Nicole Kennard Reflections-- Week 1

Whenever we are faced with reviewing such tragedies, it is easy to imagine how we would act in these situations. It’s easy to say we wouldn’t hate anyone, we wouldn’t judge anyone, we wouldn’t have participated in the conflict. I’ve always enjoyed reading accounts from different sides because it becomes clear that we are in fact not different at all. If you truly believed ethnic cleansing was a way to protect your family, would you not do so? If you truly believed fighting Serbians was the only road to freedom, would you not do so? Did we not already do that ourselves earlier in history? It’s a vicious cycle that human beings cannot readily accept each other, that they become so clouded from beliefs, and as Ben said, psychological effects like groupthink. I believe that the most tragic part of all of this is that many Serbians never even wanted this war—it was a political struggle, one that the people and the soldiers were merely pawns in. Only 2-3% of the Serbian soldiers were volunteers—most did not commit the vicious crimes they are known for. As in many wars, the innocent suffer the most grueling losses while those of higher power seem to glean the rewards, which is just what Milosevic did.

Reading these articles also brings up a point that I thought was interesting, which was NATO’s intervention. While [most of] the KLA appreciated the help, many on both sides thought foreign countries should not be intervening in a matter in their own home. The bombings were an emotionally scarring event for civilians on both sides.  Again, the idea that the U.S. can never seem to be present at the right times (which Chaffee brought up today) seems to recur over and over in history, and it makes me wonder if there is ever a right time for U.S. intervention. It seems that the U.S. government often intervenes in cultural struggles that we do not completely understand ourselves. However, as most will argue, is it not the U.S.’s job as a superpower to intervene in struggles that disparage basic human rights? This has always been an issue in American politics, and it will, of course, continue to be one in the future.

I believe the most important point that I took away from reading these articles is that the apparent racism between the groups of the Balkans isn’t just some prejudice—there are historical and culturally sound reasons for the tensions, and I am interested to see just how prominent these tensions still are today.