Old Dog III
Humanism and the Moral Imperative: The Two Headed Dragon of the Balkans
Bob Neumann
Today according to President Clinton marks the twentieth day of the NATO Attempt to stop violence by using violence. Yesterday a ”passenger train” was hit during a bombing raid. NATO acknowledges a mistake was made. Serbia cries foul and produces alligator tears as satellite images in Kosovo may have found the first of many ”mass graves” of people executed by Serbians.
More than once I have heard the terms ”MORAL IMPERATIVE”…. And ”MORAL
HIGHGROUND” by advocates of NATO actions. The short history of Serbian Statehood in the 20th century has been kind enough to put all these terms into our vocabulary…. Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, ‘ethnic cleansing’…. The last ten years proves that the present Serbian Government has no compunction at either killing opposition, silencing internal critics, or exterminating people that are not the ‘right kind’. Regrettably many see this war between Serbia and NATO as a dispute based on human morality, the protection of an ”ethnic people”. In this case Albanian Moslems.
The problem is not humanitarian, as most would believe. It is a two faceted issue. First it is economic, and this then takes it into the realm of political power.
Kosovo is an economic issue, first and foremost. The European Union Members have for years struggled to absorb the earlier waves of ex-citizens of the old Yugoslavia. Germany alone had to deport many Bosnians over a year ago because they placed a drain on the German Economy. Likewise the Bosnians competed with other foreigners for jobs that many Germans felt belong to Germans. Foreign nationals have increased the unemployment roles throughout the EU.
Now 1.6 million ”ethnic Albanians” have been brutally torn from their homes, systematically robbed and looted, and dumped on the European doorstep. In reality SERBIA declared unconditional war on the budding economy of the EU. Few commentators would put it so bluntly, but that is what has happened.
In retaliation, the EU…. in the form of NATO….has bombed Serbia. Serbian atrocities justify some form of action so say our leaders. Yet whenever the on going atrocities in the Sudan, Ethiopia and Etraria, Rwanda, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Kashmir and Chechneya are mentioned the discussion is shelved, or the subject is changed. The simple reason is money. None of these situations ‘fit’ the “MORAL IMPERATIVE” quite right.
What we are seeing is the bankruptcy of MODERN HUMANISM. The abuse of people and their personal rights is a wonderful area of discussion. To point out the lack of ”rights” or the curtailing of them by government edict has been the duty of the United Nations, and groups like AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Repeatedly they listed nations that abused their citizenry. Yet this last year many countries were not sighted for “HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS”. China and Cuba who are perennial members of this listing were not mentioned. Obviously Humanism and Morality took a back seat to economic pressure in the case of China. As for Cuba, it’s anyone’s guess. Maybe baseball has redeeming social value after all.
If “MORAL HIGHGROUND” is sufficient justification to bomb Serbian targets, to ‘limit’ targets for “humanitarian” reasons seems equally justifiable. The much used term “collateral damage” is a favorite of the basic ”humanitarian politician”. To create an ethically ”clean” war is an impulse that can not be denied. It was used in Iraq, and now in the Balkans by military and civilian spokesmen alike. The concept of keeping the ”evils of war” away from the innocent civilians is Humanism at it’s finest. It is man’s ultimate goal achieved in this era. Making ”war” clean, efficient, and acceptable to all age groups. Only it does not work, will not work. It only puts pain and terror out of sight, and ignores suffering for the few as the many sit back and watch it on CNN.
Presently a secondary war has begun in the media. It is the beast called ”sympathy”. The Serbians play it in order to soften the ”heart” of the creature called ”public opinion”. At the same time media highlights the plight of the Kosovars. Simple arithmetic will show 1000 broken windows in Belgrade because of the concussion of NATO ordinance does not equal 300,000 displaced people in the Albanian and Macedonian countryside. But it is the only hand Serbia can play so expect each card to be played one at a time.
After all this is said and done the real issue of this war is power. The European Union is a player in the game of WORLD DOMINATION. At least it is using Kosovo as the springboard to the upper levels of the game. If you remember the first few days of the aerial attack the Serbian allegations were America and Clinton causing this war. It took three days for the American General who presently commands all NATO forces to vanish. Since that time it has been EU in front of the cameras.
The EU has to defend itself on all fronts. Political, military, and economic are portrayed in the battle over Kosovo. If the EU wishes to face on even footing the present world powers; Russia, China, the Islamic Union; it can not allow Serbian incursion and aggression to dictate European Policy. That is why Serbia is being bombed. Yet because the EU wishes to appear civilized and truly humanitarian it is limiting it’s attacks hoping the Serbian leadership will awaken and realize it can not win. Like the ‘victory’ in Iraq; this strategy is self-defeating.
For years American scholars have debated the issue of a ”just war”. Our universities have approached the issue soundly from the airy heights of HUMANISM, and have come up with nothing that can rationalize what to do with a Hitler or an Idi Amin or even a Sadam Hussein. True pacifists say that the right thing is peace at all costs. Neville Chamberlain was broken hearted that Hitler lied to him. In order to ”appease” the BEAST he fed nations to the Nazi monster. It did not work for two reasons.
First, force only respects and backs down when a stronger threat is perceived. Second is that there is an underlying dimension that motivates all others. This dimension is not a physical reality, but a spiritual one. For this reason the modern media has little regard for the possibility. Yet the Balkans has been a hot bed of human insanity and spiritual conflict for centuries. Macedonia was the power base for the Prophet Daniel’s ”he goat”, the Prince of Grecia. It was the battleground between Christendom and Islam. It was part of the bartering between Stalin and Churchill at the end of WWII. But now it is the fulcrum that the Revised Roman Empire will pivot itself into THE END TIMES.
Right now Serbia has negotiated a pact creating a Slavic Union with Russia and Bellarus. It threatens NATO’s grab for domination of Europe. Russia with it’s ties to the Islamic States of the old USSR, and treaties to all the nations around Israel still is a player. Russia is an interesting conundrum. It is utterly bankrupt and starving, it’s economy and political bureaucracy completely corrupt. That is if you listen to the ”stories” that come from Russia to Western Media. In reality no major Soviet factory has yet to close down. The Soviet munitions factories produce more than they did five years ago. Each month Russian youth are conscripted and sent to mandatory military service. Needless to say the Russian Armed Forces have not shrunk in size since Peristroyka and Glastnost were ”reintroduced”.
In the next few weeks anything is possible. Yet in the end one force will walk away with all the marbles. Will it be NATO/ EU as the Revived Roman Empire….or a Slavic Union with Islamic Allies as GOG/ MAGOG. At this point no Islamic Nation anywhere has even paid lip service to the Kosovars in need. That is an eerie silence in itself. This week Israel began sending food and medical assistance to Macedonia. Yet not one petro dollar has been offered by the wealthy Islamic Gulf States to help fellow Moslems.
Strange spirits behind all this. Very strange in deed.