: The Left has made a mess out of the former Yugoslavia. The old communist criminals that used to run the country now are using nationalist politics to hold on to power.Lets start by abandonning any pretense that those dictators were left wing, or that there is some homogenised 'left'. Also, its worth noting that the crisis over there was caused in part by IMF restructuring, and by US policy of penetrating those markets from about 1984 onwards...
See the link below.
: The U.S. has been trying to cobble a solution to this nightmare
By what right? Oh, force, ok.
:The protests began the day that the Russians pulled out of the NATO operation in Bosnia, and are transparently run by the same old front organizations.
For the Record: The Socialist Party opposed both NATO and the Serb Government and the Russian Government, now read on...
: Again, there was a flurry of desperate solutions to attempt to forestall a civil war. When the Croatians seemed too strong to be forcibly held in the old Yugoslavia, there was an attempt to form a peaceable break. Again, old guard Communist leaders did their best to throw gasoline on the fire.
No, what happened was:
1:Germany flexed its regional muscles, and recognized Croatia Precipitously.
2:FRY broke up into its constituent parts because of wealth differentials, and access to foriegn currency reserves (Lira and Deutch Marks).
3:The US negotiated for Serbai to retain the Yugoslav Army, rather than splitting it up.
4:According to Human rights agitators in FRY, the Western powers have never shown any encouragement towards democratic elements, nor the least opposition to Milosovich.
: Finally, we gave up, and prepared to station troops into the area to force a peace. I would suggest reading a book called To End A War, by Richard Holbrooke.
But it is noticeable, from the Dayton carve up, that the Serbs were favoured by the peace- certainly they got to have the most resource rich areas of Bosnia-Herzegovena, and ostensible independance for Bosnian Serbs (the principle of self-determination being one of the impetuses for the KLA cuase).
: Large numbers of civilians were being murdered. Women were being raped and killed. We bombed the forces responsible, and stopped the killing. Thanks for your support. Nice to see you support the right side.
We stopped it, but to Whose advantage- British Foreign secretary of the time Douglas Hurd retired soon after, and became a director of Nat-West Bank, which co-incidentally won a contract to privatise serb utilities, and buy up the Serbian National Debt... hmmm.
: The KLA are terrorists. They've been active for some time. We would no more support the IRA than we would support a genocide of the Irish by Britain. We would support a solution agreed to by all parties concerned, and would stay out unless gross atrocities were being committed. That is what "peace-keeping" is all about, you see.
Thats why teh US actively backed the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese after the invasion in ;'78 (?) and actively backed Genocide in East Timor? The US lacks credibility- why has not the UN been used to bring peace to the Area? because Russia considers that area its back-yard, so we have an inter-imperialist rivalry going on there
.
: We do not support civil war.
Vietnam, Haiti, Columbia, The Contras?
: We are for human rights.
Thats why US aid budgets go to regimes in proportion to human rights abuses within them- why has the US colluded in Turkey with the repression of the Kurds? Why has the US supported Israel despite the human rigths abuses in Lebanon and against the Palestinians? Why? because its not in the nationa interest to do so, dictators are only bad when they do not serve US foriegn policy purposes. Hence the American CIA budget being nearly two thirds of What Britain spends on Welfare.
:The sooner the Left realizes that they cannot get away with inhuman terrorist acts and genocide, the sooner they will finally be rid of by the world. Thus, we ought to have been more aggressive in Vietnam and against the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, but I digress.
Pardon me, but the US dropped more bombs on Cambodia in a few weeks than it dropped on Japan during the entire Second world war, it armed and backed the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese, US foriegn policy in Indochina couldn't have been more agressive, people are still dying due to the after-effects of Agent orange in Vietnam, in non beligerant Laos, people are still dying because of masses of anti-personel bombs the US dropped there, and that it is refusing to Clear up.
: Western intervention has been well meaning, but has not attacked the real issue - that the grasping for power amongst the ex-communist leaders is the primary reason for conflict in the region. We ought to actively and ruthlessly pursue anyone who held a high position in the old Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and bring them to justice. Racist fascism is merely a pale, weakened version of communism, and these 'ex-communists' easily revert to Nazi politics when it suits their opportunistic objectives. Only when we are ready to purge this maniacal faction from the political equation in the Balkans will we ever have hope for true peace in the region.
Hmm, blame the pople, not the power structures- this is of course why the US is determined not to unseat milosvich, but merely bomb him into submission, rather like they are trying in Iraq, they don't care about internally oppressive regimes, only about regional stability and capital flows.
Now, may I recomend a couple of links:
www.zmag.org has a stack of articles regarding the Kosova crisis, of varying quality.
www.iwrp.net- is an independant reporting service in the Balkans, covering the war, its analysis is good, and more balanced than mainstream media.
: DrCruel
: :
: : --Original Message-----
: : From: Phil Gasper
: : To: jmusselm_rpa@indiana.edu
: : Date: Thursday, April 01, 1999 4:54 PM
: : Subject: Fwd: Report from 2 Belgrade Socialists
