Having utterered the phrase "This argument is utter nonsense." on the
idea of blaming NATO for the increase in atrocities committed against the
Kossovars --
Larry Stamm sez;

< If the Yugoslav army, or other Serb organizations, are indeed commiting
war crimes in Kosovo, they are solely responsible for their actions and no
blame can be shifted by describing such actions as predictable responses
to military attack. >

 Two comments -

 1) the phrase -utter nonsense- doesn't belong in this Chomsky-list unless
accompanied by sufficient reasons/ reasoning for dismissing the
hypothesis. The apparent increase in the rate of commiting atrociities
seems to have gone up, and Larry Stamm doesn't otherwise go beyond saying
"what's done is done" as to the possibility that NATO bombing caused that
increase.

 2) To my mind there is, indeed, a need both to look at history and to
analyse where  responsibility lies for a particular policy. Some BODY
agreed that destabilizing the post-cold war yugoslavia was a desirable
policy, and went on to help destroy the TITO-era cohesion of that State.
Who gets the condemnation for that? Some BODY devised the 1991 agreement
giving independence to Croatia/Slovenia etc. Didn't that destabilization
include the threat of ethnic cleansing? So it becomes important to know
HOW destabilization was caused, and then it will become possible to assign
blame /punishment for its results.

Cheers
MichaelP