> BTW, I would ask those who criticize the "demonization"
>of His Excellency: How would the world be different today if
>HIs Excellency had fallen dead of a heart attack in about 1986?
I am not sure that Barkley's comments amount to a demonization although they show a cordial disrespect. Generally I prefer a more austere position that the social, economic and political formation in Serbia has to explain how a fascist politics could have emerged in the name of socialism.
I would also argue against demonization of NATO. Some Serb authorities have tried to sneer at Mad Madeleine Albright. It seems likely that she and the CIA were most responsible for tying western pressure to a strategy of a massive air bombing campaign without thinking through the consequences for the Kosovars. But the steps by which this occurred are not the steps of demons. Capitalism and imperialism are not to be explained that way.
I do think that her policy, at a personal level, clearly influenced by being a Czech of Jewish background, is imperialist and capitalist in character.
Chris Burford
London