1999 - Kosovo/Serbia - Know Who You Are Bombing...

March 24 and June 10, 1999 - Kosovo/Serbia

...Know Who You Are Bombing...

The "NATO Doctrine"

"A military alliance of 19 nations and 780 million people; with over half of the world's gross economic product, possessing two-thirds of the global military power, ganged up on a tiny nation of 10 million. For 78 days, NATO terrorized the people of Serbia, dropping 23,000 bombs and missiles on them in 36,000 sorties. Yet the Serbs remained unbowed and uncowed. This is not hearsay. I saw their defiance with my own eyes during the six days I had spent under NATO's bombardment."

-An excerpt from Bob Djurdjevic's global speaking tour, Fall/Winter 1999

"The 78 days of areal bombardment caused an estimated 10,000 civilian casualties. The material damage has been estimated between 29,6—100 billion dollars. NATO aggression lasted continuously throughout 11 weeks, destroying or damaging the entire infrastructure of the Serbian state, schools, factories, business objects, hotels, hospitals, media centers, cultural monuments..."

-Svetlana Novko - Byzantine Sacred Art Blog

"I don't want you to think that I came here to make an anti-American speech. [laughter] I wouldn't come here for that. I came to make a speech, to tell you the truth. And if the truth is anti-American, then blame the truth, don't blame me."

-Malcolm X (Feb. 11, 1965)

"We believe we can literally 'kill them with kindness', moving our guns forward in a seizure of demented charity. It is when America is in her most altruistic mood that other nations better get behind their bunkers."

-Gary Wills - Rogue State pg. 13

"The attack on Yugoslavia constitutes the most brazen international aggression since the Nazis attacked Poland to prevent "Polish atrocities" against Germans."

-Walter J. Rockler, former U.S. prosecutor at the Nurenberg war crimes tribunal, in a letter to the Chicago Tribune.

"If we're going to have a strong economic relationship that includes our ability to sell around the world, Europe has got to be a key... That's what this Kosovo thing is all about."

-U.S. president Bill Clinton in a speech delivered the day before his televised address to the American people about the crisis in Kosovo. Quoted in "The Case Against Intervention In Kosovo" by Benjamin Schwarz and Christopher Layne in The Nation Magazine on April 19, 1999.

"The pilot dropped the bomb in good faith, as you would expect of a trained pilot from a democratic NATO country to do."

-NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea, speaking about the NATO bombing that killed dozens of Kosovo refugees on April 15, 1999.

I cannot believe I put off posting a blog about this for so long. Well, in a way I can. I mean this is such a complex, and difficult topic to write about it is hard to know where to start. This is for all of my good friends and everyone else...

I guess I can start with what spurred me to write this. I was in conversation with one of my friends who is someone who has traveled extensively throughout the world (a lot through Europe), she is very educated (in graduate school), knows quite a bit about the world and history, and finally I would say she is more than a bit activist. Let me emphasize here that this could be any of my friends (and this is by no means the first time this has happened). Some of my friends may be a little more active or news junkies, etc. then others but overall I would not worry about any of them blanking out on knowing a country or missing a big item of their country's foreign policy. That is why it is so galling, so frustrating, and so perplexing that even my friends, friends that I am proud and very grateful to have almost totally blank out when the issue of Kosovo comes up. I mean it is f'd up that people will know a hell of a lot more about Monica Lewinsky and impeachment which was going on at this time then the fact that our country tis of thee was bombing the f8ck out of another country/civilians homes/hospitals/embassies/etc.

There could be a lot of reasons for this. I would not describe them as being susceptible to media doublespeak and typical propaganda at all. But perhaps some actually do know a bit about the situation and agreed with it...I mean it was hard not to given the blanket/biased media whitewash. As many have pointed out (and definitely I saw this all too often myself) this was one of the first wars in which the "left" (I use this term loosely) were very much co-opted:

"One of the most significant aspects of the US-NATO war in the Balkans was the politically indispensable role played by prominent liberal and “left” academics, writers and intellectuals, who uncritically accepted the justifications given out by US and European officials and placed themselves at the disposal of the pro-war media. Many of those who took for good coin the moralistic phrases of Western leaders and accepted their portrayal of the war as a humanitarian crusade against ethnic genocide had, in their younger days, protested against US military interventions in Vietnam and elsewhere."

-Comment by Barry Grey

Usually it will begin innocently enough. For instance, in the above example we were talking about different antiwar tactics to promote stopping the latest rush to war against Iran by the present administration. Very constructive as usual ;) My friend was having trouble posting a graphic on her profile and asked me for help. It was a little icon thing promoting a group run/sponsored by Wesley Clark. I was like wtf?? And I immediately told her I could not get it working but that even if I could I would not put it up and encourage her not to...Of course, she was curious as to why I had such feelings on this and thus the latest incident which spurred all of this...

War Criminal = Presidential Candidate

Now some of you may know that kkklark was a guy that ran for president in the last (2004) election. However, not as many know he used to be a general. Less to none know that he used to be the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO. What that means is that he was the guy ostensibly responsible for making decisions on what to bomb when, etc. (though there was a lot of influence from political higher ups from what I understand). As Wikipedia describes it "[s]ome of Clark's command decisions during the conflict, such as his statements at press briefings and his actions at Priština International Airport, were heavily criticized." This is a really nice way of saying he is a mfering war criminal with blood all over himself. He was responsible for bombing the f8ck out of a television station for broadcasting things they did not like (journalistic freedom?).

Victim of market cluster bombing...

This "collateral damage"
had a name.

Her name was
Milica Rakic.

Again, as Wikipedia describes it, the bombing campaign targeted "dual-use" targets (mfing Orwellian doublespeak but the most common was "collateral damage" coined before the movie of the same name to describe murdered civilians) which included "bridges across the Danube, factories, power stations, telecommunications facilities" and also the "headquarters of Yugoslavian Leftists, a political party led by Milošević's wife, and the Serbian state television broadcasting tower." "NATO" argued that the last two were potentially useful to the Serbian military so their bombing was "justified." Among other things they also bombed maternity wards, a market full of people with a cluster bomb, the Chinese Embassy in Beograd (known as "Belgrade" to a lot of other people) and just for good measure an ambulance picking up civilians from a previous bombing...

What was most heartening for me was the resistance and unbelievable courage of the people of Srbija-Serbia during the bombing. In the face of tremendous odds. In the face of daily bombardment (24/7). People would have rock concerts around their workplaces in defiance of the mad bombers while wearing targets on their chests. This is what "inat" is about...This is what being Serbian is about...I am proud to be called Serbian.

I could go on and on and go into trying to describe the various reasons I think are behind the war in Bosna and for Kosovo as well...Perhaps I will later. But for now this will have to suffice as another introductory piece. The books and documentaries I list in the previous post should give one plenty of explanation much better than I...

I kind of feel bad ending like this...I feel like I should have written a lot more about all of this, I know I could...But for now I will just send this out because it has been sitting around too long...

I always appreciate any feedback, questions, etc.