>All fair enough. Just doing my bit to make sure we don't all end up taking
>some effectively racist position, that's all. The KLA was a fundamentally
>tainted piece of work, but we have to be careful not to jump to conclusions
>about Kosovars and KLA soldiers in particular or Albanians and Muslems in
>general. These lists got close to that at the time, and it does us little
>credit, I reckon.
Yes, we must be very, very careful (I myself have made an error of mentioning the KLA's drug-running, which is very far from the main point of criticism, too often in the midst of the NATO Bombings; the West's hypocrisy with regard to drugs is too obvious to merit repeated reminders). Seen properly, Albanians are victims -- of history (a good number of them becoming pawns of the Nazis during the World War 2), splits in the Communist Camp (Stalin vs. Tito vs. Hoxha), harsh repression at the founding moment of Socialist Yugoslavia & subsequent political repressions, severe underdevelopment & relative deprivation during the Yugoslav socialist years, richer nationalities' contempt, misleadership by a series of Albanian nationalists, and now, worst of all, the dreadful combo of the KLA, KFOR, & neoliberalism. While the KLA terrors against Serbs, Roma, etc. are well known, how the KLA has treated Albanians is little known:
***** DATELINE: PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA ...Tahir Canolli, 49, ran a furniture store in Pristina for nearly three decades. He, like many businessmen, hoped that when he returned to Pristina from the refugee camps in Macedonia, the harassment he experienced under Serbs would end. Instead, a group of KLA fighters arrived at his shop two weeks ago with a paper issued from 'The Ministry of Public Order' demanding the keys to his 1990 Audi 80 and his store. They were arrogant, brutal and rude,' he said, unfolding the stamped order that he now carries in his pocket. 'They told me that if I did not comply immediately they knew a cellar I might like to visit. Within hours, $50,000 worth of furniture was loaded onto trucks brought by the officials who had demanded his keys. The looters not only stripped the store of its contents but also ripped out the heaters, lamps and mirrors. They carted away 24 large flower boxes that had been outside the building. The next day several flower boxes of the same design and with the same kinds of plants were placed outside the building where Mr. Thaci works. Mr. Thaci's appointees said that such confiscations, especially of state-owned buildings, were part of their effort to determine property ownership. They also defended the decision to begin collecting money from businesses, a practice many shop owners have labeled 'extortion.'" Mr. Canolli has spent hours outside Mr. Thaci's ministries in recent days in the hope that he can reclaim some of his property or be compensated for it. But each attempt has been rebuffed. 'I saw the K.L.A. police inspector who gave me the confiscation order driving my car, although it had no license plates,' he said. 'I went to his office but was told at the door that I should never come back or attempt to speak with him..' (NY Times, July 29, 1999) *****
> >As I said, the West has chosen its allies "according to its own
> >economic & geopolitical criteria," which are not the criteria of wise
> >choices imagined by Habermasian critics of Habermas such as yourself.
>
>I wasn't trying to make a Habermasian point at all, Yoshie (at least, I
>hadn't understood it as one). Just saying that if we're talking the
>contest-for-sphere-of-influence politics of the early to mid Cold War
>years, US foreign policy seems to have been rather self-defeating in its
>own terms. Unless, I suppose, we read those terms as set by a
>military-industrial complex who wanted to ensure profitable blood-letting
>for decades to come. I'm not one who reads it as such - I just think US
>foreign policy was pathetically unnuanced and wholly distorted by the gross
>paranoid generalisations that pervaded US establishment thinking in those
>days - but I stand to be corrected.
>
>And I thought your note to PEN-L to be right on point.
Thank you. I do agree with you if you mean that sometimes the West's ideological reason, geopolitical reason, & economic reason seem out of whack (from a vantage point of short-term economic calculations, there is no point in the invasion of Grenada, to take just one example). I believe immediate motives are seldom based upon economic reason; rather, ideology & geopolitics motivate them, which may not pay off immediately but has a long-term effect of ensuring the reproduction & expansion of capitalism (a demonstration effect -- to show potential challengers what can happen to them; expansion of military, political, economic, & diplomatic spheres of influence; etc.).
Above all, the USA has been so rich that it could afford to waste tremendous resources in combatting puny enemies (using a machine gun or worse -- rather than a hunting rifle -- to shoot down a coyote, so to speak). Have you ever read Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"? Here's an excerpt from the story that tells you about the luxury of imperial waste:
***** ...The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water. Together, these items weighed between 15 and 20 pounds, depending upon a man's habits or rate of metabolism. Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake. Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he'd stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia. Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April. By necessity, and because it was SOP, they all carried steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds including the liner and camouflage cover. They carried the standard fatigue jackets and trousers. Very few carried underwear. On their feet they carried jungle boots -- 2.1 pounds -- and Dave Jensen carried three pairs of socks and a can of Dr. Scholl's foot powder as a precaution against trench foot. Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity. Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms. Norman Bowker carried a diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As a hedge against bad times, however, Kiowa also carried his grandmother's distrust of the white man, his grandfather's old hunting hatchet. Necessity dictated. Because the land was mined and booby-trapped, it was SOP for each man to carry a steel-centered, nylon-covered flak jacket, which weighed 6.7 pounds, but which on hot days seemed much heavier. Because you could die so quickly, each man carried at least one large compress bandage, usually in the helmet band for easy access. Because the nights were cold, and because the monsoons were wet, each carried a green plastic poncho that could be used as a raincoat or groundsheet or makeshift tent. With its quilted liner, the poncho weighed almost two pounds, but it was worth every ounce. In April, for instance, when Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up, then to carry him across the paddy, then to lift him into the chopper that took him away....
....As PFCs or Spec 4s, most of them were common grunts and carried the standard M-16 gas-operated assault rifle. The weapon weighed 7.5 pounds unloaded, 8.2 pounds with its full 20-round magazine. Depending on numerous factors, such as topography and psychology, the riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines, usually in cloth bandoliers, adding on another 8.4 pounds at minimum, 14 pounds at maximum. When it was available, they also carried M-16 maintenance gear -- rods and steel brushes and swabs and tubes of LSA oil -- all of which weighed about a pound. Among the grunts, some carried the M-79 grenade launcher, 5.9 pounds unloaded, a reasonably light weapon except for the ammunition, which was heavy. A single round weighed 10 ounces. The typical load was 25 rounds....
The things they carried were determined to some extent by superstition. Lieutenant Cross carried his good-luck pebble. Dave Jensen carried a rabbit's foot. Norman Bowker, otherwise a gentle person, carried a thumb that had been presented to him as a gift by Mitchell Sanders. The thumb was dark brown, rubbery to the touch, and weighed four ounces at most. It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen. They'd found him at the bottom of an irrigation ditch, badly burned, flies in his mouth and eyes. The boy wore black shorts and sandals. At the time of his death he had been carrying a pouch of rice, a rifle, and three magazines of ammunition....
....In the heat of early afternoon, they would remove their helmets and flak jackets, walking bare, which was dangerous but which helped ease the strain. They would often discard things along the route of march. Purely for comfort, they would throw away rations, blow their Claymores and grenades, no matter, because by nightfall the resupply choppers would arrive with more of the same, then a day or two later still more, fresh watermelons and crates of ammunition and sunglasses and woolen sweaters -- the resources were stunning -- sparklers for the Fourth of July, colored eggs for Easter -- it was the great American war chest -- the fruits of science, the smokestacks, the canneries, the arsenals at Hartford, the Minnesota forests, the machine shops, the vast fields of corn and wheat -- they carried like freight trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders -- and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.... *****
Yoshie