Zinn: A Diplomatic Solution (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 15:53:48 -0700
From: Phil Gasper <pgasper@cnd.edu>
To: jmusselm_rpa@indiana.edu
Subject: Zinn: A Diplomatic Solution

The Progressive
May 1999

A Diplomatic Solution
by Howard Zinn

A FRIEND WROTE to ask my opinion on Kosovo. He said many people were
turning to him for answers, and he didn't know what to say, so he was
turning to me (knowing, I guess, that I always have something to say,
right or wrong).

Several things seem clear to me, and they don't fit easily together in a
way that points to a clean solution.

Milosevic and his Serb forces are committing atrocities.

But bombing won't help. It can only make things worse, and that is
already evident. It is creating more victims, on both sides.

The Kosovo Liberation Army may not represent the wishes of the Kosovar
people. It turned to armed struggle to gain independence, ruthlessly
putting its countrymen at risk, when a protracted nonviolent campaign of
resistance was already going on and should have continued.

I think of South Africa, where a decision to engage in out-and-out armed
struggle would have led to a bloody civil war with huge casualties, most
of them black. Instead, the African National Congress decided to put up
with apartheid longer, but wage a long-term campaign of attrition, with
strikes, sabotage, economic sanctions, and international pressure. It
worked.

The United States does not have a humanitarian aim in this situation.
U.S. foreign policy has never been guided by such concerns, but by
political power, economic interest, and sometimes a motive more
elusive--machismo. (We want to show the world we are Number One, as
President after President has reiterated since the beginning of the
Vietnam War.)

The hypocrisy of the Clinton Administration is evident after just a
glance at recent history. When Chechnya rebelled, demanding independence from
Russia just as Kosovo wants it from Yugoslavia now, the Russian army
moved in and did terrible things to the people of Chechnya. Clinton did
not oppose this. In fact, in fielding one reporter's question, he
compared the situation to the American Civil War, when Lincoln would not
permit the Confederacy to secede.

There is no sensible military solution to the ethnic cleansing. It could
be stopped only by putting in a large ground force, which would mean a
full-scale war, which would greatly multiply the present violence.

What is happening to the people of Kosovo is heartrending, and I think
the only solution is a diplomatic one, forgetting the treaty the United
States tried to force on Serbia. It will take a new agreement, in which
the Kosovars will have to settle for some form of autonomy, but no
guarantee of independence: a compromise in order to have peace. And the
most likely way this diplomatic solution can come about is through the
intercession of Russia, which should exercise its influence over the
Serbs.

The United States is violating the U.N. Charter. But any reference to
international law may appear futile, since the United States has
rendered it worthless for fifty years. The bombing also violates the
U.S. Constitution, which requires a declaration of war, and we are
certainly waging war.

The United States and NATO (which is the creation of the United States
and does its bidding) are floundering, and in the process they are doing
enormous damage to human beings. This situation will require the
citizens of the NATO countries--especially of the United States--to
shout their protest at what is going on, and to demand a diplomatic
solution. When a nation issues ultimatums, it leaves no room for
compromise and ensures that war will continue.

We learned from Vietnam that the ruthlessness of leaders, the stupidity
of "experts," must be countered by the courage, good sense, and
persistence of the citizenry.


Howard Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States," is a
columnist for The Progressive.

Copyright © 1999 by The Progressive, Madison, WI.

*****************************************
Phil Gasper
Chair, Dept. of Philosophy & Humanities
MS 191
College of Notre Dame
Belmont, CA 94002
650-508-3732