169.
Why ask to know what date what clime
There dwelt our own humanity
Power-worshippers from earliest time
Foot-kissers of triumphant time
Crushers of helpless misery
Crushing down Justice honoring Wrong
If that be feeble this be strong
Shedders of blood shedders of tears
Self-cursers avid of kisses
Yet Mocking heaven with senseless prayers
For mercy on the merciless
It was the autumn of the year
When grain grows yellow in the ear
Day after day from noon to noon,
That August's sun blazed bright as June
But me with unregarding eyes
Saw panting earth and glowing skies
No hand the reaper's sickle held
Nor bound the ripe sheaves in the field
Our corn was garnered months before,
Threshed out and kneaded-up with gore
Ground out when the ears were milky sweet
With furious toild of hoofs and feet
I doubly cursed on foreign sod
Fought neither for my home nor God
______________________ Emily Bronte 1846.
03 April 1999 Saturday 15 Zilhaj 1419
Protecting the Kosovars
By Edward Said
ONCE again, and led by the United States as usual, a war is being
conducted - this time in Europe - against an unprincipled and racist
dictator who will almost certainly survive the onslaught even though
thousands of innocents will pay the actual price. The pretext this
time is of course the persecution, ethnic cleansing and continued
oppression of Albanians in the province of Kosovo by the Serbian
forces of Slobodan Milosevic.
No one at all doubts that horrible things have been done to the
Albanians under Serbian domination, but the question is whether
US/NATO policy will alleviate things or whether they will in fact be
made worse by a bombing campaign whose supposed goal is to make
Milosevic give up his policies.
Since, as in most cases, the bombing campaign is not all that it seems
to be, a look behind the headlines is worth the effort, especially
given the new ferocity and willingness to intervene militarily on the
part of US foreign policy decision makers (Clinton, Cohen, Albright,
Berger).
One needs to remember that since the US is a world, and not merely a
regional, power one calculation that enters each of its foreign policy
decisions is how the deployment of its military might will affect the
US's image in the eyes of other, especially other competitive
countries. Henry Kissinger made that point a central concern of his
Indochinese policy when he undertook the secret bombing of Laos: your
enemies will learn that there are no limits to what you are prepared
to do, even to the point of appearing totally irrational.
Thus the exercise of massive destructiveness wholly disproportionate
to the goal, say, of stopping an enemy from advancing further, is a
principal aim of this policy, as it has been of Israel's policy in
southern Lebanon, where massive raids on civilian encampments do
absolutely nothing to affect Israel's main enemies, the Hizballah
guerillas. Punishment is its own goal, bombing as a display of NATO
authority its own satisfaction, especially when there is little chance
of retaliation from the enemy.
That is one consideration behind the current bombing of Yugoslavia.
Another is the misguided and totally hopeless goal of humbling, and
perhaps even destroying Milosevic's regime. This, as has been the case
in Iraq, is illusory. No nation, no matter how badly attacked from the
air is going to rally to the attackers.
If anything, Milosevic's regime is now strengthened. All Serbs feel
that their country is attacked unjustly, and that the cowardly war
from the air has made them feel persecuted. Besides, not even the
Kosovo Albanians believe that the air campaign is about independence
for Kosovo or about saving Albanian lives: that is a total illusion.
What transpired before the bombing was that the US seems to have
persuaded the Kosovars that if they went along with the "peace plan"
Kosovo would get its independence; this was never said, but only
implied, leading the Kosovars to expect NATO help. But, as usual, the
US has never stated unequivocally that it is for full
self-determination for all the peoples of former Yugoslavia.
There should have been a straight-out and clearly stated willingness
to accept self-determination for Kosovo as well as a safeguarding of
rights for the Serbian minority there. None of this was done. And
neither were the consequences thought through, i.e., the certainty
that the Serb forces would respond to NATO bombardment by intensifying
their attacks against Albanian civilians, more ethnic cleansing, more
refugees, more trouble for the future.
