Ron - We're talking about our actions - which have been illegal from the start - a fake negotiation towards an Accord which we knew M'vitch couldn't sign - nor could ANY Serb for that matter.
No. YOU'RE talking about our actions now. I'm talking about the entire history of Milosevic's regime and how those actions on his part placed him in the political position were he "couldn't" sign a peace accord without endangering his own hold on power.
I've been very consistent in my criticism of Milo. He has stirred up previously suppressed Serbian nationalism to such a frenzy it was the equivalent of painting himself into a political corner. Anyone would be hard-put to identify exactly what threat was being posed against the Serbs to such an extent that would justify such a political manipulation.
Well, TOUGH SH*T is what I say. Spreading fear-mongering BS about the other ethnicities, and then arming the Serbian populations in those regions (Bosnia.. etc) in order to bring these regions under Belgrade's control (Greater Serbia concept) is his problem. He made his bed and now has to sleep in it.
All the Kosovars asked for was political representation in Belgrade and in their local territory. A semblance of self-government in order to secure that their rights would not be subordinated to a Serb dominated minority. Most Kosovars had LITTLE INTEREST in seceding and joining Albania since that country is an economic and political basketcase. They new their bread could get more "butter" by sticking with a ethnically diverse and tolerant Yugoslavia.
But Milo stripped them of the autonomy that Tito had given them and then proceeded to institute repressive policies bent upon undermining them in favor of the small Serb minority.
The KLA didn't exist in any meaningful form until Milosevic came to power. They rose as a response to his repression, a repression that started to manifest itself during the winter of '97-98 when 250,000 Kosovars were forced into the hills and ONLY AFTER US THREATS TO BOMB, were permitted to return home.
The latest actions by Milosevic are nothing more than the 2nd verse being the same as the 1st. And just like NATO and the UN dilly-dallied back in 1995 before FINALLY get the guts to take military action, we had the same sequence of events transpire before Rambuillet ever was conceived. Rambuillet came about based upon the years of repression that Milo perpetrated against the Kosovars.
Did NATO try to force Milo to accept its dictates, or was Rambuillet merely an consequence of Milo policies??
Your problem is that you only look at the immediate situation and conveniently seem to ignore that this crisis didn't create itself in a vacuum.
You say our actions are illegal, but I counter with the question, How do we legally deal with intransigent criminality and disregard for international law by certain gov'ts??
I regret the bombing. I regret that we as an alliance and internation body politic failed to muster the backbone to more aggressively nip this problem at the bud last year. I regret that we failed to muster an aggressive covert/overt operation aimed at empowering Serb opposition to Milo.
I regret that we are only recently shutting the power down and bringing the reality of this bombing to the Serbian people in a relatively non-lethal manner aimed at making their lives as inconvenient as those Kosovars who have been stripped of their homes, their money, and their very identifications as human beings.
I regret that people like you only can think of the moment and not the past or the future. I regret that people like you find it convenient to apply international law to our actions, yet fail to protest as loudly against Milo's intransigence when political means were exhaustively being pursued and constantly thwarted by Milo.
Most of I regret that under a set of rules like the ones you dictate, we'll be forced to wait until a problem is completely unmanageble and becomes an all-out war before we can take any "legal" action.
Regards,
Ron |
