Previous posts in this discussion:
Post
The Broader Perspective (Ronald Hilton, USA, 04/01/99 2:50 am)Elena Danielson views the Kosovo affair in a world framework:
"I see the NATO bombardment of a nation embroiled in an internal
dispute or "civil war" as part of a larger shift in the definition of a
nation state that has been gaining momentum over a long period of
time. When the U.N. was founded, many American conservatives feared
that it would infringe on US national sovereignty. There was some
misguided logic to this fear.
Political bickering, the burden
of bureaucracy and some failed military interventions quickly limited
the U.N.'s credibility as a supra-national authority. Now the use of
force by NATO is inadvertently redefining the concept of national
sovereignty. I would guess that the legal basis for this kind of
action is very weak, but laws are easily formulated to justify events
after the fact.
If NATO fails in Kosovo and loses its
effectiveness, Europe will be forced to come up with its own security
policy. Europe cannot again allow such massive human rights violations
on or close to its territory. The demand for supra-national policing
of independent countries is gaining validity, and the trend seems to be
an inevitable result of global economic integration. The American
press and the public still want to think of war as a football game of
two opposing sides: our side, which is moral and democratic, fighting
the other side, which is evil and tyrannical. It is a powerful and
persuasive image that Reagan used to good advantage in the Cold War.
Police interventions in multiethnic disputes just will not fit the
paradigm. Often all sides are equally willing to sacrifice human
rights. The victims are not morally superior or more democratically
inclined than their oppressors, just weaker."
My comment: I
am sure the Kosovars are as bad as the Serbs, but the U.S. and Western
Europe do have higher moral standards, although the U.S. has not
signed the genocide treaty. Places like Cambodia illustrate a
difference in moral standards. Slowly barbarism is being eradicated.
Somalia and Iraq have revived the Vietnam syndrome in the U.S., but NATO
is the main hope for stability in the world, and without the U.S. it
would lose its credibility. Kosovo will make or break it.
Visits: 0