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Jimmy Breslin on the Clintons, in an interview on CNN:
"They have covered the country with a layer of soot and don't even attempt to shake it from their sleeves" [Breslin has joined former NY Times editor Abe Rosenthal in ability to sum up the situation.]

A Final Comment (?)
Now that what was being reported all along (-from the scene- by Robert Fisk and others), is freely admitted by our war leaders, that they had not been telling the truth in their many self-justifying statements, what else can be said?

Our Founders had  a view
George Washington testifies against our involvement in Yugoslavia [This Farewell Address was the product of President Washington in collaboration with Madison, Hamilton and Jay over the period of many months and reflected a most studied and and solemn consideration. These views were already proving most prescient as the French Revolution was proving so disastrous in the crowning of another tyrant - Napoleon, so branded by Jefferson, who had wanted America to become involved and had been opposed by Washington.]

"Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities."

"...I conjure you to listen to me my fellow citizens..."

Roy Greenhill
'Thus Ever With Tyrants'
or: 'The Final Solution in Kosovo'
It is cause for despair that we are ending this century where we started -- in a deadly dispute concerning Serbia. The USA had no legitimate interest in the first dispute (over a pig trail) and the USA has no interest in this latter controversy over secession by a province of Serbia...

Elie Wiesel and Genocide

_____________________________________

Post your thoughts here...at...' kosovo.com.'

___________________________

Roll Call of Prominent Personalities Who
Oppose American Bombing of Yugosalvia

Help us build this list.

_________________________________

'Cleansing' Made Possible by Absence of Western Nations who had Departed to Bomb.
Here is the graphic story of the cleansing of Kosovo that Madam Albright made possible. (Register with NYTimes and post an opinion.)

____________________________________

Mad(Ugly!) American(?) General Lusts For More Civilian Blood
Has any soldier ever brought this much personal animus to a campaign?

David Hackworth:

The Gang of Four Bumblers:

It was so utterly predictable. Up to 60 civilians are torn apart in a NATO bombing attack on Saturday and President Slobodan Milosevic releases three captured American soldiers. And which event - the tragedy or the melodrama - do we regard as more important? The freeing of three Americans, of course. Even yesterday's NATO briefing spent more time...(more)

My year long experience as the Force Commander and Head of Mission ofthe United Nations Forces deployed in the former Yugoslavia has given mean understanding of the fatal flaws of US/NATO policies in the troubledregion. It was obvious to most people following events in the Balkanssince the beginning of the decade, and particularly after the fightingthat resulted in the emergence of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovinaand the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, that Kosovo was a 'powderkeg' waiting to explode. The West appears to have learnt all the wronglessons from the previous wars and applied it to Kosovo.

(1) Portraying the Serbs as evil and everybody else as good was not onlycounterproductive but also dishonest. According to my experience allsides were guilty but only the Serbs would admit that they were noangels while the others would insist that they were. With 28, 000 forcesunder me and with constant contacts with UNHCR and the International RedCross officials, we did not witness any genocide beyond killings andmassacres on all sides that are typical of such conflict conditions. Ibelieve none of my successors and their forces saw anything on the scaleclaimed by the media.

(2) It was obvious to me that if Slovenians, Croatians and Bosniaks hadthe right to secede from Yugoslavia, then the Serbs of Croatia andBosnia had an equal right to secede. The experience of partitions inIreland and India has not be pleasant but in the Yugoslavia case, thestate had already been taken apart anyway. It made little sense to methat if multiethnic Yugoslavia was not tenable that multiethnic Bosniacould be made tenable. The former internal boundaries of Yugoslaviawhich had no validity under international law should have been redrawnwhen it was taken apart by the West, just as it was in the case ofIreland in 1921 and Punjab and Bengal in India in 1947. Failure toacknowledge this has led to the problem of Kosovo as an integral part ofSerbia.

