Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 16:11:58 EST
From: jdm4-AT-lehigh.edu (JEN MARSHALL)
Subject: Re: Kosovo, Bombs and Imperialism


I have been a quiet observer of this list for about two years now, and I am
always somewhat reluctant to post for fear of an inadequate theoretical
background.  I want to object now, though, to what seems to me a grossly
unfair characterization of "North Americans" as one people who "turn off" when
news gets too complicated and are unwilling - or even incapable - of finding
Kosovo on a map.  Everyone seems willing to jump in and condemn NATO action in
Kosovo, as driven by selfish US interests.  But no one seems to be willing to
take up one of the initial questions posed, about how we should respond to
genocide.  To condemn NATO's current response in Kosovo for being selective
and economically/imperialistically motivated (why not Rwanda? Somalia? etc.)
seems to show an outrageously callous disregard for the fate of those "poor
Albanian refugess" that we media-manipulated North Americans hate to watch on
the evening news. Even if the current US strategy in Kosovo is as abjectly
self-serving as others on the list argue that it is, I can't imagine what
action they would prefer the US take at this juncture.  Should we not
intervene against the bloodshed because we haven't done so elsewhere in the
past?  Forgive me if my argument is naive.  But I just don't see the value in
criticizing the political motivation for this strike, or for its lack of an
"endgame" when people are being executed while we type.  What would be a
better idea?


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