http://www.newsandletters.org/Issues/1999/Dec/12.99_chomsky.htm

BOOK REVIEW:
The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo, by Noam Chomsky (Monroe, Maine:
1999, Common Courage Press)
December 1999



Chomsky
ignores lessons of wars in Kosova



By Peter Hudis

There once was a time when the
radical critic, faced with rape camps and mass killings against an ethnic
minority, could be counted on to attack the offending regime, expose the
complicity of the Western powers, and extend solidarity to the victims of
oppression. But no more-at least judging from Noam Chomsky's latest book on the
war in Kosova.

Chomsky debunks the myth that the U.S. went to war over Kosova for
"humanitarian" reasons. He is right that this wasn't the first time U.S.
imperialism tried to justify a military intervention through ideological double
talk. As he shows, the U.S. bombed Serbia to bolster the prestige of NATO, not
to aid the victims of "ethnic cleansing."

The problem, however, is that not one but TWO wars were fought in Kosova this
year. One was the U.S. war against Serbia. The other was Serbia's war against
the Kosovars. Reading Chomsky, you'd barely know the second ever occurred.
Neither the nature of Milosevic's regime nor the struggle of the Kosovars
receives any serious discussion.

A 'NEW HUMANISM'?

Chomsky does the imperialists one better by not only debunking what they say,
but attributing to them what they never claimed-namely, that the bombing of
Serbia represents "the New Humanism of the New Millennium." (The phrase was
actually first used by the German intellectual Ulrich Beck.)

This is an incredible choice of words. Far from having anything to do with the
actions of imperialist commanders, the quest for a "New Humanism" has been
integral to the freedom struggles of our time, from the East European revolts
against statist "Communism" to the African Revolutions to the Black freedom
struggles in the U.S. By attributing to the rulers the opposite of what they
are about-a "New Humanism"- Chomsky manages to purge from his purview the
ACTUAL humanism which comes from mass struggles for freedom. This is most of
all seen from his callous treatment of the Kosovars.

He first of all denies that genocide was ever at issue, since "only" 2,500
Kosovars were supposedly killed by Serb troops prior to the start of NATO's air
war. Most of the killing of Kosovars by Serbs, he says, occurred after the
bombing started. Serbia is therefore not to blame for the mass killings and
expulsions; it's really the fault of the U.S.

He does mention that before the U.S. bombing Milosevic made plans for a massive
invasion of Kosova, code- named Operation Horseshoe, but he dismisses it. After
all, he says, the U.S. probably has contingency plans to invade Canada but that
hardly means it's planning on taking imminent action. Chomsky doesn't mention
that Operation Horseshoe was named after the tactic used by Serb paramilitaries
in Bosnia of surrounding a village in a U-shaped formation, killing and raping
those caught in it while forcing the rest of the populace to flee. Nor does he
mention that Milosevic sent 40,000 troops into Kosova BEFORE the U.S. invasion
replete with veterans of the paramilitaries in Bosnia who knew very well what
was expected of them with "Operation Horseshoe."

The one time he mentions genocide is by citing Miranda Vicker's comment about
"genocidal tactics of Albanian separatists." Since he has told us that the
killing of "only" 2,500 Kosovars prior to the U.S. bombing did not constitute
genocide, one is left wondering how the killing of a few dozen Serbs by
Kosovars up to then constituted genocide-especially when most of those killed
were Serb policemen.

For all his acumen in criticizing the media, Chomsky's critical reasoning comes
to a dead stop when it comes to considering the Kosovars. He accepts without
criticism THE NEW YORK TIMES writer Chris Hedges' statement that "between 1966
and 1989 an estimated 130,000 Serbs left [Kosova] because of frequent
harassment and discrimination by the Kosovar Albanian majority." The revocation
of Kosova's autonomous status by Milosevic in 1989 comes out sounding like a
benign act of a man trying to protect the Serb minority. Chomsky either doesn't
know, or doesn't bother to tell us, that Milosevic used such exaggerated tales
about the suffering of Serbs to consolidate his hold on power in 1989 and then
launch a genocidal war against Bosnia.

Incredibly, Bosnia hardly figures in the book at all. It's as if the massacre
of hundreds of thousands through a carefully orchestrated genocide were a
historical trifle without relevance to what Milosevic was doing in Kosova.

ONE-SIDED ANTI-IMPERIALISM

The gist of Chomsky's approach is seen when he draws an analogy to the U.S. in
explaining why Serbia responded harshly to attacks by the Kosova Liberation
Army (KLA): "We need scarcely tarry on how the U.S. would respond to attacks by
a guerrilla force with foreign bases and supplies, seeking, say, independence
for Puerto Rico" (p.31). No one need be told what would be the response of the
U.S. But what would be the response of those opposed to U.S. imperialism?
Obviously, to support the fighters for Puerto Rican independence. But when it
comes to Kosova, Chomsky uses the analogy to ATTACK the KLA's fight for
independence, on the grounds that it provoked the Serbs!

Though an anarchist, Chomsky suffers from such tunnel-vision anti- imperialism
that he becomes a virtual apologist for Milosevic: "Serbia is one of those
disorderly miscreants that impedes the institution of the U.S.- dominated
global system" (p.13).

This statement leaves one speechless. He has apparently forgotten that Serbia
was a virtual ALLY of the U.S. during 1995-98, following the signing of the
Dayton accords-which REWARDED Milosevic by dividing Bosnia into distinct ethnic
cantons.

Chomsky's failure to support the fighters against genocide in Bosnia and
Kosova, after writing eloquently for years in defense of the victims of "ethnic
cleansing" in Guatemala, East Timor and elsewhere, shows that the power of U.S.
militarism has become so total that even anti-statist radicals are being drawn
into making apologies for any force, no matter how reactionary, so long as it
can be considered a bulwark against U.S. dominance.

It isn't that Chomsky actually SUPPORTS Serbia. He knows the regime has
committed unspeakable crimes. But that just doesn't matter that much to him. He
instead wants to expose the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy. The inevitable
result of such a one-sided approach when a TOTAL view is needed is that the
HUMAN dimension-those struggling against Serbian policies in Kosova- drops from
sight.

Last spring some of Chomsky's writings on the war were circulated by the Tanjug
press-Milosevic's state-run propaganda bureau. No doubt this book too will be
used by those out to defend Serbia as the "lesser evil." It's a sad commentary
that Chomsky allows himself to be used in this way.



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