Prediction one: I certainly never supported the proposition that 'an air war can't be won', which smacked to me of a confused criticism because it only suggested that a worse conclusion, a land war, ought to be engaged. I'm not sure that the vindication of the might of the USAF is something that progressives should be supporting. Hey, if aerial bombardment works, why not bomb Cuba, whose anti-Gay laws are indeed repressive?
Prediction two: If the bombing did lead to a direct influence of Western policy upon the internal politics of Yugoslavia (and I never said it wouldn't), ought we to embrace that? Is it the business of the West to dictate what kind of political leaders third world countries should be allowed to have?
Immoral statement one: The retrospective justification of the war through the War Crimes tribunal's indictment is indeed fortuitous. But to my mind that only demonstrates that the War Crimes Tribunal is an instrument of war itself. The rules of evidence that the tribunal operates under what horrify even the most conservative of lawyers - not just hearsay, but secondary hearsay is admitted. Indictments are 'sealed' against all rules of natural justice. And the entire court is dominated by considerations of realpolitic to the exclusion of any kind of justice.
I think I said at the time that the appeal to such bodies was a poor strategy, that only serves to entrench the authority of these instruments of imperialist power.
>So for those who held one or more of these positions at the beginning of the
>NATO intervention, how do the empirical events refuting them change or
>modify your thinking either about the Kosovo intervention or evaluating
>military interventions in general?
I would say that the recent mass-slaughter of Serb farmers whilst they were under the "protection", the ethnic cleansing of three-quarters of Kosovo's Serb population as well as the racial attacks on Gipsies more than adequately sums up the meaning of the occupation.
If any doubts about just whose victory this is are still lingering, consider this: the new "civilian" ruler of Kosovo, a West European politician, was appointed without any reference or consultation whatsoever with the Kosovars. -- Jim heartfield