> All governments do some horrible things. This sort of accounting is done
> all the time, and is a useful way of making comparisons, especially in
> order to cut through ideological pap. Are the actions of the Serbs any
> different than the actions of, say, the Isreali military toward Lebanon?
> If the Serbs killed a million Kosovars, the answer is yes. If the number
> is more like 4,000, its not so clear cut.
Surely the purpose of a critical stance towards say the Serbian government, or NATO, is to understand the tendencies of motion in the world - i.e. what is likely to happen next - with a view towards intervening and changing that motion? I.e. criticism is about political action, right?
If that is that case, then surely numbers are useful not as a guide towards some moral choice (which remains an essentially passive, merely textual decision of who to support), but as a guide towards understanding the laws of motion of a current situation.
How does the conclusion that, based on the numbers, Serb actions in Kosova are 'similar' to Israeli actions in Lebanon, lead anywhere? I think one of the big failures of left critique/action with regards to Kosova (in Britain, at least) is that left concern with the Kosova situation large seems to be limited to when people are getting killed.
The current struggle in Kosova has roots at least as far back as 1980s. Guidance towards action should be gleaned from the whole history of that struggle, not the death tolls of the last few months.
Peter -- Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available 'The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions.' - Karl Marx