On Sat, 22 May 1999, James Blaut wrote: ....
> Third, I again say to Neil and those who agree with him: we have to stop
> the bombing FIRST!
>
> Jim Blaut
>
> Louis Proyect
Jim,
Why? I guess I don't understand from all the arguments made why it is
not more important that Milosevic's genocide not be stopped "FIRST."
NATO claims to have good information that 4,600 people have so far
been killed by the Serbs in Kosovo. With all due skepticism to that
figure I am utterly convinced that the final figure will be inordinately
higher. Even so it's a lot more than even the Serbs claim NATO has
killed.
How Milosevic's genocide is to be ended, without NATO winning, is a
strategic question, and it is quite possible that
massing NATO troops on the border will encourage an intensification of
genocide -- indeed may already have done so. But I am not convinced that
we are yet at the point where a summary halt to the bombing will guarantee
Kosovars their safety in Kosovo rather than encourage Milosevic to think
about "finishing the job." With a halt to bombing now, he would know that
he had several weeks to send his forces into an unprecedented rampage
before a resumption of bombing and/or ground troops could stop him. What
would he have to lose? He already knows that NATO is unlikely to commit
the overwhelming force necessary for outright victory, and that yet he is
not likely to be allowed to win either. For the peasants of Kosovo, more
than anyone else, it grows more dangerous by the minute.
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