Siviour Craig wrote:

>As I see it, there could be four reasons why NATO bombed Serbia:
>
> 1. Humanitarian Reasons
> 2. Regional Stability
> 3. Oil
> 4. Opportunistic Capitalist Expansion

Another possibility occurs to me - Pressure from public opinion. This is a
variant on "humanitarian reasons", in that public opinion was motivated by
humanitarian concerns and US and European governments would have felt under
pressure from that.

Of course "capitalist expansion" would also be a significant factor. But it
seems a little trite to claim that NATO simply saw an opportunity to expand
markets. All wars create an opportunity to expand someone's market, usually
at the expense of someone else's. Expansion of hegemony over markets is
usually a factor that influences decisions to go to war, at least it is
quite rare to go to war when it is actually to the detriment of
self-interest. But I think the days when that was the only factor taken
into account are probably more or less gone.

One thing that does occur to me though is that many people seem to assume
that the US, in particular, is terribly clever and it's foreign policy is
well thought out, devious and cunning. I don't know where the evidence is
for that, they seem like bumbling idiots to me. The current US president
seems to take more interest in his dick than in foreign (or even domestic)
policy.

The war in Iraq stands out as something of an exception, but you really
have to wonder whether the US even knows where the rest of the world is
sometimes. Given the resources at their disposal, they just don't seem to
achieve much. Even in Iraq, the current brutal and inhuman policy of
sanctions which is killing thousands of iraqui people is hard to explain in
terms of any rational objective. What the dickens do these morons in the
White House expect to achieve, other than to cause great misery amongst
women and children and a wave of refugees to sweep out of Iraq?

As for Kosovo, you also have to wonder whether the White House "experts"
really had much of a grasp on reality. No wonder Milosovic didn't take much
notice of them, his biggest mistake was probably to underestimate their
incompetence.

Far from the US presence being the end result of a cunning plan by US
imperialists, it might be the result of a US foreign policy adventure that
owes more to Alice in Wonderland. As in the Queen of Hearts: "Off with
their heads!" ;-)

No, these people aren't very bright at all. They have brute force, but that
doesn't mean they have the wit to use it wisely.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell tas