These really are very bad days for the neocons and their liberal interventionist allies.
The Iraq war is totally discredited (Iraqi WMDs anyone?) . Tony Blair, their great idol, has been called to appear before the Chilcot Inquiry for a second time. Iran is refusing to kowtow to the neo-con induced international bullying, with the western public failing to buy the ludicrous line that the Islamic Republic- with its non-existent nuclear weapons- poses a threat to us all.
And a war that the neocons and liberal interventionists thought they had successfully got labelled for posterity as a ‘good war’ is coming under increasing scrutiny. As I’ve said before, the more the Iraq war is discredited, the more it is important for the neo-cons and liberal interventionists to push the line that the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999 was a ‘humanitarian’ good guys v bad guys intervention.
But as this BBC report shows, that is proving increasingly difficult, in the light of recent revelations.
The offensive against Serbia in 1999 was presented by western leaders as a humanitarian act to prevent widespread ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's Albanian population by Slobodan Milosevic's forces. This was widely accepted by western commentators at the time and since then reporting of the conflict in western media has been largely been framed as a story of Albanian victims and Serb aggressors. But some of the recent commentary (you can read examples here and here) has challenged this account and questioned whether the intervention and support for independence were misguided.
As long-standing readers will know, I’ve been a consistent opponent of the 1999 NATO aggression against Federal Yugoslavia- and it’s pleasing that after all this time, the line I took- that the intervention was far from humanitarian- has, despite all the neo-con propaganda, now become widely accepted.
The game’s up for the serial warmongers- and all that is left for us to do now is to make sure they answer for the lies they told and their crimes against peace.
10 comments:
You may be a bit premature with the 'Kosovo reassessed' prediction.
One of NuLab's leading warmongers (and one of your bete- noires) does his bit to keep the existing 'narrative' on track in this piece-
http://www.opendemocracy.net/denis-macshane/human-organs-of-council-of-europe-there-is-no-evidence-in-marty-report
You'll note that the burden of proof MacShane demands from Dick Marty re Hashim Thaci (direct eye witness testimony of Thaci's 'involvement in the harvesting of human organs from murdered victims') is quite a bit higher than the burden of proof he applies to Milosevic's 'involvement' in, say, the Srebrenica events. In Milosevic's case, MacShane assumes that a chain of command existed, but in Thaci's case he doesn't, and demands corroboration from eye witnesses before rushing to judgement.
All of the idols of the last 30 years of neoliberal/neocon politics are teetering in their temples, held up only by the High Priests of Mammon.
Denis Macshane? Ha, Ha, Ha!
When the neocons have to rely on him to keep the 'narrative' on track, you know that it's game over.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8063760/Denis-MacShane-reported-to-police-over-expenses-claims.html
http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/10/labour-suspends-denis-macshane/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194462/Former-Labour-Ministers-8-000-cash-poet-brothers-translation-services.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11543589
I'll take the liberty of repeating my comments on MacShane's article. MacS in quote:
“And since ‘business’ in the Western Balkans is based on cigarette smuggling and sex slave trafficking as much as legal economic activity the politician who cannot be accused of keeping bad company is a rare animal indeed.”
So, on the one hard it’s the Wild West (Balkans) and we shouldn’t expect too much. But on the other hand DMacS tries to convince us that:
“… Thaci who has been in and out of power for a decade operates as a politician closely supervised by an assortment of UN and EU bodies as well as outside observers and visitors.” And: “There have been thousands of international investigators, police and lawyers operating in Kosovo since 2000.”
So, Thaci (and the rest) are “closely supervised” by some of the “thousands of international investigators … operating in Kosovo since 2000″, but, we shouldn’t be too surprised if it turns out that Thaci is bankrolled by narcotics and “sex slave trafficking”.
Compelling logic MacShane style.
Dennis McShanowitz LOL. At least, it would be funny if it wasn't serious.
It's nice to see the propaganda crumbling re Serbia, but there's still the inevitable resistance of all those who don't want to admit they were wrong, or in the case of much of the left to admit that they just couldn't be bothered checking out the facts.
I suppose you've seen this, but in case it passed you by, here's an excellent review by Ed Herman of what sounds an essential new book, ' Srebrenica, the Star Witness'.
http://www.zcommunications.org/srebrenica-the-star-witness-by-edward-herman
Wish I could share your optimism. Hope you are right, and that the neocons and the other interventionists really are getting discredited. But I fear that they will just explain this away. After all Hashim Thaci is a Muslim, and we "all" know that they are all terrorists anyway.
In fact, since there is so much public opposition to immigrants, i.e. Muslims, I fear that it will be easier to get public support for a war against an Islamic republic than it was against Iraq. At least in Norway, we who oppose the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the hard line against Iran, are regularly denounced as "cultural relativists", "multiculturalists" and for being blind to the dangers of Islamism and immigration. And this by the very same warmongers that supported the war against Yugoslavia!
I think you are being over-optimistic.
Serial warmongers never give up. They always come up with new excuses for why this attack or invasion is "different".
Tony Blair was condemning nail bombs in London as "barbaric" at the very moment when his lot were blowing the heads of priests in Nis using more sophisticated versions of nail bombs.
Afraid I'd share some of the general pessimism. Many of our politicians called for Saakashvilli to get NATO membership after he bombed his own people.
As it is, I do think that national opinion is anti-war but never underestimate jingoism crossed with liberal self-righteousness: the bizarre recipe that gets such broad support for aggression.
Actually, no... the war mongers have never had it so good..most are still living in style and luxury, either in office or academia or their McMansions in genteel retirement.
Moer wars lie on the horizon ad the next generation of monsters are already in their cradles
Greg Elich on the Kosovo mafia State(tho they sound much worse than the mafia!)
http://www.swans.com/library/art17/elich12.html
This is the sort of atrocity govts hide behind 'national security' barriers, and imprison leakers for leaking.
Worth bringing up at NATO fund raisers!
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