The alleged "Racak Massacre"

[Brad DeLong]

>Mr. DeLong: I do not need your advice in this matter... I did make 
>my argument two years ago and am prepared to post it again. But I 
>will not discuss a "postmortem (sic!) about the war" with somebody 
>who argued "antebellum" and during the war on the basis like this:
>
>"Clearly this is a war by Serbian nationalists to annexe the 
>province of Kosovo by means of genocide.
>It is the logical continuation of the Serbian social fascist views, 
>that unfortunately are copied around the internet uncritically by 
>left liberal anti-imperialists." (Burford, 03 Apr 1999)
>
>Hinrich Kuhls
>

Oh, no, not at all. You need my advice on how to use rhetoric very 
badly indeed.

You might begin by pointing out that Burford's position has evolved 
from "The Serbian government intends to kill as many ethnic Albanians 
in Kosovo as it can" to "The Serbian government hoped to drive the 
ethnic Albanian population out of Kosovo." This is a *big* change in 
what Burford thinks was happening. And, if he is to be consistent, it 
must entail big changes in what he thinks appropriate international 
action would have been.

You might make sure that everyone registers Burford's change in 
assessment. And you might request that Burford state what he now 
thinks appropriate international action would have been, and how his 
current beliefs differ from those he held a couple of years ago.

But this presumes that you are interested in using rhetoric and logic 
to change people's minds (and, perhaps, to learn something yourself).

If you are just interested in expressing attitude--and don't care 
what impact your posts have on anyone else--then you are right, you 
do not need anyone's advice on anything.

Brad DeLong