Shame, not indifference, should be our reaction to the "mistaken missiles" launched by NATO, like the ones fired at the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the few that completely incinerated several buses filled with civilians, and the one that blew up a truck transporting Albanian refugees.
However, at this writing what passes for the U.S. left is still highly supportive of NATO waging war to stop this month's Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic, from Serbian "genocide." Vietnam, too, began as a progressive's war.
This time it has been the normally sadistic GOP leadership in Congress (and not the Democrats) who have been calling for a cessation of NATO violence and adherence to international law and further diplomacy.
The mainstream media have actually had to marginalize the Republican leadership for a change in suppressing commentary in favor of a cease-fire by NATO.
The peace terms offered for months by Milosevic should be adopted. His government has been saying they'll withdrawal from Kosovo if a UN peacekeeping force--not NATO--is brought in to police the scene. The Clinton administration has violently objected to this provision, which would strengthen the UN's stature.
The NATO bombing should cease immediately. Here's why:
- NATO is violating both the UN and its own charter with the bombings. NATO's charter prohibits any action not taken in self-defense on a member country.
- The U.N. Charter is the most relevant law that the U.S. is signatory to. Article 2, section 7 expressly forbids the current intervention. Since the U.S. and all NATO countries are bound by it, our leaders are war criminals that deserve to face a War Crimes Tribunal. (But that will never happen).
- The Serbian people cannot be frightened by this show of brutality from the air. These people fought Germany and the real Hitler to a near standstill during WWII.
- Milosevic and the Serbs are forcibly and brutally driving people off Sand coveted by both sides in the internal struggle against a rebel army (KLA) that is probably being secretly supplied by NATO powers. Milosevic's conduct is not uncommon in that region.
- In 1995 more than half a million Serbs were brutally expelled at the hands of the U.S.-sponsored Croatians, Krajinas and the Muslim-Croat alliance. This ground assault was given air cover by NATO planes which attacked Bosnia after what many people say was a Bosnian-government-staged massacre of Muslim civilians. In the next several weeks several hundred thousand more Serbs were uprooted in the Croat-Muslin offensive within Bosnia.
- Milosevic had killed about 2,000 civilians in the last year before NATO began the bombing and he went all-out. Noam Chomsky argues brilliantly in ZMagazine (5/l999) that the Clinton Administration began NATO's bombing precisely because it would accelerate misery and curb democracy in that region.
- The U.S. frequently supports or looks the other during ethnic massacres like those committed by Milosevic. Recent events in Turkey (vs. the Kurds), Indonesia (East Timor), Russia (Chechnya), and Israel (vs. the Palestinians) directly compare with Milosevic's cruelty. There are many, many more examples.
- Milosevic is not committing genocide. If he were, there would be no living refugees, not to mention the three U.S. soldiers whose freedom was arranged by Jesse Jackson. Any comparison between Milosevic and Hitler, who made lampshades out of children, is an insult to our intelligence.
- NATO is conducting 700 bombing runs a day to bring Milosevic to the "peace table." However, the Rambouillet peace talks were deliberately one-sided and the conflict has been compared to our own war of secession: "It is as if the nineteenth century concert of Europe had forced President Lincoln to accept Southern independence and European troops on American soil to police the agreement, and had threatened to intervene militarily in support of the Confederate Army if Lincoln refused (The Nation, 4/19/1999)."
- Bill Clinton, fresh after his missile attack that destroyed half the pharmaceutical production of a small African country just a few months ago (see the
4/99 MEDIAWISE), has no credibility to offer regarding how just this war is.
- The NATO assault is pushing Russia and China closer to each other. The U.S. did not consult with Boris Yeltsin before NATO began bombing. Also, the errant missile that killed three in the Chinese Embassy in Belgrad is a serious wedge issue and gives them cover for crushing local dissent and forming dangerous alliances. If Russia and China become close allies as a result of this non-defensive violence by NATO, it would be the most powerful military alliance in history, and could kick off an arms race that could become a humanitarian catastrophe.
- This war is making people demonstrate against the U.S. around the world like never before.
- The bombing campaign is considered an act of cowardice by many neutral observers. Our pilots are safely above their targets. As a result the Serb people have become unified in their hatred of their attackers, who won't fight them face to face.
- “The KLA [leadership] are diehard Marxist-Leninists who have been linked to Osama bin Laden..." (CounterPunch, 4/15-30). They also trafffic in heroin.
That's all that space will allow. Now is a good time for all MEDIAWISE readers who don't subscribe to any alternative political publications to do so.
Sources: CounterPunch, 4/15-30/1999; The Nation, 4/19 & 5/10/99; Z Magazine (5/99)
Scott Loughrey
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