[PEN-L:4620] RE: NATO Bombing

[sawicky@xxxxxxxxxx (Max Sawicky)]

> 1.  The NATO bombing is clearly contrary to international law, of
> the Constitution of NATO and of the US and Canadian
> constitutions.  It also heralds the end of the UN as an international
> political agency.  Do Americans care so little of the UN that they
> wish to see it destroyed?  Are we in NA so contemptuous of the
> rule of law that we are willing to destroy the UN in favour of vigilanty
> justice -- lets string em up  (regardless of guilt or innocence) to
> satisfy our blood lust?

As a guarantor of international peace and security, the UN is clearly a
bust.  So there isn't much of a loss there.

I see no blood lust anywhere in this, except on the ground in the Balkans.

> 2.  Can you give me any evidence of civil rights abuses of the
> Albanian population of Albania BEFORE the KLA (characterized as
> a terrorist organization by the US) began its attacks on Serbs in
> Kosovo?  In fact, can you give me a single instance?

I have no evidence of anything.  All I know is what I've heard from diverse
sources, many with some kind of axe to grind.  Like anyone else, all I can
do is try to process all this and make a judgement about what's going on.
My judgement is that Serbs in Kosovo and perhaps the Balkans as a whole are
a bigger danger to innocent human life than any other actor in this theatre.

> 3. Can you give me any independent confirmation of the alleged
> atrocities of Serbs in Kosovo?

see above

> 4.  When I pointed out the strong support for ethnic minorities by
> the Serbs against the Germans, Croats, etc. your response was --
> that was then but this is now.  I was using history to show that
> Serbs have not had a history of discrimination.  But your cavalier

Never said they did.

> response is that the Serb history of toleration should be ignored,
> without one shred of evidence that, in fact, there is any change in
> this attitude.

If I was cavalier, it was to the irrelevance your citation of past conduct
in light of what I believe to be going on presently.

> 5.  Telephone reports this evening on CBC from Belgrade report the
> US/NATO bombing has targeted schools and hospitals.  Wow,
> what great humanitarian support from a country that pionnered
> ethnic cleansing with the enclosure of the aboriginal population in
> permanent reservations.

If this turned into an Iraqi outcome, following your 'telephone reports,' my
view of it would change.  But it doesn't have to evolve that way.  Your last
point is more irrelevance (in this context).  One might just as well have
invoked it in opposing U.S. entrance into WWII.

> Yea, I am bitter and sick.  It is my friends that the recipients of US
> humanitary hospitality in the forms of bombs and death.

Somewhere else there is somebody with friends on the other side.  One of
them happens to be a lurker here on PEN-L.  I encouraged him (her?) to speak
up, but so far no dice.

I don't have any personal stake in taking any particular view of this.
Nobody calls me for press interviews on foreign policy.  I'm in no danger of
getting a political appointment in the Gore Administration.

You're one of the few who has argued that reports of Serb atrocities against
Kosovars are grossly exaggerated, if not mythical.  Most others say they
aren't, but what the hell.  Both positions are untenable, if for different
reasons.

If there is a workable strategy in this, I'd suggest it is for friends of
Serbia, both in terms of national governments and others, to counsel it to
provide guarantees for the safety of the Albanians.  That's something to
protest for.

mbs