NATO's "mistakes" - a list

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat May 8 15:43:16 PDT 1999


Date: Sat, 08 May 1999 19:38:12 -0300 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com From: Alexandre Fenelon <sfenelon at africanet.com.br> Subject: Re:

At 17:14 08/05/99 -0400, you wrote:
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>>So far NATO blunders, which the Alliance claims are few in comparison to
>>the number of raids its had carried out, have claimed at least 220 lives
>>among the civilian population, according to a Serbian tally unconfirmed by
>>NATO. NATO insists that it is trying to keep civilian deaths to a minimum
>>in its operations.
>
>
>(I've been avoiding Kosovo discussions, but a quick step into the fray).
>
>220 killed. One person killed is a tragedy but this is an incredibly low
>civilian death rate given how much bombing has been done. That is one-tenth
>the number of Kosovars killed last year (by the lowest estimate available)
>that many on the left have said was too insignificant to justify
>intervention.
>
>Why don't people change to the channel showing civilians killed by the Serbs
>in Kosovo? Oh right, I forgot, all the Kosovar journalists are either dead
>or fled the country. Tough luck for them.
>
>--Nathan Newman
>
>
>
>Excuse-me, but there is a trouble about the calculation of victims from
NATO bombings: 1-There is no proof that the total number of victims is "only" 220 2-Modern warfare, with "intelligents bombs" causes a relatively small number of victims, but a very high number of late casualties due to the destruction of the economic infrastructure of the society. If you destroy energy generation plants, bridges, water treatment stations, hospital and another civilian targets, then you will kill people. If the defeated country is not allowed to rebuild its structure as happened with Iraq, then we have a humanitarian catastrophe of genocidal level. We must have no illusion about the "humanitarian aspects of modern warfare. Laser gui- ded bombs and cruise missiles are effective means of avoiding casualties on the agressor's side and are not intended to be used to minimize da- mage among civilians (this really happens, but is a "collateral effect" if those weapons didn't help to avoid losses of aircraft an pilots they wouldn't be used) 3-We must think however, that there is also the risk of long term ecological damage, like the increase of cases of chilhood cancer in Iraq due to conta- mination with Uranium. 4-All right, we must not support Milosevic's ethnic cleansing, but I wonder if it justifies the destruction of an already poor economy, with all of its consequences.We must remember also that the NATO strikes didn't help to alle- viate human suffering in Kosovo. 5-At last, I'm quite increased with the fact that some leftists believe that NATO intentions are humanitarian. Here in Latin America we don't have any illusion about the humanitarian character of US imperialism. Do you have?

Alexandre Fenelon
>



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