- 08 Sep 2011 05:33
#13793661
I would agree with this intrepretation, except I originally raised the example of the Srebrenica massacre because I_S was already claiming, absurdly, that the Serbs were strictly on the defensive (no ifs, buts or qualifications). The only purpose of this falsehood is to claim some kind of moral high ground (ie. poor Serbs being attacked by Muslims and Croats), and his continual insistence that we pretend Serb forces around Srebrenica were doing nothing but defend themselves (because apparently the UN thought they should set up a safe area somewhere that was perfectly fine, and lets ignore Karadzic's directive too) while contrasting it with aggression by others can only be seen as an attempt to justify the later Serbian war crime. I've questioned him about this and he hasn't even bothered to provide an alternative explanation.
At best he isn't acknowledging it at as a crime. At worst he is trying to justify it. Having had to repeatedly dance around this same stupid argument has naturally worn away at my patience and thus my sympathy.
pikachu wrote:Well, if I understand him correctly, his arguments are not supposed to present a legal or moral defense of the Serb massacres themselves, rather they are supposed to defend against a one-sided view of the war as a Serb-only aggression and massacre, sometimes accompanied by an unrealistic exaggeration of the Serb crimes, which is prevalent among certain people. The "everyone else did it" is an effective defense against that, particularly in the situations when these one-sided accusations are coming from other participants of the Balkan wars themselves.
I would agree with this intrepretation, except I originally raised the example of the Srebrenica massacre because I_S was already claiming, absurdly, that the Serbs were strictly on the defensive (no ifs, buts or qualifications). The only purpose of this falsehood is to claim some kind of moral high ground (ie. poor Serbs being attacked by Muslims and Croats), and his continual insistence that we pretend Serb forces around Srebrenica were doing nothing but defend themselves (because apparently the UN thought they should set up a safe area somewhere that was perfectly fine, and lets ignore Karadzic's directive too) while contrasting it with aggression by others can only be seen as an attempt to justify the later Serbian war crime. I've questioned him about this and he hasn't even bothered to provide an alternative explanation.
At best he isn't acknowledging it at as a crime. At worst he is trying to justify it. Having had to repeatedly dance around this same stupid argument has naturally worn away at my patience and thus my sympathy.
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