There is now talk of 200,000 ground troops (mostly American) to enter
the battle and expand the war, with the attendant problems of
prolonged occupation, guerilla warfare, greater devastation, more
refugees, and so on. A lot of this comes from the delusion that the US
is the world's policeman. In the meantime, its genocidal policy
against Iraq continues, and its sanctions policy against other Islamic
or Arab countries also continues.
Nothing of what the US or NATO does now has anything really to do with
protecting the Kosovars or bringing them independence: it is rather a
display of military might whose long-range effect is disastrous, just
as is a similar policy in the Middle East. In 1994 when a US
intervention might have averted genocide in Rwanda, there was no
action. The stakes were not high enough, and black people not worth
the effort.
Therefore it seems to me imperative that the NATO bombing should stop,
and a multi-party conference of all the peoples of former Yugoslavia
be called to settle differences between them on the basis of
self-determination for all, not just for some, nor for some at the
expense of others. This is the same principle that has been violated
by US-sponsored peace processes elsewhere, notably in the Middle East.
There is nothing about the current policy of bombing Serbian forces
that will either guarantee democracy for Serbia or protect the
Albanians who are still being treated horribly by Milosevic's forces.
In its arrogance and ill-considered military deployment the US has
forced NATO to go along with it, whereas it is quite clear that there
is increasing disunity within the NATO ranks, not just Greece and
Italy and Turkey, but also France and Germany.
The greatest danger of all is that more people will be displaced, more
lives lost, and more fragmentation will occur in places like Macedonia
and Bosnia-Herzegovina. All this for the US to assert its will and to
show the world who is boss. The humanitarian concerns expressed are
the merest hypocrisy since what really counts is the expression of US
power.
What I find most distressing is that destruction is being wrought from
the air along with a fastidiousness articulated about the loss of
American life that is positively revolting. Clinton knows well that
Americans will not tolerate the loss of life for Americans. Yet he can
destroy Yugoslavian lives with impunity from the safety of the
ultimate in modern technology and airpower, with American pilots and
bombers sanitizing their horror with the illusion of safety and
distance. When will the smaller, lesser, weaker peoples realize that
this America is to be resisted at all costs, not pandered or given in
to naively?-Copyright Edward W. Said, 1999.
******************************************
Why ask to know what date what clime
There dwelt our own humanity
Power-worshippers from earliest time
Foot-kissers of triumphant time
Crushers of helpless misery
Crushing down Justice honoring Wrong
If that be feeble this be strong
Shedders of blood shedders of tears
Self-cursers avid of kisses
Yet Mocking heaven with senseless prayers
For mercy on the merciless
It was the autumn of the year
When grain grows yellow in the ear
Day after day from noon to noon,
That August's sun blazed bright as June
But me with unregarding eyes
Saw panting earth and glowing skies
No hand the reaper's sickle held
Nor bound the ripe sheaves in the field
Our corn was garnered months before,
Threshed out and kneaded-up with gore
Ground out when the ears were milky sweet
With furious toild of hoofs and feet
I doubly cursed on foreign sod
Fought neither for my home nor God
______________________ Emily Bronte 1846.
03 April 1999 Saturday 15 Zilhaj 1419
Protecting the Kosovars
By Edward Said
ONCE again, and led by the United States as usual, a war is being
conducted - this time in Europe - against an unprincipled and racist
dictator who will almost certainly survive the onslaught even though
thousands of innocents will pay the actual price. The pretext this
time is of course the persecution, ethnic cleansing and continued
oppression of Albanians in the province of Kosovo by the Serbian
forces of Slobodan Milosevic.
No one at all doubts that horrible things have been done to the
Albanians under Serbian domination, but the question is whether
US/NATO policy will alleviate things or whether they will in fact be
made worse by a bombing campaign whose supposed goal is to make
Milosevic give up his policies.
Since, as in most cases, the bombing campaign is not all that it seems
to be, a look behind the headlines is worth the effort, especially
given the new ferocity and willingness to intervene militarily on the
part of US foreign policy decision makers (Clinton, Cohen, Albright,
Berger).
One needs to remember that since the US is a world, and not merely a
regional, power one calculation that enters each of its foreign policy
decisions is how the deployment of its military might will affect the
US's image in the eyes of other, especially other competitive
countries. Henry Kissinger made that point a central concern of his
Indochinese policy when he undertook the secret bombing of Laos: your
enemies will learn that there are no limits to what you are prepared
to do, even to the point of appearing totally irrational.
