ideological blinkers

Randy McDonald seems to be saying that defending Milosevic in some way
means you are blinded by "ideological blinkers", but that on the other
hand, accepting that the "Milosevic regime" is / was "indefensible" and "a
brutal kleptocracy that did, in fact, engage in political terror campaigns
in inner Serbia and ethnic cleansing campaigns abroad", is not ideological
at all. Is one position ideological and the other just undisputed fact,
common sense, beyond question? 

The concession is that the NATO action might have been "wrong headed", but
in these terms the basic NATO line is implicitly correct, their motivations
sound, etc etc. No debate, no world-systems account of the US / NATO action. 

I'm not exactly a huge contributor to this list, but I've been reading it
for a few years. For that reason, I accept what comes in and like all of
us, select from it what I find useful. I remember Andy and others pointing
this out a year or so ago (I think at that time I joined a series of
complaints about a few people dominating discussions) - ie. if you want to
change the content of discussions, do so by making contributions in the
directions you want rather than waiting for others to do so, or complaining
about what they are or are not doing. I write this to encourage those
people, and myself, to respond in this more constructive way rather than
unsubscribing. 

(My problem is that after some of the posts, like those recently by Warren
Wagar on Kosovo, there's not much point in posting in just to express
thanks / agreement.) 

Tom
Newcastle.
PS. Does anyone know of any work on world-systems accounts of the
development and expansion of mass school education?, and / or work that
attempts to merge the 'world culture' or 'world polity' perspective (eg.
Meyer and Boli et al) with Wallerstein's concept of the geoculture of the
capitalist world-system?
PSS. A couple of years ago I finished a PhD thesis that tried to explain
the development of secondary schooling in Cuba, 1959-1989, from a
world-systems perspective, hence my interest in this line of work.