An excellent article by the Irish Socialist Network on the kinds of stupidities that emerged among sections of the left over the Balkan wars, when many thought giving political support to the co-thinkers of Le Pen, Paisley and the Ku Klux Klan in the Balkans (except that, unlike these forces, their Balkan co-thinkers actually partly implemented their program) was a proper "left" policy. It is followed by some interesting discussion, particularly a attempt by one of the revisionists to falsely smear the article, and an excellent reply by the ISN
The Left and the Balkan Wars
There was a flurry of excitement some time ago about a controversial interview with Noam Chomsky in the Guardian. Chomsky himself strongly contested the account of his views given by the article, and in due course the paper repudiated it. Reading over the text, there's little doubt that the journalist (Emma Brockes) was trying too hard to cause a stir - with the goal of scalping a well-known figure firmly on her mind, she lost the run of herself and delivered a sloppy, inaccurate and
misleading piece. What many people lost sight of during the controversy, though, was the light it shone on a troubling problem: the persistence of left-wing stupidity concerning the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
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