>Jim is too intelligent to expect his urbane responses automatically to be
>taken at face value. He knows the evidence that there is censorship in
>Serbia.
Yes indeed there is evidence of terrible censorship in the Yugoslav Republic. The murder of an oppositional journalist was a low point in the official manipulation of the news. But you should face up to the fact that the most serious act of censorship in Serbia was the bombing of a TV station by Nato. As you will remember, Tony Blair actually justified this act of assassination of television journalists as an acceptable war aim. Nato's demands that Yugoslav TV be obliged to carry CNN reports was an attempt to intimidate new reporters there, too, since it was backed up with deadly force.
>Of course there have been numerous demonstrations against NATO in
>Serbia. That is why it is news if there is a report of Serbian troops
>refusing to fight, or a mayor being lynched.
There are reports, but these are unconfirmed, and in substance denied by the Yugoslav authorities. I would be interested to see the mayor named. Otherwise I suggest that one ought to be sceptical, as with the reports circulated by Nato during the Gulf War (remember the incubator story?), these should be treated with scepticism.
>
>For all people's extensive unhappiness about the NATO war against Serbia in
>the west, the anti-war movement in the west is weak in its ability to
>influence the agenda. It may prove to be weaker than the anti-war movement
>in Serbia.
>
You may crow over another victory for imperialism over the oppressed peoples of the East if you like. Perhaps you should be boasting about the way that you have betrayed the cause of anti-imperialism to the three people killed in the recent bombing of a Yugoslav hospital.
The political tradition that Chris comes from, Stalinism, was always marked by its subservience to bullies. It is not surprising that he has transferred his allegiances from Moscow to Washington. The common thread is that the Stalinists always expected change to come from without, never acknowledging their own responsibilities to effect change. So too, does Chris passively sit back and chuckle at the isolation of the anti- war movement, as if his own pro-imperialist outlook was not part of the problem.
Truly an armchair bombardier.
-- Jim heartfield