(3) It is ironic that the Dayton Agreement on Bosnia was notfundamentally different from the Lisbon Plan drawn up by PortugueseForeign Minister Cuteliero and British representative Lord Carrington towhich all three sides had agreed before any killings had taken place, oreven the Vance-Owen Plan which Karadzic was willing to sign. One of themain problems was that there was an unwillingness on the part of theAmerican administration to concede that Serbs had legitimate grievancesand rights. I recall State Department official George Kenny turning uplike all other American officials, spewing condemnations of the Serbsfor aggression and genocide. I offered to give him an escort and to gosee for himself that none of what he proclaimed was true. He accepted myoffer and thereafter he made a radical turnaround.. Other Americanscontinued to see and hear what they wanted to see and hear from oneside, while ignoring the other side. Such behaviour does not producepeace but more conflict.

(4) I felt that Yugoslavia was a media-generated tragedy. The Westernmedia sees international crises in black and white, sensationalizingincidents for public consumption. From what I can see now, all Serbshave been driven out of Croatia and the Muslim-Croat Federation, Ibelieve almost 850,000 of them. And yet the focus is on 500,000Albanians (at last count) who have been driven out of Kosovo. Westernpolicies have led to an ethnically pure Greater Croatia, and anethnically pure Muslim statelet in Bosnia. Therefore, why not anethnically pure Serbia? Failure to address these double standards hasled to the current one.

As I watched the ugly tragedy unfold in the case of Kosovo whilevisiting the US in early to mid March 1999, I could see the same patternemerging. In my experience with similar situations in India in suchplaces as Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, and elsewhere, it is theessential strategy of those ethnic groups who wish to secede to provokethe state authorities. Killings of policemen is usually a standardoperating procedure by terrorists since that usually invitesoverwhelming state retaliation, just as I am sure it does in the UnitedStates.

I do not believe the Belgrade government had prior intention of drivingout all Albanians from Kosovo. It may have decided to implementWashington's own "Krajina Plan" only if NATO bombed, or these expulsionscould be spontaneous acts of revenge and retaliation by Serb forces inthe field because of the bombing. The OSCE Monitors were not doing toobadly, and the Yugoslav Government had, after all, indicated itswillings to abide by nearly all the provisions of the Rambouillet"Agreement" on aspects like cease-fire, greater autonomy to theAlbanians, and so on. But they insisted that the status of Kosovo aspart of Serbia was not negotiable, and they would not agree tostationing NATO forces on the soil of Yugoslavia. This is precisely whatIndia would have done under the same circumstances. It was the West thatproceeded to escalate the situation into the current senseless bombingcampaign that smacks more of hurt egos, and revenge and retaliation.NATO's massive bombing intended to terrorize Serbia into submissionappears no differrent from the morality of actions of Serb forces inKosovo. Ultimatums were issued to Yugoslavia that unless the terms of anagreement drawn up at Rambouillet were signed, NATO would undertakebombing. Ultimatums do not constitute diplomacy. They are acts of war.The Albanians of Kosovo who want independence, were coaxed and cajoledinto putting their signatures to a document motivated with the hope ofNATO bombing of Serbs and independence later. With this signature, NATOassumed all the legal and moral authority to undertake militaryoperations against a country that had, at worst, been harsh on its ownpeople. On 24th March 1999, NATO launched attacks with cruise missilesand bombs, on Yugoslavia, a sovereign state, a founding member of theUnited Nations and the Non Aligned Movement; and against a people whowere at the forefront of the fight against Nazi Germany and otherfascist forces during World War Two. I consider these current actions unbecoming of great powers.

It is appropriate to touch on the humanitarian dimension for it is theinnocent who are being subjected to displacement, pain and misery.Unfortunately, this is the tragic and inevitable outcome of all suchsituations of civil war, insurgencies, rebel movements, and terroristactivity. History is replete with examples of such suffering; whether itbe the American Civil War, Northern Ireland, the Basque movement inSpain, Chechnya, Angola, Cambodia, and so many other cases; theindiscriminate bombing of civilian centres during World War Two;Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Vietnam. The list is endless. I feel that thistragedy could have been prevented if NATO's ego and credibility had notbeen given the highest priority instead of the genuine grievances ofSerbs in addition to Albanians.

