Paul,
Maybe this is just terribly naive, but what would
be wrong with the autonomy proposal (with NATO
troops on the ground and enforcing) that was made
at Rambouillet? Seems better than either side
having more or less control and engaging in
slaughter/removal, etc., if extremely imperfect.
I realize that this is probably a delayed version of
turning over more ultimate control to the KLA. But
with NATO in there perhaps a system to guarantee
rights for the Serbs can be implemented as a condition
of any removal of peacekeepers. After all, I understand
that one of the remaining disagreements had to do with
whether or not Serbs would be tried in Serbian courts or
in Kosovan courts with imported Serbian judges. Seems
like an awfully fine point to be fighting over, unless one is
simply hoping to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of its Albanians,
a plan which if successful will indeed be pretty horrific and
seems to be what is going on now unless we are just being
totally mislead by the TV pix of people crossing the borders.
BTW, I remain opposed to the bombing for a number
of reasons. But I find myself contemplating the fact that there
is what is to my mind a surprising level of support for this
from the EU, including even such traditionally pro-Serbian
countries as Greece and France. That may change. But it
raises the possibility that either the EU really is calling the
shots on this one with the US as flunky/waterboy, as Dennis
Redmond claims (because of US debts to the EU), which I
find unconvincing, or it is some desire of the EU to somehow
control and end the various ethnic conflicts on the European
continent once and for all before the century is out. Or maybe
this is the grand project of the bourgeois EU, the same folks
who want to undo workers' ownership/management in Slovenia
as a condition of that country's entry into the blessed realm.
I do not find Greg Nowell's Danube theory particularly convincing,
much less oil pipeline stories. It is certainly the case that the
US has an anti-Serb bias based on ideology and this would
explain the lack of US action regarding the Kurds in comparison.
But, frankly, I am somewhat mystified about just what the motive is,
especially given the clear evidence that the outcome of the bombing
is exactly what was supposedly being prevented, an accelerated removal and
slaughter of the Kosovar Albanians, just what the motive is. I do not rule
out sheer stupidity, given that apparently US administration spokespersons
could not even answer accurately whether the Kosovar Albanians are Ghegs or
Tosks before a congressional committee recently. But this explanation would
not seem to fly for the Europeans.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, March 29, 1999 2:36 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:4643] Re: Re: War & 'Public Relations,' or, 'Kuwaiti Babi
Barkley,
Let me ask you the question. Should the Serbs retreat and stop
trying to oust the KLA and their Albanian supporters? You realize I
know that that would bring about the extermination of the Serbs in
Kosovo. Once the bombing started what alternative did the Serbs
have?
Paul
Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba
> From: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: [PEN-L:4638] Re: War & 'Public Relations,' or, 'Kuwaiti
Babies Torn fromIncubators'
> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 11:54:04 -0500
> Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Yoshie,
> I am someone who opposes the US actions in
> Kosovo and who (unfortunately accurately) forecast
> that the bombing would bring about the very humanitarian
> catastrophe that it was allegedly implemented to prevent.
> I also agree with much of your analysis of the reasons
> for the disintegration of Yugoslavia and exaggerated
> reporting of atrocities in various cases.
> But, are you going to suggest that the reports we
> are now getting of mass emigration from Kosovo are
> inaccurate? Does the bombing actually justify the horrific
> actions that Milosevic is now carrying out, even if the
> reporting of them might be somewhat exaggerated?
> It is one thing to forecast a catastrophe. It is quite
> another to applaud it or to attempt to justify it. I do
> not applaud any of the parties in this particular tragedy,
> and I certainly don't view Milosevic as some sort of hero.
> Barkley Rossre
>>
