>Those who think that the US government supports the right to
>self-determination of oppressed nations are living in an alternative
>universe where overlords on UFOs visit the Earth to guide earthlings to a
>higher level of existence!
How about those who think that even a ill-motivated act may yet have a good outcome? :-)
>The KLA, in my opinion, does not represent the interests of
>anyone--including Albanians in Kosovo--anywhere except their own. ...
> Those who think that the KLA is an
>entity representing the interests of people in Kosovo should think again
>and at least check who is financing the KLA, in what manner, and for what
>purposes.
Okay, who _does_ represent the interests of the locals, then? Surely you're not arguing it's the Serbs, are you? Or are you saying that, absent a faction that can be certified as ethically pure, the right thing to do is let the killers get on with it and devil take the hindmost?
Surely you'd agree that somewhere down near the bottom of this mess are folk who are only trying to live their lives in a peaceful way? They're the ones to whom my heart goes out!
The US message to the Serbs -- regardless of putative ulterior motives! -- was 'stop killing, start talking'. That has to be good for the folk at the sharp end of the stick -- not to be so much at risk of being gratuitously killed. What can be bad about that??
Milosevic, as has been characteristic of him since he was the puppeteer for Karadjic and Mladic, ignored this appeal (or ultimatim, or whatever pleases you). He evidently has a highly imperialistic vision for Serbia, and intends to let nothing get in his way.
The behavior of Serb forces certainly seems to have been outstanding for atrocity. IIRC, no one -- news agency, human rights group, even propagandist -- has reported the mass murder of Serbs, but we have sad realtime evidence from the dismemberment of Bosnia that the Serbs mass-murdered Bosnians. (Not to mention using mass rape as a weapon!!) But of course, to the Serbs, the poor damn' Bosnian Muslims are really the same murdering Turks who have been oppressing the Serbs since the Year Dot, so the Serbs were _justified_. Just as in N. Ireland, where killings 300 years old are co-opted to justify killings today, massacres in the 14th c. are co-opted to justify 'retaliatory' massacres today. Feh!
When we boil it down and skim the fat off, it certainly seems to me that the only valid issue is one of Real Lives. Lives of folk at the bottom of the heap, generally blameless folk who only want to live out their days in peace. I believe that, as lefties, we ought to be in favor of _whatever_ will help them do that, regardless of how base might be the motives of the instrumental actors.
Because if we're not trying to work out how to create a better life for all folk of good will ...what the hell _are_ we doing?
le meas, Margaret