To Edward W. Said, Pierre Bourdieu, Edward S. Herman and others:
"Two wrongs don't make a right,
but they sure make me feel a whole lot better."
Mike Muir - Suicidal Tendencies.
Yes the US "machine" is this imperial, amoral and monstrous reality - its
vested involvements in Indochina, Central America, Chile, Cuba, indeed
every country on Earth is more than enough testimony. And yes indeed
nearly every US political / economic / military intervention - if there can
be a distinction - has been steeped in hypocracy and failure. These are
the realities we live.
You demand the halting of the Serbian "bombing", in part, because the US is
not fit to play on the world stage. Then you demand a return to
"negotiations" and regional participation from players who are also not fit
to be on the world stage - including a return to dialogue with the Serbian
monster who, at every opportunity, has cynically used "peace" negotiations
as a front for incremental genocide.
Such a flurry of words and nostagia from the old Marxist brigadiers
questioning the motives of those "holding" the moral high ground. Yes the
US manages the media to create "the just war", "the enemy monster", "the
helpless victim", including a thousand sanitised terms for mass destruction
- "degrade" (anihilate), "take out" (kill), "surgically remove" (selective
killing) etc.
So what is their point here? Is this manipulation not normal US practice?
Isn't this standard practice of all sides at war? But more to the point,
are not these the same media strategies used by Milosevic - the nationalist
Serbian hero? Why link the moral high ground of the US to Serbian acts of
mass genocide?
Sadly you calls for reason are tainted by your own utopian dreams that out
there in the Balkan mess there must be a solution where nobody gets hurt
and everybody is equal. Your "negotiations" stance and the US's "bombing"
strategy both, at some point, play into the hands of Milosevic's desire for
power and Serbian purity. So what? These are the realities we live.
But while you conceptually search for your solutions a million people face
the choice between extermination or forced deportation. Note that within
your "negotiations" you "have" endless possibilities, but that the
Albanians lucky enough to be displaced refugees only "had" two choices.
Note also the change in tense from the privileged "have" to the forgotten
"had" - that you are discussing the possibilities of averting a war which
has largely already happened now that Milosevic's two part strategy is
pretty much in its consolidation phase. It may be hard to face, but soon
there will be only dead Albanians in Kosovo.
Milosevic has two goals - to creat an ethnically pure Serbian state in
Kosovo and to be remembered forever as a great Serbian hero. The Albanians
had two choices - flee or die. The West had two options - either a
diplomatic or a military solution.
Diplomacy failed. Sad but true. But diplomacy could never really sit
alongside Milosevic. Especially when Milosevic's war machine made
diplomacy the main trump card in its "pure war".
So few are the choices! We have Milosovic's pure war. We have the West
unwilling to put their own troops on the ground. We have diplomacy reduced
to a fucking farce. We have threats and sanctions from the moral high
ground reduced to a joke. We have an entire nation of people sent into
exile. These are the realities we live.
I support the bombing of Serbia, problematic as it is. Bombing will not
help those Albanians caught up in the Serbian esculations and retaliations.
But alas, with either the bomb or the not to bomb options, an unknown fate
was nevertheless approaching these poor Albanians.
Yes, an innocent Serb will be blown to pieces in Belgrade. Yes, bombs will
be dropped by nations of and with dubious character and motives. Yes, the
withdrawal of observers and the bombing was matched by a marked esculation
in Serbian acts of genocide. But, overall, if it stops just one group of
Albanians being herded into a shallow pit in some desolate corner of Kosovo
and shot by racist thugs, then I am happy.
I don't expect the bombing to bring lasting peace. I don't have such lofty
ideals. I just want the thugs out of Kosovo. I search hard for a
realistic alternative to bombing - but I only see Milosevic and his goons.
I even search for a nation with enough integrity to drop the "just bomb" -
but none spring to mind. Nonetheless, I still agree with the bombing of
Serbia. Violence may never solve a problem, but then again nor did
rhetoric save the Albanians.
We live in a world of pure war - in a world of power and property
struggles, in a war zone of trade, political and military battles. Its a
world where ethics and justice are seconded to deception, cunning and
survival. Its a world, where at times, beauty, poetry, love and equality
are best saved for a more appropriate occasion.
