[Marxism] Tariq Ali

[abu hartal <abuhartal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tariq Ali and others keep minimizing the extent of Serb aggression by saying 
that there were only 2000 killings, but that it is not what motivated his 
colleagues at NLR to countenance the use of force as the only way to get 
Milosevic to curb aggression and recognize regional autonomy. The NATO bombing 
was unconscionable for many reasons but the situation cannot be minimized by 
reference to a low casaulty count. 

We know that in the previous 12 months to the bombing, Serb forces had driven 
more than 300,000 Albanians out of their homes - homes which, in many cases, 
they then looted and burnt. Roughly 2,000 people had been killed, some of them 
in massacres such as the one at Racak where 45 civilians were murdered. In 
early 1999, there were clear signs of preparation for an intensification of 
this campaign: a build-up of Serb forces, the introduction of paramilitaries to 
the region, and a new integration of police and military units, designed 
specifically for operations against the civilian population. The new wave of 
expulsions which started after 24 March was well organized and systematic.

What happened after the bombing began, therefore, was probably a speeded-up 
version of what would have happened anyway. Of course, the `what if' questions 
of history can never be answered with certainty; but one thing here is quite 
clear: if Nato had not intervened, and if hundreds of thousands of Albanians 
had been driven out of Kosovo in the spring and summer of 1999, those refugees 
would still be in exile today. The fact that they have gone home is a success 
for them, for Nato and for the republic of Macedonia, which might never have 
coped with such a sudden and permanent change to its delicate ethnic balance.

On another point: it is certain that had never bombed Belgrade Bush would still 
have invaded and occupied Iraq. So the rehearsal for empire argument fails. 
Plus it was not a human rights intervention but a WMD intervention.  So NLR 
taking a more nuanced position would not have disarmed it in the face of Bush's 
aggression. 

Abu Hartal 


_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism