Road inrnTowson, Maryland. Although their colorrnguard carried the Confederate, thernMaryland, and the United States flags, ofrnthe three only the Stars and Bars has unfortunatelyrnbecome America’s premierrnsymbol of hatred and is most closely connectedrnwith the Klan. Any attempt, however,rnto prove that the flag stands for liberty,rnnot racism, is lost on people whosernheads are filled with welfarist legend. Alsornlost on most is the importance of thernevents which occurred in Marv’land priorrnto and during the War for SouthernrnIndependence, but the drama of this littlernborder state and of her people is centralrnto any serious discussion of Calhoun’srnirrepressible conflict.rnThe question of whether Marylandrnwas more Southern or Northern in temperamentrnhas been debated, but I behevernthat the words of our state song,rnsoon to be ouflawed by the Northeasternrnexpatriates and homegrown politicalrn”Step’n’Fetchits” in Annapolis, wouldrnnot have survived to this day if the formerrnwere not tiue. A native of the Old LinernState, James Ryder Randall, wrote thernwords to “Maryland, My Maryland”rnwhile living in Louisiana, to commemoraternthe citizens’ uprising (called a “riot”rnby Northern historians) which occurredrnon April 19, 1861, when the Sixth Massachusettsrncame marching through Baltimore.rnIn spite of the fact that “Maryland,rnMy Mar)’land” was one of the most popularrnsongs among Confederate troops,rnthere was some Southern resentment towardsrnthe state because Baltimore merchantsrnwere believed to have sold foodrnand other items to the South at inflatedrnprices. But like New Odeans, Baltimorern(after it fell to Lincoln’s forces) was not inrncharge of its fortunes, and those controllingrnBaltimore commerce were notrnMarylanders. More typical of Baltimorernand Maryland were the sisters Constancernand Hettie Cary who, using materialrnfrom their best party’ dresses, made arnConfederate battle flag and presented itrnto General Pierre Beauregard. Baltimore’srnladies also wore red to show theirrnSouthern loyalty even after Confederaternemblems were banned by the occupationrnarmy. And without a penny’s profit,rncounfless partisans throughout the staternrisked death by hanging for smugglingrncontraband to Virginia to support thernSouthern cause. But the misconceptionsrnpersisted, and even at ChimborazornHospital in Richmond, Marylanders,rnwounded and dying for the Confederacy,rnwere shunned by the other patients.rnAny Southern ill will directed at Marylandersrnmight have resulted from thernhigh hopes the South had for their staternearly in the war. A.L. Long, military secretaryrnto General Lee, talked about Lee’srndisappointment when the Army ofrnNorthern Virginia crossed the Potomacrninto Maryland in September 1862. Leernhad expected the people of Maryland tornrebel against the iron heel of the Northrnand join the Confederates when his liberationrnarmy arrived. But Lee’s army wasrnrescuing a state populated by women,rnchildren, old men, and Lincoln’s garrisons.rnThe fighting men were alreadyrnfighting for the South and the North, althoughrnhow many native Marylandersrnactually served on either side is unknown.rnFederal records concerningrnMaryland enlistees and conscripts cannotrnbe trusted any more than can the resultsrnof the militarily controlled electionsrnheld in the state after 1860. Fearingrnreprisals from Mr. Lincoln’s men, as thernYankee soldiers were known, the familiesrnof those who “absconded South” didrnnot advertise the Confederate service ofrntheir sons, brothers, and husbands.rnMaryland was at least as Southern in herrnsympathies as Kentucky, but Kentucky,rn48/CHRONICLESrnrnrn