One View from South Africa

Dear Colin and WSN Friends,

I have been reading many of the messages about Yugoslavia.   Some
folks support (at least in part) the Nato actions and some folks are
quite against it.

>From South Africa, I see three wars.
1) The Cyber War that is going on this listserv as well as others
2) The Media War between the various international news 
     syndicates and orchestrated by those "behind the scenes".
3) The actual war itself; the Real War.

Wars 1 and 2 bomb my senses each day.  In War 3, I haven't got a clue
what is going on, and I presume most of those in Wars 1 and 2 also
haven't a clue.

In my opinion, we do not know what the intelligencia thought in all of
this.

For example, maybe someone thought the United Nations was the correct
avenue to take but how does one prove to the United Nations that they
should take action unless they reveal their intelligence sources and
reveal their technology capabilities.  If the UN took action on those
grounds, the world would then be saying the UN is a puppet of NATO. 
That would discredit the UN.
or
Maybe someone thought that the decision-making process takes too long
and by the time the decision was made 3/4 of the Albanian population
would be wiped out. 
or
Maybe someone thought .......

I think the reality MAY be that those who decended from the Arian gene
have a guilt complex about the extermination of human beings in the
past and they simply can not live with more of that.  Who knows?

Now the key question is what position should I take sitting here in
South Africa.  I can not trust the international news media.  I can
not trust the cyber war.  I am not experiencing the war in Yugoslavia
(War 3).

What is left is my feelings.  As a human being, if I have love for
every member of the human race, then when anyone on the planet is hurt
or in pain or murdered or raped, I should sense an uneasyness within
my own existence. I hope others feel the same.

What can I do about this now?  Should I take a side?  I do not have
the facts to take a side, and I probably won't get the facts.

They only thing I know I can do is try to lobby for ways and means to
resolve conflict such as this in the future so that it does not happen
again.

An international peacekeeping force, created by the federated
interests of the world's nations and composed of personnel from those
same nations could work, but it must have real, uncompromising power,
unlike the current UN Peacekeeping Forces who act only to defend. 
Heads of Governments who become aggressors and oppressors must be
nipped in the bud as soon as they raise their ugly heads.  The
capacity to do that should be entrusted to the UN and we humans should
allow for honest mistakes, for it is in mistakes that we learn.  Then,
I believe, the prospect of world peace has a real chance.

In the mean time, all of these letters on the WSN regarding Yugoslavia
mean absolutely nothing to me.  I now simply delete them.  Am I wrong?
 If so, please correct me.

rick