Kosovo and Civil War

Re “We Forget Our Own Cruel Past,” Commentary, March 30:

If it will stay expressions of national arrogance, Benjamin Schwarz is wise to remind us of the brutal ethnic cleansing carried on by the United States against Native Americans, but he errs in his interpretation of the Civil War as the result of “the North’s power and ambitions.” When California came into the union in 1850, even the balance of states, reflected in the U.S. Senate, tipped decisively toward the North. And certainly the South would never have picked a war with its industrialized neighbors had its slave system not been put at risk by three decades of antislavery agitation.

To speak, as Schwarz does, of the South’s refusing to become subordinate to a “threatening ideology and political economy” and not mention slavery is to obscure one of the great conflicts of world history--the struggle for social justice against the cruelties of entrenched power. Perhaps his indifference to this aspect of the Civil War encourages him to neglect the rapacity of the Serbs. Yes, ours is a past filled with public crimes, but also with the stirring deeds of true patriots, like the Abolitionists who recalled the country to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Without this standard, ours would have been a vastly different history.

JOYCE APPLEBY

Professor of History, UCLA

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There are many people who say that we should not take sides in this conflict and that no side is innocent. There are clear killers, the Serbs, and there are clear victims, the Kosovars. This is not ethnic cleansing, this is genocide. Even if we have to bomb the Serbs for a year, let’s show Serbia that genocide has a price.

OMAR HAROON

Santa Monica

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Americans will regret the day they tied their fate to NATO rather than the U.N. They have succeeded in increasing the atrocities committed against the Albanians. They have violated both the Constitution and the rules of international law. They have started a war they cannot possibly win. They have increased their reputation as a rogue superpower that operates without restraints on the evil it rains on others.

WILLIAM H. DuBAY

Costa Mesa

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I’ve been curious that in all the media attention focused on the NATO/Kosovo military action we haven’t heard a peep from the Islamic countries. Where is the marching in the streets of Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan and Iran, condemning the Serbs and supporting the risks that NATO is going through to protect Islamic brothers and sisters in peril in Kosovo? Can we expect terrorists like Osama bin Laden to turn their attention to Belgrade? I doubt it.

DAN WITT

Studio City

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It is absolutely correct that NATO’s bombs are the reason for the Serbs’ increased violence against the Muslim Albanians. Simply put, Milosevic’s primary goal is to clear Kosovo of the “infidel” before NATO destroys his military capability to do so, and judging from the flood of Albanian refugees pouring into neighboring countries, his plan is working. For America and our NATO allies to accept guilt for the increase in violence is to accept Milosevic’s brazen propaganda.

JACQUELINE KERR

Los Angeles

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If we are considering statements to the effect that the Yugoslavian Serbs are “victims,” we must also remember that they voted Milosevic into office in two separate elections, when it was very clear that he was a monster. He told the voters what he would do, and they voted for him. If the people of Yugoslavia had voted for Milan Panic years ago when he ran for president, southern Europe would be a very different place. If the Yugoslavian economy is wrecked, if there is misery all over the country and if bombs are falling on a Serb’s neighborhood and he feels victimized, he must look in the mirror for his victimizer.

Maybe what the Yugoslavians have done to themselves and their countrymen will serve as a lesson for others and save lives, ultimately. I hope so. Something good should come from the horrible mess they have made.

SUSAN E. AMERSON

Los Angeles