Dear all,

I am forwarding an article by Edward Said on Kosovo, posted on the Znet
(http://www.lbbs.org/ZMag/kosovo.htm)

/PeA
                                     
                                                 

                 Protecting the Kosovars

                             By Edward Said          

      

     ONCE again, and led by the United States as usual, a war is being
conducted -this time in Europe - against an
     unprincipled and racist dictator who will almost certainly survive
the onslaught even though thousands of innocents
     will pay the actual price. The pretext this time is of course the
persecution, ethnic cleansing and continued
     oppression of Albanians in the province of Kosovo by the Serbian
forces of Slobodan Milosevic.

     No one at all doubts that horrible things have been done to the
Albanians under Serbian domination, but the
     question is whether US/NATO policy will alleviate things or whether
they will in fact be made worse by a
     bombing campaign whose supposed goal is to make Milosevic give up
his policies.

     Since, as in most cases, the bombing campaign is not all that it
seems to be, a look behind the headlines is worth
     the effort, especially given the new ferocity and willingness to
intervene militarily on the part of US foreign policy
     decision makers (Clinton, Cohen, Albright, Berger).

     One needs to remember that since the US is a world, and not merely
a regional, power one calculation that enters
     each of its foreign policy decisions is how the deployment of its
military might will affect the US's image in the eyes
     of other, especially other competitive countries. Henry Kissinger
made that point a central concern of his
     Indochinese policy when he undertook the secret bombing of Laos:
your enemies will learn that there are no limits
     to what you are prepared to do, even to the point of appearing
totally irrational. Thus the exercise of massive
     destructiveness wholly disproportionate to the goal, say, of
stopping an enemy from advancing further, is a
     principal aim of this policy, as it has been of Israel's policy in
southern Lebanon, where massive raids on civilian
     encampments do absolutely nothing to affect Israel's main enemies,
the Hizballah guerillas. Punishment is its own
     goal, bombing as a display of NATO authority its own satisfaction,
especially when there is little chance of
     retaliation from the enemy.

     That is one consideration behind the current bombing of Yugoslavia.
Another is the misguided and totally hopeless
     goal of humbling, and perhaps even destroying Milosevic's regime.
This, as has been the case in Iraq, is illusory.
     No nation, no matter how badly attacked from the air is going to
rally to the attackers.

     If anything, Milosevic's regime is now strengthened. All Serbs feel
that their country is attacked unjustly, and that
     the cowardly war from the air has made them feel persecuted.
Besides, not even the Kosovo Albanians believe
     that the air campaign is about independence for Kosovo or about
saving Albanian lives: that is a total illusion.

     What transpired before the bombing was that the US seems to have
persuaded the Kosovars that if they went
     along with the "peace plan" Kosovo would get its independence; this
was never said, but only implied, leading the
     Kosovars to expect NATO help. But, as usual, the US has never
stated unequivocally that it is for full
     self-determination for all the peoples of former Yugoslavia. There
should have been a straight-out and clearly
     stated willingness to accept self-determination for Kosovo as well
as a safeguarding of rights for the Serbian
     minority there. None of this was done. And neither were the
consequences thought through, i.e., the certainty that
     the Serb forces would respond to NATO bombardment by intensifying
their attacks against Albanian civilians,
     more ethnic cleansing, more refugees, more trouble for the future.
There is now talk of 200,000 ground troops
     (mostly American) to enter the battle and expand the war, with the
attendant problems of prolonged occupation,
     guerilla warfare, greater devastation, more refugees, and so on. A
lot of this comes from the delusion that the US
     is the world's policeman. In the meantime, its genocidal policy
against Iraq continues, and its sanctions policy
     against other Islamic or Arab countries also continues.

     Nothing of what the US or NATO does now has anything really to do
with protecting the Kosovars or bringing
     them independence: it is rather a display of military might whose
long-range effect is disastrous, just as is a similar
     policy in the Middle East. In 1994 when a US intervention might
have averted genocide in Rwanda, there was no
     action. The stakes were not high enough, and black people not worth
the effort.

     Therefore it seems to me imperative that the NATO bombing should
stop, and a multi-party conference of all the
     peoples of former Yugoslavia be called to settle differences
between them on the basis of self-determination for
     all, not just for some, nor for some at the expense of others. This
is the same principle that has been violated by
     US-sponsored peace processes elsewhere, notably in the Middle East.

     There is nothing about the current policy of bombing Serbian forces
that will either guarantee democracy for
     Serbia or protect the Albanians who are still being treated
horribly by Milosevic's forces. In its arrogance and
     ill-considered military deployment the US has forced NATO to go
along with it, whereas it is quite clear that there
     is increasing disunity within the NATO ranks, not just Greece and
Italy and Turkey, but also France and
     Germany.

     The greatest danger of all is that more people will be displaced,
more lives lost, and more fragmentation will occur
     in places like Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. All this for the
US to assert its will and to show the world who
     is boss. The humanitarian concerns expressed are the merest
hypocrisy since what really counts is the expression
     of US power.

     What I find most distressing is that destruction is being wrought
from the air along with a fastidiousness articulated
     about the loss of American life that is positively revolting.
Clinton knows well that Americans will not tolerate the
     loss of life for Americans. Yet he can destroy Yugoslavian lives
with impunity from the safety of the ultimate in
     modern technology and airpower, with American pilots and bombers
sanitizing their horror with the illusion of
     safety and distance.

     When will the smaller, lesser, weaker peoples realize that this
America is to be resisted at all costs, not pandered
     or given in to naively?

      

     -Copyright Edward W. Said, 1999.