PAUL HOLLANDER
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that they were the real victims and that any attempt, sLlch as bomb–
ing, to halt the...mass murdering was the real crime.
At the same time I disagreed with those who spoke of genocide or holo–
caust in Kosovo on the apparent assumption that no moral indignation
or compassion can be generated in our times without invoking genocide
or the Holocaust.
The Kosovo war was one of those historical events which compel
new reflections on old and unresolved questions of politics and moral–
ity-among them, how groups and individuals decide which forces or
actors represent good and evil in a major historical conflict. Under what
circumstances are certain forms of behavior deemed morally abhorrent,
acceptable, praiseworthy, or matters of profound indifference? Why is
the premeditated murder of unarmed civilians a matter of essential and
justifiable self-defense for some and a ruthless massacre for others? Why
are socially conscious bystanders, among them intellectuals (presumed
to be sensitive to all injustice), sometimes willing to rationalize political
violence, while on other, similar occasions, they respond with outrage
and indignation? How do people, especially those in power, calculate
the costs and benefits of political violence and evaluate the proper rela–
tionship between the ends and means?
Kosovo certainly provided abundant examples of the readily avail–
able human capacity to dehumanize others; Serbs and Albanians
excelled in regarding one another as unworthy of any humane sentiment
or consideration. The victimizers were for the most part the Serbs, but
Kosovar Albanians would have reciprocated, given the opportunity;
they began to do so after their return, if on a far smaller scale and far
less methodically. The Kosovo conflict also offered new illustrations of
the familiar contemporary tendency to confuse and conflate self-defense
and aggression. Once more the obvious aggressors, the Serbs claimed to
have been victimized and under attack even before the NATO bombing.
Serbs deprived of electricity and gasoline equated their condition with
that of Albanians who were murdered, raped, robbed, evicted, and
reduced to refugee status.
An aspect of the violence in Kosovo that has received little attention is
the part played by revenge in political conflicts and the relish and clear
conscience with which human beings harm one another in its pursuit.
Kosovo seems to reaffirm that a durable lust for revenge is an important
factor in political conflict. The crisis also suggested that there is a con–
nection between the quality of political conflicts and the personalities of
those instigating them. Former ambassador Walter Zimmerman observed
