The decisions made by the United States and a select few of other NATO
nations in terms of Kosovo obviously aren't made in a vacuum, independent of
the complex biases, knowledges, motives and rationalities which go into such
choices. The strategy employed in Yugoslavia isn't simply a product of an
overall regime that can be uniformly spotted for a certain era. Nor is it a
new phenomenon. The situation is of course conditioned by time/place, but
is also a culmination of assumptions and political techniques which can be
traced back since nation-states have taken on the humanist notions of
self-determination and post-enlightenment soveirgnty. I believe the
appropriate action by way of criticism is to strip NATO's actions of their
legitimacy and glory--to retrieve whats lurking behind the banner of "global
security" and a "safe place for democracy." A good point was made as to how
Yugoslavia must first be otherized and seperated, then dealt with in terms
of a differentiated problem.
Loren
>This is a partial analysis. Why limit the analysis to the past ten years.
>We need to understand why the US is involved in the Kosovo region. The US
>did not step into
>Mexico or Guatemala in the past 40 years of death squads. The US did not
>step into any of the many genocidal wars of Africa. The Iritrean and Rwandan
>atrocities stand out in my mind just as much as do Idi Amin's. We never
>considered for even an instant of stopping the Khmer Rouge. The only reason
>is the type of President we have.
>
>Fred Welfare
>
>
"Animals consider man as a being like themselves that has lost in a most
dangerious way its sound animal common sense; they consider him the insane
animal, the laughing animal, the weeping animal, the miserable animal."
-Nietzsche, _The Gay Science_
"[H]umanism...presents a certain form of our ethics as a universal model for
any kind of freedom...[T]here are more secrets, more possible freedoms, and
more inventions in our future than we can imagine in humanism as it is
dogmatically represented on every side of the political rainbow: the Left,
the Center, the Right."
-M.F., TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SELF, 1982
nations in terms of Kosovo obviously aren't made in a vacuum, independent of
the complex biases, knowledges, motives and rationalities which go into such
choices. The strategy employed in Yugoslavia isn't simply a product of an
overall regime that can be uniformly spotted for a certain era. Nor is it a
new phenomenon. The situation is of course conditioned by time/place, but
is also a culmination of assumptions and political techniques which can be
traced back since nation-states have taken on the humanist notions of
self-determination and post-enlightenment soveirgnty. I believe the
appropriate action by way of criticism is to strip NATO's actions of their
legitimacy and glory--to retrieve whats lurking behind the banner of "global
security" and a "safe place for democracy." A good point was made as to how
Yugoslavia must first be otherized and seperated, then dealt with in terms
of a differentiated problem.
Loren
>This is a partial analysis. Why limit the analysis to the past ten years.
>We need to understand why the US is involved in the Kosovo region. The US
>did not step into
>Mexico or Guatemala in the past 40 years of death squads. The US did not
>step into any of the many genocidal wars of Africa. The Iritrean and Rwandan
>atrocities stand out in my mind just as much as do Idi Amin's. We never
>considered for even an instant of stopping the Khmer Rouge. The only reason
>is the type of President we have.
>
>Fred Welfare
>
>
"Animals consider man as a being like themselves that has lost in a most
dangerious way its sound animal common sense; they consider him the insane
animal, the laughing animal, the weeping animal, the miserable animal."
-Nietzsche, _The Gay Science_
"[H]umanism...presents a certain form of our ethics as a universal model for
any kind of freedom...[T]here are more secrets, more possible freedoms, and
more inventions in our future than we can imagine in humanism as it is
dogmatically represented on every side of the political rainbow: the Left,
the Center, the Right."
-M.F., TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SELF, 1982