Notwithstanding all that one hears and sees on CNN and BBC, and otherWestern agencies, and in the daily briefings of the NATO authorities,the blame for the humanitarian crisis that has arisen cannot be placedat the door of the Yugoslav authorities alone. The responsibility restsmainly at NATO's doors. In fact, if I am to go by my own experience asthe First Force Commander and Head of Mission of the United Nationsforces in the former Yugoslavia, from March 1992 to March 1993, handlingoperations in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia, I would saythat reports put out in the electronic media are largely responsible forprovoking this tragedy. Where does all this leave the internationalcommunity which for the record does not comprise of the US, the West andits newfound Muslim allies ? The portents for the future, at least inthe short term, are bleak indeed. The United Nations has been madetotally redundant, ineffective, and impotent. The Western world, led bythe USA, will lay down the moral values that the rest of the world mustadhere to; it does not matter that they themselves do not adhere to thesame values when it does not suit them. National sovereignty andterritorial integrity have no sanctity. And finally, secessionistmovements, which often start with terrorist activity, will get greaterencouragement. One can only hope that good sense will prevail, hopefullysooner rather than later.

What's With General Clark?

Clark on the offensive
April 18, 1999
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Members of Congress who, during their spring recess, met in Brussels with Gen. Wesley Clark, the NATO supreme commander, were startled by his bellicosity.

According to the lawmakers, Clark suggested the best way to handle Russia's supply of oil to Yugoslavia would be aerial bombardment of the pipeline that runs through Hungary. He also proposed bombing Russian warships that enter the battle zone.

The American general was described by the members of the congressional delegation as waging a personal vendetta against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "I think the general might need a little sleep," commented one House member.

Hackworth Discusses Gen Clark
_________________________________________

" I have to tell you that, as one United States Senator, I am categorically opposed to the use of American ground troops in Kosovo because I do not believe our vital national interests are at stake..."
more

Labor MP Opposes Tony Blair on Kosovo
Alice Mahon, an MP from the ruling Labour party who heads a Committee for Peace in the Balkans, said the so-called "humanitarian war for the values of civilisation" had "created instead a humanitarian disaster... more

John Birch Society is Right Once More
35 years ago Robert Welch was first to call for U.S. to leave Viet Nam (long before the hippies). His points were (on Meet the Press) that we would not win, that American morals would be eroded and that regional alliances like SEATO and NATO have negative long-rang implications for America. The present leader of JBS has incisive articles on current crisis.

Kosovar rebels'
By Chris Hedges for New York Times Services
"The KLA began on the radically fringe of Kosovar Albanian politics, originally made up of diehard Marxist-Leninists (who were bankrolled in the old days by the Stalinist dictatorship next door in Albania) as well as by descendants of the fascist militias raised by the Italians in the Second World War. "

Analysis - By Joe Schlesinger
- NATO's attack on what's left of Yugoslavia is unprecedented and controversial. CBC News veteran Joe Schlesinger has followed the evolution of the alliance for many years and has this analysis of its venture into uncharted territory.

The Clinton Doctrine
TIME  APRIL 5, 1999 VOL. 153 NO. 13
BY CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
Read this; here's a sample:
"The problem with this doctrine, for all the ringing moral satisfaction it gives, is that it is impossibly moralistic and universal. It cannot be the policy of the U.S. Even as the Clinton people say it, they cannot believe it. Why? Because they remember Krajina." [Again, please read on abut Krajina]

Robert Fisk - Unmoved by tragedy, Nato sends its regrets

It was so utterly predictable. Up to 60 civilians are torn apart in a Nato bombing attack on Saturday and President Slobodan Milosevic releases three captured American soldiers. And which event - the tragedy or the melodrama - do we regard as more important? The freeing of three Americans, of course. Even yesterday's Nato briefing spent more time...(more)

My year long experience as the Force Commander and Head of Mission ofthe United Nations Forces deployed in the former Yugoslavia has given mean understanding of the fatal flaws of US/NATO policies in the troubledregion. It was obvious to most people following events in the Balkanssince the beginning of the decade, and particularly after the fightingthat resulted in the emergence of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovinaand the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, that Kosovo was a 'powderkeg' waiting to explode. The West appears to have learnt all the wronglessons from the previous wars and applied it to Kosovo.

