Not surprisingly, the Serbs are presenting themselves as the victims. (Clinton equals Hitler, etc.) But it is grotesque to equate the casualties inflicted by the NATO bombing with the mayhem inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people in the last eight years by the Serb programs of ethnic cleansing. Not all violence is equally reprehensible; not all wars are equally unjust. No forceful response to the violence of a state against peoples who are nominally its own citizens? (Which is what most 'wars' are today. Not wars between states.) The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders. Can we really say there is no response to this?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Serbs equate NATO casualties with ethnic cleansing to position themselves as victims, but not all violence is equal. Most modern violence occurs within states against their own citizens.
- In plain terms
- Violence inside countries often kills more than wars between them.
- What can you take from it?
- Distinguish between different types of violence and culpability.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is all violence equal?
- Who bears responsibility for internal violence?
Another view
Civilian casualties in external interventions can also be unjust.
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