tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23301331.post2509588430314894335..comments2023-10-28T05:02:10.442-04:00Comments on Americans For Bosnia: "In Harm's Way" by Martin Bell [11]Kirk Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06879908614214050994noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23301331.post-70892897304928997102009-11-15T04:04:07.077-05:002009-11-15T04:04:07.077-05:00Kirk, I'm not clear precisely what Bell is say...Kirk, I'm not clear precisely what Bell is saying here. I guess he's talking about the UK government not making its policy on Bosnia adequately clear, so that it was left to the public to filter media reports and work out what the issues were and how to deal with them.<br /><br />I think the message that the public received about UK government policy was fairly clear - this was a specific local problem that was intractable because of traditional inter-community antagonisms and it had to be contained in order to avoid regional destabilisation, hence support for the arms embargo.<br /><br />The problem is that Bell feels that there should have been a more interventionist policy and he feels uncomfortable that it was left to the media to articulate outrage at what they saw happening on the ground without any strategic overview or guarantee of objectivity.<br /><br />Government policy had been established, the question was whether it was legitimate for public opinion to be informed in a way that would cause that policy to be changed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23301331.post-39494623985809981242009-11-14T13:27:13.555-05:002009-11-14T13:27:13.555-05:00"""All sides in the conflict unders..."""All sides in the conflict understood that in the modern age, the satellite dish was a weapon."""<br /><br />Nowadays in our globalized world, everybody, but literally everybody has a notion of how important is to pass a certain message through the media. <br /><br />Kirk, don't worry about the rhythm of the blog...sarah correiahttp://cafeturco.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com