This is not war in the traditional sense
By John David Powell (03/27/07)
March 24 marked the eighth anniversary of the NATO air war against the Serbian people, which began after considerable political and diplomatic pressure from the Clinton Administration. During the 78-day campaign, NATO and U.S. missiles, bombs, and bullets killed an estimated 557 civilians, or about 25 percent of the total war dead. Estimates of the damage to the country’s infrastructure range from $30 billion to $100 billion.
Today, the United States maintains a peacekeeping mission of about 1,700 troops. In the U.N., heated debate continues over the future of Kosovo and its beleaguered Christian population. And, the destruction and desecration of Serbian Orthodox churches, monasteries, and cemeteries go on unabated under the watchful eye of NATO troops (www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2007/March_07/3.html).
Private homes also fall prey to marauding Muslim thugs. On July 25, 2004, the Scotsman (http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=850502004) reported on a Human Rights Watch study that detailed an ethnic rampage by an estimated 50,000 Albanians between March 17 and 18 of that year. Human Rights Watch estimated that Albanians killed 19 Serbians and wounded about 9,000 others during those two days, in what the group described as the worst outbreak of violence since the end of the war five years earlier.
In addition to the killings, the study told of more than 550 Serbian and minority homes burned, along with 27 Orthodox churches and monasteries.
"In too many cases, NATO peacekeepers locked the gates to their bases and watched as Serb homes burned," the report said.
The American people have pretty much forgotten our nation’s contributions to the current state of misery and oppression suffered by Serbian Christians on the eve of another Easter. Instead, and with justification, we show our indignation at the political mendacities and disingenuous documentation employed to rallied our allies and the American people to follow George W. Bush into Iraq.
The American people also have conveniently forgotten William Jefferson Clinton’s lies and misdirections that resulted in a rain of death for 78 days and a reign of terror for eight years.
As a reminder, and in remembrance of the eighth anniversary of the war, the following is a reprise of a column that ran on March 27, 1999. It also serves as a reminder that selective indignation can result in catastrophic miscalculations. -- jdp
"This is not war in the traditional sense . . ."
The following are excerpts from President Clinton's televised address to the nation March 24 concerning NATO's bombing of Serbia. Also included are excerpts of news stories that ran in the days leading up to the air strikes.
Each is offered without comment. Judgment belongs to history.
“We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a mounting military offensive . . . By acting now we are upholding our values, protecting our interests and advancing the cause of peace."
John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, spoke at a press conference outside a meeting of the UN High Commission for Human Rights . . . "The war that is waged by the Sudanese government against its own people has resulted in 1.9 million people dead ... and the displacement of 5 million people," said Garang. "That is more genocide than Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda combined." -- The Associated Press
"Now, they've started moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets; Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, lined up and shot in cold blood."
More than 100 people have been killed on Borneo island in ethnic clashes among Indonesians in which victorious warriors have been parading the heads of victims. The ritual savagery has forced thousands to flee their homes which have been summarily pillaged and burnt . . . Bodies of victims have been cut open and their hearts eaten. -The [London] Times
"This is not war in the traditional sense . . ."
Throughout the 1980s stories circulated in Belgrade of the horrors befalling Serbs in the southern province that communism had ripped away from them. The Albanians were held responsible for destroying churches, desecrating graveyards and raping women. -- The [London] Times
"And all around Kosovo there are other small countries, struggling with their own economic and political challenges -- countries that could be overwhelmed by a large, new wave of refugees from Kosovo."
In Sierra Leone . . . aid workers and government officials told a meeting in the capital Freetown, that 1000 people had had their limbs amputated and thousands more had been mutilated or executed since last spring. According to the UNHCR, Sierra Leone has produced more than half a million refugees this decade. -- The BBC
"We learned some of the same lessons in Bosnia just a few years ago. The world did not act early enough to stop that war, either. And let's not forget what happened -- innocent people herded into concentration camps, children gunned down by snipers on their way to school, soccer fields and parks turned into cemeteries; a quarter of a million people killed, not because of anything they have done, but because of who they were. Two million Bosnians became refugees. This was genocide in the heart of Europe . . ."
Garang's rebel movement has been fighting since 1983 for more autonomy for the south's largely Christian and animist population from the Islamic north. The war and related famines have turned southern Sudan into one of the most pitiful regions on earth. -- The Associated Press
"Imagine what would happen if we and our allies instead decided just to look the other way, as these people were massacred on NATO's doorstep. That would discredit NATO, the cornerstone on which our security has rested for 50 years now."
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is planning an independent inquiry into the UN's failure to halt the genocide in Rwanda five years ago. . . The BBC correspondent at the UN says the organisation's inability to prevent the killings has long been regarded as its worst failure. -- The BBC
Mundus vult decipi
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