Tony Ralph
"Two wrongs don't make a right,
but they sure make me feel a whole lot better."
Mike Muir - Suicidal Tendencies.
Yes the US "machine" is this imperial, amoral and monstrous reality - its
vested involvements in Indochina, Central America, Chile, Cuba, indeed
every country on Earth is more than enough testimony. And yes indeed
nearly every US political / economic / military intervention - if there can
be a distinction - has been steeped in hypocracy and failure. These are
the realities we live.
You demand the halting of the Serbian "bombing", in part, because the US is
not fit to play on the world stage. Then you demand a return to
"negotiations" and regional participation from players who are also not fit
to be on the world stage - including a return to dialogue with the Serbian
monster who, at every opportunity, has cynically used "peace" negotiations
as a front for incremental genocide.
Such a flurry of words and nostagia from the old Marxist brigadiers
questioning the motives of those "holding" the moral high ground. Yes the
US manages the media to create "the just war", "the enemy monster", "the
helpless victim", including a thousand sanitised terms for mass destruction
- "degrade" (anihilate), "take out" (kill), "surgically remove" (selective
killing) etc.
So what is their point here? Is this manipulation not normal US practice?
Isn't this standard practice of all sides at war? But more to the point,
are not these the same media strategies used by Milosevic - the nationalist
Serbian hero? Why link the moral high ground of the US to Serbian acts of
mass genocide?
Sadly you calls for reason are tainted by your own utopian dreams that out
there in the Balkan mess there must be a solution where nobody gets hurt
and everybody is equal. Your "negotiations" stance and the US's "bombing"
strategy both, at some point, play into the hands of Milosevic's desire for
power and Serbian purity. So what? These are the realities we live.
But while you conceptually search for your solutions a million people face
the choice between extermination or forced deportation. Note that within
your "negotiations" you "have" endless possibilities, but that the
Albanians lucky enough to be displaced refugees only "had" two choices.
Note also the change in tense from the privileged "have" to the forgotten
"had" - that you are discussing the possibilities of averting a war which
has largely already happened now that Milosevic's two part strategy is
pretty much in its consolidation phase. It may be hard to face, but soon
there will be only dead Albanians in Kosovo.
Milosevic has two goals - to creat an ethnically pure Serbian state in
Kosovo and to be remembered forever as a great Serbian hero. The Albanians
had two choices - flee or die. The West had two options - either a
diplomatic or a military solution.
Diplomacy failed. Sad but true. But diplomacy could never really sit
alongside Milosevic. Especially when Milosevic's war machine made
diplomacy the main trump card in its "pure war".
So few are the choices! We have Milosovic's pure war. We have the West
unwilling to put their own troops on the ground. We have diplomacy reduced
to a fucking farce. We have threats and sanctions from the moral high
ground reduced to a joke. We have an entire nation of people sent into
exile. These are the realities we live.
I support the bombing of Serbia, problematic as it is. Bombing will not
help those Albanians caught up in the Serbian esculations and retaliations.
But alas, with either the bomb or the not to bomb options, an unknown fate
was nevertheless approaching these poor Albanians.
Yes, an innocent Serb will be blown to pieces in Belgrade. Yes, bombs will
be dropped by nations of and with dubious character and motives. Yes, the
withdrawal of observers and the bombing was matched by a marked esculation
in Serbian acts of genocide. But, overall, if it stops just one group of
Albanians being herded into a shallow pit in some desolate corner of Kosovo
and shot by racist thugs, then I am happy.
I don't expect the bombing to bring lasting peace. I don't have such lofty
ideals. I just want the thugs out of Kosovo. I search hard for a
realistic alternative to bombing - but I only see Milosevic and his goons.
I even search for a nation with enough integrity to drop the "just bomb" -
but none spring to mind. Nonetheless, I still agree with the bombing of
Serbia. Violence may never solve a problem, but then again nor did
rhetoric save the Albanians.
We live in a world of pure war - in a world of power and property
struggles, in a war zone of trade, political and military battles. Its a
world where ethics and justice are seconded to deception, cunning and
survival. Its a world, where at times, beauty, poetry, love and equality
are best saved for a more appropriate occasion.
Tony Ralph