(1) Portraying the Serbs as evil and everybody else as good was not onlycounterproductive but also dishonest. According to my experience allsides were guilty but only the Serbs would admit that they were noangels while the others would insist that they were. With 28, 000 forcesunder me and with constant contacts with UNHCR and the International RedCross officials, we did not witness any genocide beyond killings andmassacres on all sides that are typical of such conflict conditions. Ibelieve none of my successors and their forces saw anything on the scaleclaimed by the media.

(2) It was obvious to me that if Slovenians, Croatians and Bosniaks hadthe right to secede from Yugoslavia, then the Serbs of Croatia andBosnia had an equal right to secede. The experience of partitions inIreland and India has not be pleasant but in the Yugoslavia case, thestate had already been taken apart anyway. It made little sense to methat if multiethnic Yugoslavia was not tenable that multiethnic Bosniacould be made tenable. The former internal boundaries of Yugoslaviawhich had no validity under international law should have been redrawnwhen it was taken apart by the West, just as it was in the case ofIreland in 1921 and Punjab and Bengal in India in 1947. Failure toacknowledge this has led to the problem of Kosovo as an integral part ofSerbia.

(3) It is ironic that the Dayton Agreement on Bosnia was notfundamentally different from the Lisbon Plan drawn up by PortugueseForeign Minister Cuteliero and British representative Lord Carrington towhich all three sides had agreed before any killings had taken place, oreven the Vance-Owen Plan which Karadzic was willing to sign. One of themain problems was that there was an unwillingness on the part of theAmerican administration to concede that Serbs had legitimate grievancesand rights. I recall State Department official George Kenny turning uplike all other American officials, spewing condemnations of the Serbsfor aggression and genocide. I offered to give him an escort and to gosee for himself that none of what he proclaimed was true. He accepted myoffer and thereafter he made a radical turnaround.. Other Americanscontinued to see and hear what they wanted to see and hear from oneside, while ignoring the other side. Such behaviour does not producepeace but more conflict.

(4) I felt that Yugoslavia was a media-generated tragedy. The Westernmedia sees international crises in black and white, sensationalizingincidents for public consumption. From what I can see now, all Serbshave been driven out of Croatia and the Muslim-Croat Federation, Ibelieve almost 850,000 of them. And yet the focus is on 500,000Albanians (at last count) who have been driven out of Kosovo. Westernpolicies have led to an ethnically pure Greater Croatia, and anethnically pure Muslim statelet in Bosnia. Therefore, why not anethnically pure Serbia? Failure to address these double standards hasled to the current one.

As I watched the ugly tragedy unfold in the case of Kosovo whilevisiting the US in early to mid March 1999, I could see the same patternemerging. In my experience with similar situations in India in suchplaces as Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, and elsewhere, it is theessential strategy of those ethnic groups who wish to secede to provokethe state authorities. Killings of policemen is usually a standardoperating procedure by terrorists since that usually invitesoverwhelming state retaliation, just as I am sure it does in the UnitedStates.

I do not believe the Belgrade government had prior intention of drivingout all Albanians from Kosovo. It may have decided to implementWashington's own "Krajina Plan" only if NATO bombed, or these expulsionscould be spontaneous acts of revenge and retaliation by Serb forces inthe field because of the bombing. The OSCE Monitors were not doing toobadly, and the Yugoslav Government had, after all, indicated itswillings to abide by nearly all the provisions of the Rambouillet"Agreement" on aspects like cease-fire, greater autonomy to theAlbanians, and so on. But they insisted that the status of Kosovo aspart of Serbia was not negotiable, and they would not agree tostationing NATO forces on the soil of Yugoslavia. This is precisely whatIndia would have done under the same circumstances. It was the West thatproceeded to escalate the situation into the current senseless bombingcampaign that smacks more of hurt egos, and revenge and retaliation.NATO's massive bombing intended to terrorize Serbia into submissionappears no differrent from the morality of actions of Serb forces inKosovo. Ultimatums were issued to Yugoslavia that unless the terms of anagreement drawn up at Rambouillet were signed, NATO would undertakebombing. Ultimatums do not constitute diplomacy. They are acts of war.The Albanians of Kosovo who want independence, were coaxed and cajoledinto putting their signatures to a document motivated with the hope ofNATO bombing of Serbs and independence later. With this signature, NATOassumed all the legal and moral authority to undertake militaryoperations against a country that had, at worst, been harsh on its ownpeople. On 24th March 1999, NATO launched attacks with cruise missilesand bombs, on Yugoslavia, a sovereign state, a founding member of theUnited Nations and the Non Aligned Movement; and against a people whowere at the forefront of the fight against Nazi Germany and otherfascist forces during World War Two. I consider these current actions unbecoming of great powers.

