From: robger@intellistor.com (Robert Gerovski)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Re: News Briefs
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:17:06 GMT
Organization: Intellistor, Longmont, CO

In article <1992Apr14.214233.11104@husc3.harvard.edu> benedejc@husc10.harvard.edu (Andrej Benedejcic) writes:
>I apologize for the previous article.  I got interrupted by a "talk" request.
>So here is the posting the way it was supposed to look like.        
>
>In article <1992Apr14.165815.22798@intellistor.com> robger@intellistor.com (Robert Gerovski) writes:
>>Reprinted without permission.
>>
>>"The Wall Street Journal," Tuesday, April 14, 1992
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>Fighting erupted in B-H undermining a cease-fire agreement
>>between rival ethnic groups and dimming chances of averting
>         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>all-out civil war in the former Yugoslav republic.
>         ^^^^^^^^^
>
>What kind of nonsense is this?  As far as I know, Serbs and Croats are not
>"ethnic groups"; they are NATIONS.  Therefore, there can be no "civil war"
>going on between them.  When two nations fight each other their conflict
>is always referred to as WAR, period.  I mean, seriously!  When the Austrians
>and Germans fought each other at the Battle of Sadowa in 1866, nobody 
>talked about there being a "civil war" in Central Europe, although the Germans 
>and Austrians both speak the same language.  So, please, make sure to
                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>omit words like "civil war" and "ethnic groups" in your future postings.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>There is a WAR going on in the Balkans.  Failure to comprehend this is
>simply a sign of incredible ignorance and obtuseness.
>

Andrej, the incredible ignorance and obtuseness is on your part as you are
requesting that I censor and/or reword reports printed in publications like
"The Wall Street Journal." I don't know about you, but I personally feel
uncomfortable distorting reports to suite my own personal agenda.

Now let's consider your comments about the semantics of the English language.
"War" is defined as an open armed conflict *between countries* or between
factions within the same country. No one would dispute that the situation in
B-H is a war. Not even me in all of my "incredible ignorance and obtuseness!"
Now let me bring up the fact that at least in the U.S., and some number of
other countries, B-H is recognized as an independent, sovereign nation. The
term "Civil War" is defined as a war between geographical sections or
political factions of the same nation. So perhaps my "incredible ignorance
and obtuseness" is getting in the way here, but it seems to me that a
Civil War is a kind of War. Further, again pardon my "incredible ignorance
and obtuseness," since this war is between different factions within B-H it
seems that the term Civil War is appropriate.

As far as the term "ethnic groups" is concerned, let us make some more observations.
The factions that are fighting in B-H are split along cultural lines (e.g.
Croats, Serbs, Muslims). A quick perusal of a dictionary of the English language
shows that the word "Ethnic" is defined as designating any of the basic
divisions or groups of mankind, as distinguished by customs, characteristics,
language, etc. We are also talking about groups within the same nation, as
opposed to groups in different nations. So again, from my position of
"incredible ignorance and obtuseness," it seems that the term "ethnic groups"
describes who is doing the fighting in B-H.

Andrej I must thank an intellectual demi-god like yourself for pointing out
*my* "incredible ignorance and obtuseness" with the way I REPRINT articles
from "The Wall Street Journal" in their original wording. I will take up
their atrocious use of correct English with their editorial department ;-)
--
Robert Gerovski