ROBERT GREENBERG
Assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the forthcoming “Language and Ethnic Identity in the Former Yugoslavia,” Greenberg said today: “Milosevic is looking for an exit strategy, with the cease-fire proposal and the possibility of the U.S. soldiers being released. We just don’t seem to want to deal with him. I don’t see the benefit of continuing to risk killing Yugoslav civilians and to risk losing any of our pilots. We should have some sort of resumption of negotiations; it’s an opportunity to cooperate with the Russians in finding a way out… Rambouillet was a take-it-or-be-bombed deal. That is not giving diplomacy a fair chance to succeed.”
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DMITRI GLINSKI VASSILIEV
Dmitri Glinski Vassiliev is a research associate at George Washington University and co-author of the forthcoming “Market Bolshevism: The Tragedy of Russia’s Reforms.” He said: “The bombing of Yugoslavia has endangered U.S.-Russian relations in a way unprecedented since the early 1980s. Polls show that 92 percent of Russians condemn the bombings, and 70,000 young people have registered as would-be volunteers for Yugoslavia. U.S. actions have given a big boost to militant anti-American politicians in Russia. They may win the December elections and unseat Yevgenii Primakov’s moderate reformist government that has been trying to abstain from an open confrontation with NATO. The American-led operation against Yugoslavia is an egregious violation of international law. The Clinton administration and its allies have arrogated the authority of the virtually defunct United Nations. The aggravation of the humanitarian disaster as a result of the bombing undermines the claims that Cold War institutions could be converted to humanitarian purposes.”
ROBERT WEIL
Author of “Red Cat, White Cat: China and the Contradictions of ‘Market Socialism,'” Weil said about Chinese Premier Zhurongji’s current visit to the U.S.: “There is apparently real outrage in China, as there is in Russia, about the bombing of Yugoslavia. They’ve been concerned about what they see as U.S. bullying — a throwback to the ‘great power’ of the past, which the Chinese have a long history with. Broadly, the Chinese resent the drift of U.S. policy with Albright’s ‘we’re the indispensable nation’ view of the U.S. using force to pursue its global interests. Specifically, they’re concerned about the U.S. intervening in a sovereign state while citing humanitarian reasons… The Chinese are also concerned about the missile defense systems in Asia that they see as threatening their strategic interests.”
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167