>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> > [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Michael Pollak
> >
> > > I would note that Stratfor's existence and anti-interventionism just
> > > illustrates the point that there is a large business
> > consistituency attuned
> > > to opposing interventionism.
> >
> > Stratfor is by no means against intervention on principle. As Friedman
> > told Doug in his interview, "We have nothing against imperialism." They
> > like hegemony, and they continuously state their contrarian belief that
> > the military dimension of international life is becoming more rather than
> > less important relative to its economic dimension.
>
> Sure. I should have said business constituency attuned to restrained and
> selective interventionism. But the point is that there is a whole class of
> business-based imperialists who saw no interests in Kosovo, which undermines
> the argument that this intervention was driven by such interests.
So, Nathan, intervention was not driven by the interests of 'restrained interventionist' capital. Isn't that a bit tautological?
It seemed clear to me from here that the US did not enter into the Kosovan situation on the basis of national consensus. This is not particularly surprising. There are various factions in any ruling class, always differing on how to secure their rule - a quick look at the UK should also convince you of this.
The fact remains that the Balkans situation has been engineered so that US/European powers play a major role in administering the remains of Yugoslavia. The cost is being weighed up - the cost of being 'stuck in the Balkans' vs. the cost of Russia-style unmanageability. Naturally not all the factions in the US/European ruling classes will agree on how that equation balances out.
Finally, how do we - as enemies of the capitalist ruling class (I hope) - relate to the struggles within the ruling class? It's great to see that the bastards don't agree with each other, but I'd rather be making things more difficult for them (by supporting an open border policy in Europe, building ties between workers in UK/European states and those outside Europe, etc) than waiting to see which way the faction fight goes.
Peter -- Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower. - Karl Marx
NOTE: I do not speak for the HGMP or the MRC.