Scary Letter(s) of the Week
You had better have one fucking good explanation as to why the thinredline.gif on your Web page makes an unauthorized copy of my entire directory structure.
I don’t recall giving you any authorization to do this, nor do I recall being notified that this was going to be done.
Paul M. Pilon OK, OK!
You can disregard my previous message. Keeerist, my 16-year-old, explained it to me. Now I understand and am wiping the egg off my face. I forgot the cardinal rule of computing: when in doubt, ask the nearest teenager!
Sorry for any trouble I caused.
Paul M. Pilon
Ken Layne on Kosovo
I just read that so-called “news” you put up from Ken Layne. What better person to write a article than an ALBANIAN. Good job, Mother Jones. If you were subjective, you would put a Serb writer on your Web site too. I guess what I’m saying is I come to your Web site and read your magazine for the other side of the story, i.e. not the mainstream press and the junk they feed the sheep (it’s all the same crap — they feed you what they want you to hear), so next time post the other side or just put up a link to CNN, ABC, FOX News, etc.
Troy Blum Three words for you: You Are Awesome!
I am normally against war, but in this instance there is no other choice. You have so honestly communicated the thoughts of myself and of many others to a huge audience. Thank you for that.
Tammy Glover Can we have somebody else beside Mr. Layne, with his pandering style and irresponsible exaggerations, which add up to non-reporting and non-analysis? Whatever else Milosevic is, to cite just one example, he is not a “cretin.”
Paul Lion
More Comments on Our Kosovo Coverage
The “Yugoslav” army, which is the old Communist army controlled by a Serbian officer corps, has been on a rampage since 1991, attacking the non-Serbian population and culture outside the province of Serbia. First Slovenia, then Croatia, then Bosnia-Herzegovina, now Kosovo. Milosevic is its leader, changing generals at his pleasure. No new story. What is new is that NATO is using force against Milosevic’s military and paramilitary to contain the carnage that would otherwise continue unabated. Diplomacy has been tried ad infinitum: remember Cyrus Vance, Richard Holbrooke, Commerce Secretary Brown, et al.? It’s been eight years of genocide, folks. Is that not enough? Did Hitler ever exist? Obviously, Hitlers can have a relatively easy time of it when vision and/or will are grossly deficient.
John Chendo Why the pro-Albanian bias? Check out Michael Parenti.
Mark Rockwell Dear Editor,
I am a member of the New Party. I support regulation of all new construction. I believe the purchase of another Sea Wolf submarine was preposterous. I vehemently oppose the continuing bombardment of Iraq. And I support the bombing of Yugoslavia, just as I have always been disappointed that the Allies did not bomb the Holocaust infrastructure in 1943.
No one, except the Serb apologists, denies that ethnic cleansing (i.e. forcing thousands to flee their homes, or more simply lining up a family of three, including a 3-year-old with a pacifier clipped to his or her jacket, and shooting each in the face) has begun. I don’t know if it is in the U.S. national interest to cripple the aging Yugoslav military machine (I could make a straight-faced argument either way) and I don’t care.
Ours is a nation that long ago adopted the strange notion that morality plays a role in foreign affairs. As often as not, this has led to tragic effect (i.e. World War I). Nonetheless, with that criterion in mind, I see no immorality in using violence to attempt to stop wholesale slaughter. It may not work, but diplomacy was certainly not working. None of the progressive critics of military action (that I have read) offer a solution that halts genocide. I am a progressive and I agree with the action taken by NATO.
Ben Williams Dear Editors,
George Mitchell’s International Crisis Group hardly strikes me as an entity whose perspective “isn’t expressed in the mainstream media.” Their man gave you the same pro-bombing line we’re getting from the administration, with the added recommendation that ground troops are also needed. In case you hadn’t noticed, there is a sizeable Serb population in this country, primarily in industrial Midwestern cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cleveland. Not a word from any of those folks, many of whom are in daily contact with their relatives and friends back home and have more street-level knowledge of what is transpiring than anyone at the Washington D.C. foundations.
You and I may not agree with their analysis, but it is incredibly arrogant to disregard them altogether. I’m not Serbian, nor am I necessarily pro-Serb when it comes to Kosovo, but I was disappointed that your so-called “experts weigh in” piece was so devoid of viewpoints more at odds with those being force-fed us through CNN. You’ve reduced it to good vs. evil and I have strong doubts that it is really that simple. I guess I’m uneasy because this is the same sort of “He’s the new Hitler” propaganda we were fed before the assaults on Iraq. It bothers me that Mother Jones appears to have bought into it so eagerly.
Joe Carroll
Gary, IN What a disappointment the article on Yugoslavia is. You are printing someone who is mouthing the U.S./NATO line. I knew there was a reason I did not renew my subscription. You have been mixed up since you fired Michael Moore.
Ruth Holbrook
