From: vacirca-AT-charm.net Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 10:59:19 -0500 Subject: Edward Said: Protecting the Kosovars (fwd) >From: aoliai-AT-students.wisc.edu >X-Sender: aoliai-AT-students.wisc.edu >Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 07:12:17 -0700 >To: vacirca-AT-charm.net >Subject: Edward Said: Protecting the Kosovars (fwd) >Mime-Version: 1.0 > >> >Subject: Edward Said: Protecting the Kosovars (fwd) >> >>FRIENDS: IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED THAT EVERYONE READING THESE >>COMMUNIQUES BROADEN THE CIRCLES. PLEASE FORWARD THE ITEMS THAT I SEND TO >>AS MANY ADDRESSES AS YOU CAN. GET THEM AS BROADLY DISSEMINATED AS POSSIBLE >>SO THAT WE CONTINUE TO BUILD THE GROUNDWORK FOR AN EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION >>TO THIS ABSURD ORWELLIAN "HUMANITARIAN WAR". >> >> >>Protecting the Kosovars >>Dawn newspaper -- Pakistan >>http://www.dawn.com >>April 5, 1999 >> >>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. (Source: DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan, 03 >>April 1999) >> >> >****************************** >Please do not open the attached file called happy99. It is a virus and i >am trying to get ride of it!!!! > According to Do It help desk the virus is harmless and you can clean it >by using the instructions on page: >http://www.wisc.edu/helpdesk/osapp/Happy99.html >************************************** > "Solidarity is running the same risks." - Che Guevara ("La solidarieta' significa correre gli stessi rischi.") --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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