Why it took the West's much vaunted conscience so long to arise, he does not explain. After all, Milosevic suspended Kosovo's autonomy, which NATO is now attempting to restore, in 1989, before starting his war with Croatia, and committing systematic aggression and crimes against humanity in Bosnia. Joffe's is just the kind of unsubstantiated assertion that dailies like the New York Times favour, and such unpublishable intellectuals as Noam Chomsky demolish in obscure publications like the Z-Magazine. In his latest article Chomsky discusses NATO's intervention in Kosovo with the unsparing logic and empiricism that is his hallmark. The notion of 'humanitarian intervention' arises out of this tension.
Legal scholars differ as regards when such intervention is permissible or necessary.
Thereupon follows Chomsky's devastating and totally accurate listing of the United States' violations of international law and the UN Charter. The evidence of 'good faith', he demonstrates conclusively, is entirely absent in this case. Outside of the UN framework, the legality of NATO's intervention is dubious. The air strikes have provided an excuse for the Serb nationalists to augment the enormous suffering of the Kosovars. The dilemma cannot be resolved by mere affirmations and negations, for and against the intervention.