I responded in a rowdy style because I thought a little turnabout on Yoshie's critics was justified (Nillo's post was rather witty, I thought, though do note that Chris B, the SS officer, owes me a little dialogue on the basis of a shared Aryan ancestry); after all, Yoshie had been called a social fascist and sympathizer with "poor old Milo".
I can understand how this drove her through the roof.
She has raised several concerns: the horrific consequences of cruise missle humanitarianism on Serb and Kosovar civilians, including an acceleration in the displacement of the latter; the likely consolidation of poor old Milo's muderous regime due to the bombing; the likely empowerment of the the thuggish KLA as a result of bombing which favors the KLA over other organisations in Kosovo; the likely sacrifice of humanitarian goals towards the end of the real objectives of the intervention: the consolidation and extension of NATO. The perfunctory dismissal of attempts at political mediation suggests how little weight real humanitarian concern has played in this NATO operation.
Basically, I think Yoshie the eagle has won the argument.
Max's argument for the bombing and intervention(wherever it now stands) reads as more cynicism. Since opposition to the bombing stems from that same ultra left nihilistic dismissal of the progressive aspects of state intervention that is at the root of the left's alienation from [parliamentary] politics on the domestic scene, he wants to show that the state can do something progressive, viz., stop genocide. He seems to hope that our rallying behind the state to get this done will teach us that an active citzenry can rally the state to get other good things done, i.e., restore welfare, raise the minimum wage and preserve social security.
Or perhaps he hopes the state will find a patriotic citzenry deserving of such amenities since nothing else has worked to restore the welfare state. This political tradition has a name of course--social imperialism. It hopes to find escape from class conflict in new national compromises. In a defense of List, Michael Lind tried to rehabilitate a form of social imperialism in The Nation recently. It's time to lay odds that Max will be doing a Lind in the near future.
Max, I must also say that I find rather repulsive your wimpy calls for civility after you have been challenged in vigourous fashion for your cold hearted politics of bombing civilians and frying poor people in the criminal justice system.
Yours, Rakesh