A recent visit to the Slovak Foreign Policy Association

THE ARROGANT AMERICAN



Brief Remarks about James Lyon’s Remarks about Kosovo in Bratislava, May 23, 2007


Yesterday I had the dubious pleasure of hearing an amazing speech about American imperalism in Kosovo.

Of course, that’s not what the speaker explicitly said. His speech was about American imperialism in the same way that mating displays are about sex. That’s what their goal is not what their participants are thinking about.

The sub-text of the talk was that the “International Community”, which is apparently a code word for the EU and the United States, are doing their best to bring democracy and multi-culturalism to Kosovo. The noble International Community and the kind United States, however, are having problems because the evil Russians want to get involved.

This is a very serious problem. During discussion the speaker explained that the people there are just so “primitive”--a word he used more than once.

He also remarked upon the frequency with which people in Kossovo make extremely blunt negative remarks about opposing groups. That was, apparently, part of the evidence for their “primitive” nature, and also evidence that the poor International Community led by the United States had such a hard job.

The whole talk was ridiculous. The notion that an American scholar purports to speak for civilization and tolerance is just not credible. The United States is not a successful multi-cultural society. In addition to the old history of racism against African-Americans, there is the new prejudice against Hispanics. (Or is it new? What would Thoreau say?)

Further, the speaker’s notion of what is and is not “primitive” cannot stand up to careful examination.

The deep ethnocentrism characteristic of the region is not a unique trait. One should do a study of what Americans today are saying about Muslims. One might also do some research about how soldiers in Iraq refer to the local population.

I suggest that until one does so, one hasn’t got the right to suggest that there is an especial problem in Kosovo with out-group intolerance. Certainly, one has no right to pontificate about who is and who is not civilized/"primitive".

Additionally, there is today a powerful research program in the social sciences today which suggests that our basic emotions are universal. This leads one to suspect that Americans are no less capable of out-group hostility (including negative language) than are the residents of Kosovo.

The speaker’s methodology was, at various points shabby.

Of course, the true story is that the US wants to make Kosovo safe for US companies. It wants to open up a market. (See Plavsic’s article below.) Kosovo is today a US-EU colony. And the speaker was trying to convince the audience that this is a good thing.

As if the history of the United States was not a long list of violence used to achieve political and financial goals.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

www.zmag.org

“The KosovoQuestion” by Dragan Plavsic, March 20, 2007

APPENDIX; THE DIRTY DETAILS

I believe that Professor Lyon gave us the official (US gov’t) but not universally accepted history of the area. For example, he mentioned that the “Rambouillet Talks” “broke down”--”as you are aware”. Well, I am not aware of that. I’ve heard at least two diagnoses of what happened, one the official one which Lyon followed, and an alternative one.

I wish to emphasize Lyon’s rhetoric. He said that the “international community took a decision” in Kosovo. Apparently that means the US and countries which follow the US.

Interestingly enough he remarked that even to this day the Serbs won’t admit that they used state terror against the Albanians. Curious. Has the US government admitted to any of the terror it has used? Against, let us say, the Palestinians today--through its agents in Israel and Lebanon? Or, against Nicaragua? Or the attack on civilians in World War Two? etc. etc. The kettle is calling the pot black.

Mr. Lyon spoke of what “We” control, and the need for this first-person plural entity to maintain control.

E.g., [If] “..the international community wants to maintain control...”

He warned of the danger of “unilateral action”.

(To understand this one needs to see Plavsic’s discussion of a Kosovan Anti-Colonial Movement)

He spoke of the fear of “unsupervised independence”.

These comments seem to agree with Plavsic’s analysis: the US an EU want to keep Kosovo a colony. MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN INVESTORS; TO HELL WITH DEMOCRACY

And WHAT IF an additional super-power had wanted the US to remain a British colony?

More comments to follow about how Professor Lyon dealt with questions.

THE QUESTION PERIOD

I hope to return to this post some time in the near future. I apologize for typo's and inelegancies.