> 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.
absolutely. so why have the various lists spent so much time haggling over the numbers?
Brett wrote:
> Numbers are useful for other reasons also. They tell you something about
> the intentions of the perpetrators. They are also important when it comes
> to debunking the usual myths about "our side" and "theirs," usually
> communists but not always.
so, then, the numbers become important in propaganda, as do their minimisation, exaggeration, estimation...
and this is my problem. discussions such as this proceed as if there is a score-board on which the credibility of 'one side' or the 'other' is going to be decided by the results of any calculation, so we then fall into having to argue/establish that the 'other side' is responsible for more dead as if this is the single most decisive issue pertaining to any judgement. deaths are never irrelevant, but it is the case I think that, as I said in the previous post, "calculations are not the terrain on which a politics can be based". propaganda perhaps, which assumes the passive moral spectator Peter spoke of, but not politics. ie, it depoliticises and hides from view that prior decision about who is 'our side', and why they should be, as well as breaking the connection between the dead and the circumstances of their deaths.
Angela --- rcollins at netlink.com.au