RE: ?????: Just one point ! re: bombs away

>From Carlos Alzugaray <calzugaray@minrex.gov.cu>
Date: 5 April 1999.

The question is not as black versus white as Rick suggests. Human rights
have been too much manipulated and politicized as to be dealt with in an
easy way. Since the strategic bombing of civilian populations during the
Second World War (including the genocide of Japanese men, women and children
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) there is a tendency to think of bombing civilian
populations as a way of pressuring dictatorial leaders into submission. The
results are not very conclusive. But in the case of Germany and Japan, at
least there was the excuse of being at war with the countries that decided
to bomb.

That is not the case in Yugoslavia. What Yugoslavia is doing might be a
crime, although you would need some international body, adequately
representative and democratic, to decide it. But Yugoslavia is not at war
with the NATO countries. Then, there is the hipocrisy of the whole exercise.
The NATO countries have stood by, again and again, and let dictators violate
human rights in every corner of the world (Guatemala, Israel agains
Palestinian, Morocco, etc., etc.) Sometimes they have even helped: didn't
Mobutu assume power as a result of Western intervention in Zaire as a result
of which a democratic and popular leader like Lumumba was murdered? 

In any case, no group of nations, based on their power, should go around
assuming a police role. That is a formula bound to disaster. 

In any case, Rick's comparison is not exactly the same. If he went into the
house of his neighbor, he would run risks. Bombing is a risk-less situation
for the countries doing the bombing. And bombs, no matter how 'intelligent',
kill people which might be inocent.

Best regards,

Dr. Carlos Alzugaray,
Profesor Auxiliar (Associate Professor),
Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales,
Calle 22 No. 111,
Miramar, Playa,
Habana 11300,
Cuba.
Teléfonos/Telephones: (537) 22-2571/23-5097/29-2328
Fax: (537) 29-0683
Email: calzugaray@minrex.gov.cu.
Teléfono privado/Home Telehone: (537) 32-7389