I gotta get off LBO for a few weeks soon, but, in reply to this bit:
>Do any serious leftists now doubt that crimes against humanity were
>committed by Serbian troops with the systematic aid of fascists, in defence
>of the sovereignty of a Christian nation to expel up to a million muslim
>inhabitants?
Do any serious Burfords now doubt that crimes against humanity were committed by NATO/KLA troops with the systematic aid of the US government, in defence of nobody to expel Serb inhabitants?
Most here never made the claims you persist in ascribing to us, Chris. It is quite tenable to oppose NATO and the way it did the things it did without having to doubt that atrocities were taking place in Kosovo during the NATO aggression. Just as the Serb leadership acted as we might have expected them to since Vukovar and Srebrenica, so did the US act as we might have expected it to since My Lai, Panama, Guatamala, El Salvador, Columbia, Nicaragua, the Basra Road et al.
>The Serbian Orthodox church itself is now almost explitly criticising the
>regime on this point.
The Serbian church finds itself in an invidious position, Chris. They're trying to hang on to their Kosovar monastries and constituencies in bad times. Did any of 'em have anything so noble to say on this before March 23? And perhaps they smell whiffs of rapid political decay from Belgrade, too - but that's necessarily just a guess.
>The conscientious self-censorship of some sections of the left on this
>question is similar to the processes that excused the crimes against
>humanity that so damaged the name of socialism in other countries.
Whilst I agree with the latter point (too many persist in clinging to the historical skirts of bureaucratic terrorists in the sadly mistaken view this is what makes them socialists), I do not agree that the Kosovo case has been one such (Mark Jones and Lou Proyecht aside). NATO killed thousands, destroyed $136 billion worth of infrastructure, poisoned the environnment, seeded fear and loathing for decades to come; in short, made things worse for all but themselves and selected KLA leaders, and must have known from the outset that that's what they were doing. Simple.
We've already recognised that thousands of Albanian Kosovars have suffered terribly under Serbian boots during this war (indeed, this is one thing for which we importantly hold NATO partly responsible). Now, do you recognise any of the above? Read that Edward Said piece, Chris, and get back to us. And don't bother coming back to us with more of this evidence. We don't need it.
And NATO are putting together a face-saving package of post-facto reasons to go in as fast as they can, anyway (or do you really think EVERY corpse they dig up is that of an unarmed Albanian civilian who was murdered by a Serb, that there are tens of thousands of them, that more would have been dead by now but for NATO intervention, and that the thousands of healthy Albanians who greeted the NATO forces in Pristina, Prizren and Pec were just refugees who managed to beat NATO back to the homes from which they'd supposedly been violently evicted?).
What Wasington and Western Europe made bad (the balkanisation of the balkans), Belgrade made worse (the appeals to Serb nationalism and its expression as oppression of the Kosovars), and Washington and London made worse again, all with malice aforethought. As the Yanks say, period.
Cheers, Rob.