Thus the exercise of massive destructiveness wholly disproportionate
to the goal, say, of stopping an enemy from advancing further, is a
principal aim of this policy, as it has been of Israel's policy in
southern Lebanon, where massive raids on civilian encampments do
absolutely nothing to affect Israel's main enemies, the Hizballah
guerillas. Punishment is its own goal, bombing as a display of NATO
authority its own satisfaction, especially when there is little chance
of retaliation from the enemy.
That is one consideration behind the current bombing of Yugoslavia.
Another is the misguided and totally hopeless goal of humbling, and
perhaps even destroying Milosevic's regime. This, as has been the case
in Iraq, is illusory. No nation, no matter how badly attacked from the
air is going to rally to the attackers.
If anything, Milosevic's regime is now strengthened. All Serbs feel
that their country is attacked unjustly, and that the cowardly war
from the air has made them feel persecuted. Besides, not even the
Kosovo Albanians believe that the air campaign is about independence
for Kosovo or about saving Albanian lives: that is a total illusion.
What transpired before the bombing was that the US seems to have
persuaded the Kosovars that if they went along with the "peace plan"
Kosovo would get its independence; this was never said, but only
implied, leading the Kosovars to expect NATO help. But, as usual, the
US has never stated unequivocally that it is for full
self-determination for all the peoples of former Yugoslavia.
There should have been a straight-out and clearly stated willingness
to accept self-determination for Kosovo as well as a safeguarding of
rights for the Serbian minority there. None of this was done. And
neither were the consequences thought through, i.e., the certainty
that the Serb forces would respond to NATO bombardment by intensifying
their attacks against Albanian civilians, more ethnic cleansing, more
refugees, more trouble for the future.
There is now talk of 200,000 ground troops (mostly American) to enter
the battle and expand the war, with the attendant problems of
prolonged occupation, guerilla warfare, greater devastation, more
refugees, and so on. A lot of this comes from the delusion that the US
is the world's policeman. In the meantime, its genocidal policy
against Iraq continues, and its sanctions policy against other Islamic
or Arab countries also continues.
Nothing of what the US or NATO does now has anything really to do with
protecting the Kosovars or bringing them independence: it is rather a
display of military might whose long-range effect is disastrous, just
as is a similar policy in the Middle East. In 1994 when a US
intervention might have averted genocide in Rwanda, there was no
action. The stakes were not high enough, and black people not worth
the effort.
Therefore it seems to me imperative that the NATO bombing should stop,
and a multi-party conference of all the peoples of former Yugoslavia
be called to settle differences between them on the basis of
self-determination for all, not just for some, nor for some at the
expense of others. This is the same principle that has been violated
by US-sponsored peace processes elsewhere, notably in the Middle East.
There is nothing about the current policy of bombing Serbian forces
that will either guarantee democracy for Serbia or protect the
Albanians who are still being treated horribly by Milosevic's forces.
In its arrogance and ill-considered military deployment the US has
forced NATO to go along with it, whereas it is quite clear that there
is increasing disunity within the NATO ranks, not just Greece and
Italy and Turkey, but also France and Germany.
The greatest danger of all is that more people will be displaced, more
lives lost, and more fragmentation will occur in places like Macedonia
and Bosnia-Herzegovina. All this for the US to assert its will and to
show the world who is boss. The humanitarian concerns expressed are
the merest hypocrisy since what really counts is the expression of US
power.
What I find most distressing is that destruction is being wrought from
the air along with a fastidiousness articulated about the loss of
American life that is positively revolting. Clinton knows well that
Americans will not tolerate the loss of life for Americans. Yet he can
destroy Yugoslavian lives with impunity from the safety of the
ultimate in modern technology and airpower, with American pilots and
bombers sanitizing their horror with the illusion of safety and
distance. When will the smaller, lesser, weaker peoples realize that
this America is to be resisted at all costs, not pandered or given in
to naively?-Copyright Edward W. Said, 1999.
******************************************