Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 12:57:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joseph Flanagan III <flanagan-AT-odin.english.udel.edu>
Subject: Re: West is White???? 


I've been thinking about how this topic originally came up. If I remember
correctly, it had to do with the argument that the reason why Nato has
intervened in Kosovo (at not other regions ie. Rwanda) has to do with the
fact the victims in this case were white. What's somewhat troubling to me
is that the UN did not do anything in Bosnia for years, even when
UN-declared save-havens were overrun by Serb forces. If the intervention
in Kosovo came about because Kosovo-Albanians were white, does that mean
the Bosnians were not? 

Also, what's interesting to me that many of the arguments I've heard on
this list have been echoed in the Fox news network--hardly a "leftist"
front. What happens when arguments advanced by the left are appropriated
by the right? Should we disavow them, agree with them (on this particular
issue) or see what ideological purpose such appropriations serve? 

Finally, is Kosovo really that historically significant to the Serbs? It's
been repeated so often it's almost a cliche. But I wonder whether this is
a mythology disguised as historical fact. Milosevic hardly expected his
speech in Kosovo in 1989 to be as embraced as it was (practically every
commentary I've read on the subject has mentioned that his references to
Kosovo were more an aside than an intentional declaration). If Milosevic
(whom we can suppose was fully aware of Serbian history) was indeed
surprised by the extent of the response, perhaps the claim that Kosovo is
of deep-rooted historical sentiment to the Serbs is just propaganda.
What's the difference, in short, between the reactiviation of national
mythology to serve present needs and agendas and a "true" national
historical feeling? Might it not be that Kosovo has become so important to
the Serbs not because of a history that extends to the Battle of Kosovo in
the 14(?) century but because Kosovo was where the war in Jugoslavia began
in 1989 and if the Serbs loose this area as well all the hardships they've
endured in the last decade will have been for naught. 
  
(by the by, these are more speculative questions--I confess I don't have
answers right now. And I'm still deeply uneasy about US's and NATO's
motivations, objectives, and activities in the region) Joe F



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