Eclipsed from the headlines by the ongoing carnage, there is an active
civil resistance in Iraq that opposes the occupation, the torture regime
it protects, and the jihadi and Ba'athist 'resistance' alike.
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sun, 03/30/2008 - 19:21.
"Anti-imperialist Serbia" is your phrase, not mine. There was certainly nothing socialist about Milosevic's regime—a kleptocracy was more like it. But it was in the camp of the rival imperial power in Europe, Russia. The US supported Croatia in Operation Storm, and the KLA in their cleansing of Kosova's Serbs. Your simplistic notion that the US is on the side of angels is transparently bogus.
There's some truth to the notion that the US finally turned against Milosevic after embracing him as a "peacemaker" (!) at Dayton because he wouldn't behave in Kosova. But what made Kosova so "special" as to mandate Western intervention? Numerous things. The conditions did not exist there for a declaration of independence which could then be recognized as in the other republics, because Milosevic had already purged its "official" leadership in '89. Therefore conditions existed for emergence of an armed guerilla struggle. It was necessary for the US to come to the defense of the Albanians precisely to domesticate and recuperate their national struggle. Today the Albanians look to Clinton and Bush as their heroes and saviors. If the US had done nothing, it could have been Osama or the Ayatollahs of Iran. There could have been a breach within NATO, with the Turks going unilateral to defend the Kosovars. Instead of a genuine Muslim-led state in Europe, there is a NATO-occupied pseudo-state. There were plenty of geostrategic mandates for intervention in Kosova.
The US never promotes separatism to punish its enemies? Perhaps you missed the collapse of the Soviet Union. I don't mean to imply it was all a conspiracy masterminded from Washington, but the State Department and CIA (and Soros) certainly did all they could to encourage the nationalist resurgence in the Baltics, Caucasus and Central Asia. They continue to do so today, as the "color revolutions" evidence. We could also mention the (CIA-fomented) Katanga revolt in Lumumba's Congo. By the way, have you been following the (US-fueled) emergence of a right-wing separatist movement in Bolivia since the election of Evo Morales? Not, I'll guess.
The trans-Balkan pipeline plans are quite real. Did you bother to click on the link? If you had, you'd find that my sources are Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Balkan Insight—organs far closer to your politics than to mine. Smarmy condescension is a very poor substitute for fact.
I am not interested in giving the imprimatur of my "approval" to US imperialism. I am interested in finding natural allies in places under assault by either US imperialism or homegrown fascists or (as is usually the case these days) both, and loaning them support. This is why I was organizing solidarity with anti-militarist activists in all the ex-Yugoslav republics in the '90s—not cheering on Milosevic with the Idiot Left, nor cheering on Washington's smart bombs with the neo-interventionists. You guys are, once again, merely each other's dialectical opposite.
If enough nations recognize Kosova's pseudo-independence I suppose there is the (slight) possibility it could eventually evolve into something real. However, my job is not to cheer-lead for it, but to ask the tough questions about it.
Benevolent imperialism is something which has never existed in human history. Your apparent belief in it betrays either very deep naiveté or very deep cynicism. I'm still not quite sure which.
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"Anti-imperialist Serbia" is your phrase, not mine. There was certainly nothing socialist about Milosevic's regime—a kleptocracy was more like it. But it was in the camp of the rival imperial power in Europe, Russia. The US supported Croatia in Operation Storm, and the KLA in their cleansing of Kosova's Serbs. Your simplistic notion that the US is on the side of angels is transparently bogus.
There's some truth to the notion that the US finally turned against Milosevic after embracing him as a "peacemaker" (!) at Dayton because he wouldn't behave in Kosova. But what made Kosova so "special" as to mandate Western intervention? Numerous things. The conditions did not exist there for a declaration of independence which could then be recognized as in the other republics, because Milosevic had already purged its "official" leadership in '89. Therefore conditions existed for emergence of an armed guerilla struggle. It was necessary for the US to come to the defense of the Albanians precisely to domesticate and recuperate their national struggle. Today the Albanians look to Clinton and Bush as their heroes and saviors. If the US had done nothing, it could have been Osama or the Ayatollahs of Iran. There could have been a breach within NATO, with the Turks going unilateral to defend the Kosovars. Instead of a genuine Muslim-led state in Europe, there is a NATO-occupied pseudo-state. There were plenty of geostrategic mandates for intervention in Kosova.
The US never promotes separatism to punish its enemies? Perhaps you missed the collapse of the Soviet Union. I don't mean to imply it was all a conspiracy masterminded from Washington, but the State Department and CIA (and Soros) certainly did all they could to encourage the nationalist resurgence in the Baltics, Caucasus and Central Asia. They continue to do so today, as the "color revolutions" evidence. We could also mention the (CIA-fomented) Katanga revolt in Lumumba's Congo. By the way, have you been following the (US-fueled) emergence of a right-wing separatist movement in Bolivia since the election of Evo Morales? Not, I'll guess.
The trans-Balkan pipeline plans are quite real. Did you bother to click on the link? If you had, you'd find that my sources are Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Balkan Insight—organs far closer to your politics than to mine. Smarmy condescension is a very poor substitute for fact.
I am not interested in giving the imprimatur of my "approval" to US imperialism. I am interested in finding natural allies in places under assault by either US imperialism or homegrown fascists or (as is usually the case these days) both, and loaning them support. This is why I was organizing solidarity with anti-militarist activists in all the ex-Yugoslav republics in the '90s—not cheering on Milosevic with the Idiot Left, nor cheering on Washington's smart bombs with the neo-interventionists. You guys are, once again, merely each other's dialectical opposite.
If enough nations recognize Kosova's pseudo-independence I suppose there is the (slight) possibility it could eventually evolve into something real. However, my job is not to cheer-lead for it, but to ask the tough questions about it.
Benevolent imperialism is something which has never existed in human history. Your apparent belief in it betrays either very deep naiveté or very deep cynicism. I'm still not quite sure which.