From: josip@src.umd.edu (Josip Loncaric)
Subject: Re: Muslim leaders to form islamic army for Muslim Slavs (WW3)
Organization: Systems Research Center, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 22:46:33 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.215115.13756@src.umd.edu> tedwards@src.umd.edu (Thomas Grant Edwards) writes:
>In article <1992Aug9.192641.2060@src.umd.edu> josip@src.umd.edu (Josip Loncaric) writes:
>>Mr. Lawrence Eagleberger (No. 2 in the U.S. State Department) said last
>>year that this conflict will go on "until they get tired of killing
>>each other".  This kind of talk reminds me of racism: it ignores the reasons 
>>for conflict and implies that Balkan peoples enjoy war as sport.  
>>Nothing could be more wrong: Balkan history is so bloody that people were 
>>"tired of killing each other" long before the war even started.
>
>OK, so your argument is that the basis of this conflict is Serb
>attempts at domination, and everyone else trying to avoid it.
>
>Yet you claim the cause of the war is not racism.  What the heck else
>is Serb domination besides racism?  What is ethnic clensing?

I do not believe I claimed that there was no racism in this war.  My argument
was that this was not a Slav vs. Muslim conflict, in the sense of larger
groups, but that this is a conflict of militant Serbs vs. all others.

If you wish to call militant Serbs racists, you are technically incorrect:
all of their victims are of the same race.  English language has better
terms for such situation: Serbian supremacists, Serbian chauvinists, etc.
appear to be better terms.  But in spirit you are correct: Serb domination
and ethnic cleansing are just like racism.

>
>That sounds like racism...political racism, but racism nonetheless.
>
>I think the Balkan people will keep killing each other until they
>realize the wages of racial hatred is death and war.

Let's see...  he hates me, I try to be nice, he gets a gun, I plead for my
              life, but he kills me anyway...
Not good...
How about...  he hates me, I try to be nice, he gets a gun, I respond in kind,
              now we've got a war but at least I'm not dead yet...
Better?

My point is that Serbian militants thought the wages of their racial
hatred would be an easy victory, since they outgunned all others 10:1.
This is the KEY failure: diplomacy cannot fix anything as long as this
imbalance remains.  You are right: the wages of racial hatred ought to
be death and defeat.  But this is not the situation on the ground:
racial hatred is winning.

>
>The question we (who have alot of money and technology to throw 
>around acting like God) have to ask is should we let the Balkan
>people learn this lesson by destroying their entire population,
>or should we basically terrorize them into submission and acceptance
>of racial equality.  (What else would a military action in
>f. Yugoslavia be, except terror?  We'll never clear out all the
>military forces.  Course, we might as well go ahead and
>tell Belgrade to cease fire or be nuked if we _really_ wanted to
>go ahead and use military terror, but I guess that's not a really
>PC move...but ya know, now that I think of it, fewer people might
>die if we do that.)
>
>-Tom

The conflict is primarily political, but it has become military 
because Serbian leadership felt it had nothing to lose and everything
to gain by going to war.  Their calculation is still correct: war pays.
They are not dominated by racial hatreds: these are simply used to
control their underlings on the ground.  They are driven by greed
for power and resources (territory).  So why is it that nothing
has been done to change this equation?  Here is a simple
rule:

War pays          --> diplomacy fails
War unprofitable  --> diplomacy has a chance

Why not try deterrence?  You know, the thing which has kept the USSR 
and the USA from destroying each other...  Trust me, suitable
threats work even against madmen: Saddam Hussein did not use chemical
weapons because it's been explained to him that this would be
unprofitable...  Why not try something similar against Milosevic?

Josip

Xref: sparky soc.culture.arabic:3271 soc.culture.lebanon:3790 soc.culture.pakistan:13693 soc.culture.iranian:7119 soc.culture.turkish:8903