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The following letter appears in this week's issue of
the Manchester Guardian Weekly. The letter below is
as distributed by the Guardian except that I have marked
two places where text was deleted. The deleted text
follows. You may be interested in what this pro-bombing
paper decided not to print. I believe that it seriously
===
weakened the letter.
Fact and fancy in the Balkans
Under the headline, "No denying Kosovo facts" (July 15), two of
your readers seem to have trouble distinguishing fact from
speculation. The facts are that there were no massive expulsions
from Kosovo before Nato started its air attacks. Whether (1)
Serbia cleverly timed the expulsions to occur after the bombing
began (as suggested by Dylan White), or (2) Nato stupidly timed the
bombing to start before the expulsions, or (3) the expulsions were
a reaction to the bombing, or (4) the two events were unrelated, is
speculation.
Of course, the best solution for the residents of Yugoslavia would
have been for Serbia to cleverly delay its expulsions until after
the bombing started and Nato to cleverly delay its bombing until
after the expulsions started. This bit of double cleverness would
have prevented an unnecessary and completely counterproductive war.
[deletion 1]
The bombing created a military necessity for the expulsions (but
not the murders), and Nato must have known that the expulsions
would follow the start of its campaign. [deletion 2] I have the
impression that some of your readers would blame the bull in a
bullfight.
(Prof) David Lorge Parnas
Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
[deletion 1]
------------
Your readers also seem to ignore some simple military facts. No
country's military forces would attempt to defend their land
against a massive precision bombing attack while surrounded by
saboteurs and spies with satellite phones. No responsible
military force would attempt to mine border areas, hoping to
inhibit a threatened invasion, while civilians roamed those areas
freely.
[deletion 2]
------------
After all, the UK deported refugees who were considered potential
spies and saboteurs throughout World War II. That too is a fact
that we should consider before casting stones at the Serbs.
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