Don't you think it's funny to see a reasonably intelligent article like this in a web page with sections titled "Death Porn" and "Bardak," the latter being a bar guide which rates local clubs by 1-2-3 stars in each of the "fakhie," "flathead" and "foam" categories? I do, anyway. I saw no reference to "the eXile" on your web page, although you did credit the authors themselves there. On "the eXile" itself the original article lacks a byline.
It's also pretty funny that the eXile's commentary on Kosovo is superior in both style and sense to all the stuffy material I read daily in the local newspaper, and also to what I see on the web pages of "serious" journalistic outfits like the N.Y. Times. I haven't been lied to this hard since Vietnam War days. Remember back then, when you had to resort to reading low-rent publications like the Detroit Free Press to learn interesting matters of fact like that your country's army had launched a massive invasion another country a few weeks ago?
It isn't a matter of opinions, which is the difference between what the eXile's article and what the New York Times and the St. Petersburg Times print on their editorial pages (which have slopped over quite a bit into the so-called "news" pages). I can live with that, I'm used to hearing only a tightly restricted official line from the mass media.
But whether or not NATO bombs blew up a column of civilians is a matter of fact, not a difference of opinion. NATO flat out denied they bombed the refugees. They claimed that it had been done by the Serbian Army. They produced eye-witnesses who identified the bombers as Serbian Air Force planes. Alas, Serb TV broadcast photos of the bombing site which contradicted NATO's lies. Within a week NATO was specifically targeting Serb TV facilities. That is, NATO was targeting you and me, making sure that if, whoopsie, NATO bombers accidentally shred another column of refugees, you and I won't hear a single word about it.
It will be interesting to see if NATO can break all the Internet connections running in and out of Serbia. When they first came up with the "Communications Decency Act" it didn't occur to me that this was the sort of thing it was intended to censor.
Yours WDK - WKiernan at concentric.net