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301 Trans-Balkan pipeline behind US intervention in Kosovo -- rank: 1000

At 04/07/01 22:50 +0200, you wrote: >Original Guardian article at: >http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4136440,00.html George Monbiot was incorrect in this article to say >The pipeline does not pass through the former Yugoslavia, because it passes through the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Certainly the US and Western European imperialisms were looking at smoothing out the geopolitical map in the interests of their finance capitalists. That is the reason why they d ...

Document Size:	5649
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jul 4 15:06:01 PDT 2001

302 Montesinos to Peru, Milosevic to the Hague -- rank: 1000

At 04/07/01 10:41 -0400, you wrote: >This is all good, because the targets of this kind of thing so far have been >people the left sees as enemies. But I'm sure the right will try to grab ahold >of it too. Already there have been efforts by the Miami Cubans (called >"chusma" >by Luis Ortega, my favorite Spanish columnist), to indict Fidel Castro for >shooting down the Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue) airplane a few >years ago. > >How are we going ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jul 4 14:50:03 PDT 2001

303 Montesinos to Peru, Milosevic to the Hague -- rank: 1000

Yesterday the International Herald Tribune carried a Reuters report that Alfredo Astiz, one of the most famous death squad leaders of the dirty war against left wing Argentinians 1976-83 turned himself into the police in Buenos Aires. This was in response to a request from a judge in an Italian court which linked him to the kidnapping of two Italian women and one man. I remember with poignancy how at the time of Pinochet's house arrest in London, a prominent figure in Marxism Space, and owner of ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 3 23:10:33 PDT 2001

304 Slobo to spill beans -- rank: 1000

Important story which I had also wanted to quote, when time permitted. Many progressive people, particularly in the USA, opposed their government's war over Kosovo. It was animperialist war in its character and conduct. We can now see that it was largely an economic war, aimed for example at the Danube bridges rather than at the oppressive Serbian forces actually within Kosovo. As an economic war, the last chapter is being played out with the ransom of Milosevic to go to the Hague. But the item ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jul 2 23:01:59 PDT 2001

305 Mitrovica and Southern Serbia today -- rank: 1000

The military clashes in Southern Serbia and Mitrovica form a qualitatively different contradiction to those about the self-determination of the population of Kosovo as a whole. It is essential that self-determination should be a right for geographically economically coherent areas. It is reasonable that old boundaries keep their status as units for taking such democratic decisions and that there is not a fractal division into smaller and smaller units. The Albanian attacks in Albanian areas in S ...

Document Size:	6554
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jan 31 17:05:11 PST 2001

306 The Beam in the Eye of the Empire (was Re: Kosova Redux) -- rank: 1000

At 19:52 29/01/01 -0500, Yoshie wrote: >The Bretton Woods institutions & the SAPs should take a special credit for >producing reactionary nationalisms on the periphery & semi-periphery Quite true. . >What is the most dangerous, though, is imperial-nationalism at the core -- >especially the USA -- from Pat Buchanan to Bill Clinton to Ralph Nader to >garden-variety liberals & social democrats here; but American leftists >can't see the beam in their own eyes. Here I do ...

Document Size:	6669
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jan 31 16:50:48 PST 2001

307 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 20:01 29/01/01 -0500, Seth wrote: >Michael Pugliese wrote: > > > Boiling down Seth's points. > > >These aren't my points. These are the views of the U.S. State Department, as >manifested in their European progaganda service. I'm not attributing them to >anyone on this list, certainly not you, Michael. I actually thought that Seth's previous post did move the issues on and I am glad that Doug's warnings about tedium are being noticed by both sides. Perhaps at the ver ...

Document Size:	7238
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jan 30 00:15:28 PST 2001

308 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 17:45 28/01/01 -0500, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>I think many people felt that, reactively. The left interventionist >>position, with sanctions, peacekeeping troops, and if necessary, peace >>making ie offensive ground troops, was not a reactive position but was a >>proactive one. >> >>Not all situations can be changed, but I would have to put it to you and >>others that if you did not want a repetition of Bosnia and Srebenica, had > ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jan 29 16:13:31 PST 2001

309 Sacher-Masoch in the Age of Shock Therapy -- rank: 1000

I tracked down the quote: in Marx's last known letter, to his doctor. (cited in Karl Marx by Francis Wheen, 1999) "Please dear Doctor, send your bill to 41 Maitland Park London NW. I regret I had not the time of taking leave of you. Indeed I find some relief in a grim headache. Physical pain is the only known 'stunner' of mental pain." Marx attached a photograph of himself. Chris Burford London

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 28 15:53:53 PST 2001

310 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 10:15 28/01/01 -0400, Dennis wrote: >My position is relatively simple: I opposed the NATO bombing of Serbia >because the stated purpose behind it -- protecting terrorized minorities >from a larger aggressor -- fell flat upon inspection. I think many people felt that, reactively. The left interventionist position, with sanctions, peacekeeping troops, and if necessary, peace making ie offensive ground troops, was not a reactive position but was a proactive one. Not all situations can b ...

Document Size:	12828
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 28 14:23:39 PST 2001

311 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

Seth argued patiently and cogently about the ethnic cleansing going on right now in Kosovo. I would be glad to respond to his post. At 15:30 25/01/01 -0500, you wrote: >Leo, you've said nothing about the ethnic cleansing going on *right now* in >Kosovo, which was the subject of my last post. You've explained why Kosovo >in 1999 desperately needed ground forces, rather than airstrikes, to stop >the Serbian onslaught. But NATO has troops on the ground in Kosovo *now*, >and they're d ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Jan 26 23:25:40 PST 2001

312 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 20:39 25/01/01 -0400, Dennis wrote: >Because a left wing policy that called for respect for the democratic >rights of subject populations was exactly the stance that should have best >followed through to defense of the Kurds. If the left had not totally >opposed NATO intervention but criticised it, then it could have linked the >criticism to the need likewise to defend the Kurds. > >Chris Burford > >London > > > >First, the "left" did not " ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Jan 26 15:05:09 PST 2001

313 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 19:13 25/01/01 -0500, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>However the balance of suffering still looks good to outside observers. > >What a strange concept, and strangely phrased. I guess I do like my >suffering to be well-balanced, especially if I'm not feeling any of it >personally. > >Doug The Balance Sheet also includes the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, does it not? You have only to look at Indonesia and the Philippines to see rampanant Balkanisati ...

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Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Jan 26 00:05:06 PST 2001

314 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 10:10 25/01/01 -0500, Gordon Fitch wrote: >If you believe in the goodness of the State I had just referred to the undoubted abuses of state power. Who is talking about the "goodness of the state"? Or are you opposed to state power in principle, and are an anarchist? Many leftists are. > as Chairman >Mao said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." That is not anarchism. Where is your political criticism coming from?? Chris Burford

Document Size:	4844
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jan 25 16:03:21 PST 2001

315 Kosova Redux -- rank: 1000

At 09:26 25/01/01 -0400, you wrote: >First, the NATO bombing accelerated Serbian ethnic cleansing, as Gen. >Wesley Clark predicted would happen; True, the form of intervention, with high level bombing rather than a ground intervention with mobile helicopter troops seizing key points to paralyse Serb freedom of manoeuvre, maximised the chance of retaliation against the civilian population. The KLA should have known the untrustworthiness of the saviours on whom they were relying. HOWEVER 1/4 ...

Document Size:	7011
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jan 25 15:57:55 PST 2001