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Friends, I am passing on the following statement from Senator Taylor, in the Senate of Canada, because he appears to combine a geological understanding of the terrain of Kosovo with a political sensibility as to the actual capability of air power in advancing policy. mp Debates of the Senate, SENATORS' STATEMENTS 1. Yugoslavia 1.1 Kosovo-Problems of War Hon. Nicholas W. Taylor: Honourable senators, to preface this statement, I wish to state that I have worked in the area of the Balkan peninsula, from Vienna to Istanbul and from the Black Sea to the Aegean and the Adriatic, since 1960. I do not tell you that to profess in any way to being an expert on Yugoslavia, except to emphasize that anyone who tells you that they are an expert on Yugoslavia is not an expert on Yugoslavia. It is probably one of the areas in the world whose politics are the most complicated and difficult to understand. I introduced this topic on March 25. I spoke in this chamber immediately after Senator Kinsella, who had proposed a very good solution to the problem. Unfortunately, neither NATO nor the U.S. presidency was listening to either one of us. I spoke about the foolishness of the bombing project at that time. After listening to the debate in the last couple of days, I was interested in knowing how many people believe as God's word what Ted Turner's CNN television stations churns out. In other words, if he says there is a massacre on one side, that is the only one that has occurred. Apparently, no one even thinks for a minute that war is a nasty business and atrocities are committed on both sides. Mr. Turner, the same fellow who gave former president Bush 70 per cent popularity and then took it back to 30 per cent in one year, is now doing the same thing with this war. The second item that I thought was interesting in listening to the House of Commons debate is that no one is saying what we will do when we win. Supposing Milosevic beats his head and says, "Uncle," what will we do? That will probably mean that the KLA will move in there and start killing the Serbs. No matter which way you look at it, we are using violence and we will be stuck with years and years of policing. There must be another way, and I think there are other ways. I am afraid that NATO members are guilty of ignoring history - at least the lessons that it teaches us - in their desire to punish the Serbian people for being foolish enough to allow a dictator to take over their government and to re-ignite the racist and religious wars that have swept the Balkans for the last hundred years. The present program of bombing everything and anything - including homes and workplaces, which have nothing to do with the war movement - and calling it "collateral damage" is wrong on three fronts: politically, militarily and morally. It is wrong politically, since there is no evidence, historically, that bombing or attacking a country weakens the resolve of, or the support for, their leadership. Whether we are talking about support for Churchill when Hitler attacked London, or support for Saddam Hussein when we bombed Iraq, the result has always been the same, namely, to reinforce the leadership. It is also wrong militarily. As a geologist, I have done a significant amount of work in that area, and if you think that it is rough country and you want to see what it looks like, drive from Revelstoke to Golden. There are nothing but mountains and more mountains. I was originally hired by Mr. Tito to establish their geological survey. I remember him bragging that with 100 men - and later, with 500 men - he had been able to keep three German Panzer divisions tied up for three years. This is the type of country in which our troops will be operating. The idea that we will get out of there without deploying ground forces does not hold water. Lastly, I think it is morally wrong. You cannot use violence to teach others not to use violence to solve their problems. The end never justifies the means. Hon. Senators: Hear, hear! -- Michael W. Posluns, The StillWaters Group, First Nations Relations & Public Policy. Please note new address: mposluns@accglobal.net Phone 416 656-8613 Fax 416 656-2715 36 Lauder Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6H 3E3. We offer Canadian parliamentary debates by topics and bills.
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