>Yet that was not the original justification of the NATO attack, which was
>based on the population of Kosovo being deprived of its right to self
>determination (within Yugoslavia - interestingly).
Perhaps. But the obvious next question is why was NATO (and the US) so concerned about Kosovar self determination when it (and the US) doesn't give a rat's a** about Turkish Kurd self determination, or Columbian self determination, or the self determination of lots of other ethnic minorities around the world? This hypocrisy sheds serious doubt on the sincerity of NATO's professed convictions.
>It is not reasonable however to put down the magnitude of these reports to
>the KLA media machine. Certainly it could not have competed in size with
>that of NATO and the Serbs.
I thought the point was that the NATO media machine took its cue from KLA propaganda and repeated it without a critical eye as to at whether or not it might be true. And of course Serb reports were dismissed out of hand.
>The point that the Stratfor analysis overlooks is the role of terror in
>state policy. Engels and Lenin discussed this frankly.
>
>Clearly the volume of expelled people which surprised NATO, was only
>achieved through terror. Terror is a way of enforcing your will that may on
>balance actually reduce the number of deaths.
No doubt this is correct. But a similar thing is happening in Kosovo right now. Nearly all of the ethnic Serbs have been driven out by the Albanians, along with the gypsies (and others?). Shouldn't the Albanians be denounced for similar behavior? Doesn't consistency demand military intervention in Albania to prevent Albanian terror?
>The entry into Kosovo of 30,000 Serb troops willing to work with fascist
>paramilitaries....
I don't know if they were fascist or not. Perhaps they were. But it seems you could describe the KLA in the same manner. They are thugs, they only respect force, they are nationalistic, they have been carrying out reprisals against the Serb population that is still in Kosovo, etc.
The KLA seems just as fascist as the Serbs used to be. Which is why I don't understand the claim that support of the bombing was important to keep a united front against fascism. It appears to me that one semi-fascist group was being attacked, but this only helped another semi-fascist group.
>I do expect the EU to maintain economic sanctions on Serbia until it
>respects the democratic rights of all people of the former Yugoslavia,
>(including the right in the Yugoslav constitution for cities not to be
>expelled from the country).
This is just another way of saying "we'll lift the economic sanctions whenever we feel like it." The US doesn't respect the democratic rights of all its people - I doubt any country does. And the Serbs are a long way from being as politically democratic as the West. Such a requirement is unrealistic.
Brett