In one sense I agree with you. Four thousand murders (or whatever the number turns out ot be) is a hell of a lot of people, and as Peter pointed out, is is only one measure of the suffering that has taken place in Kosovo/Serbia - many more lives have been permanently scarred in one way or another. It is an enormous human tragedy.
And the Serbs are responsible for a great deal of this suffering, as you correctly point out. I'd like to see those responsible held accountable.
At the same time, to say that quantifying the tragedy is unimportant seems wrong. To give you just one example, sheer numbers really DO tell you something about the attitude of the Serbs toward the Kosovars. If only 40-50 people had been killed, with much less damage to villiages, you could infer that the Serbs had no interest in killing Kosovars but simply wanted to root them out of their homes. A great crime, certainly, but not as bad as other alternatives.
Had the Serbs killed 1 million, this is evidence of genocidal intentions. It is difficult to kill that many people. You'd have to plan it - it is evidence of premeditation. I would consider this far worse than forced relocation, bad as that is.
Brett
>> If the Serbs killed a million Kosovars, the answer is yes. If the number
>> is more like 4,000, its not so clear cut.
>
>why is it not so clear-cut? what would be the non-numerical difference
>between 4,000 bodies and 4 million?