It is appropriate to touch on the humanitarian dimension for it is theinnocent who are being subjected to displacement, pain and misery.Unfortunately, this is the tragic and inevitable outcome of all suchsituations of civil war, insurgencies, rebel movements, and terroristactivity. History is replete with examples of such suffering; whether itbe the American Civil War, Northern Ireland, the Basque movement inSpain, Chechnya, Angola, Cambodia, and so many other cases; theindiscriminate bombing of civilian centres during World War Two;Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Vietnam. The list is endless. I feel that thistragedy could have been prevented if NATO's ego and credibility had notbeen given the highest priority instead of the genuine grievances ofSerbs in addition to Albanians.

Notwithstanding all that one hears and sees on CNN and BBC, and otherWestern agencies, and in the daily briefings of the NATO authorities,the blame for the humanitarian crisis that has arisen cannot be placedat the door of the Yugoslav authorities alone. The responsibility restsmainly at NATO's doors. In fact, if I am to go by my own experience asthe First Force Commander and Head of Mission of the United Nationsforces in the former Yugoslavia, from March 1992 to March 1993, handlingoperations in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia, I would saythat reports put out in the electronic media are largely responsible forprovoking this tragedy. Where does all this leave the internationalcommunity which for the record does not comprise of the US, the West andits newfound Muslim allies ? The portents for the future, at least inthe short term, are bleak indeed. The United Nations has been madetotally redundant, ineffective, and impotent. The Western world, led bythe USA, will lay down the moral values that the rest of the world mustadhere to; it does not matter that they themselves do not adhere to thesame values when it does not suit them. National sovereignty andterritorial integrity have no sanctity. And finally, secessionistmovements, which often start with terrorist activity, will get greaterencouragement. One can only hope that good sense will prevail, hopefullysooner rather than later.

What's With General Clark?

Clark on the offensive
April 18, 1999
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Members of Congress who, during their spring recess, met in Brussels with Gen. Wesley Clark, the NATO supreme commander, were startled by his bellicosity.

According to the lawmakers, Clark suggested the best way to handle Russia's supply of oil to Yugoslavia would be aerial bombardment of the pipeline that runs through Hungary. He also proposed bombing Russian warships that enter the battle zone.

The American general was described by the members of the congressional delegation as waging a personal vendetta against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "I think the general might need a little sleep," commented one House member.

Hackworth Discusses Gen Clark
_________________________________________

" I have to tell you that, as one United States Senator, I am categorically opposed to the use of American ground troops in Kosovo because I do not believe our vital national interests are at stake..."
more

Labor MP Opposes Tony Blair on Kosovo
Alice Mahon, an MP from the ruling Labour party who heads a Committee for Peace in the Balkans, said the so-called "humanitarian war for the values of civilisation" had "created instead a humanitarian disaster... more

John Birch Society is Right Once More
35 years ago Robert Welch was first to call for U.S. to leave Viet Nam (long before the hippies). His points were (on Meet the Press) that we would not win, that American morals would be eroded and that regional alliances like SEATO and NATO have negative long-rang implications for America. The present leader of JBS has incisive articles on current crisis.

Kosovar rebels'
By Chris Hedges for New York Times Services
"The KLA began on the radically fringe of Kosovar Albanian politics, originally made up of diehard Marxist-Leninists (who were bankrolled in the old days by the Stalinist dictatorship next door in Albania) as well as by descendants of the fascist militias raised by the Italians in the Second World War. "

Analysis - By Joe Schlesinger
- NATO's attack on what's left of Yugoslavia is unprecedented and controversial. CBC News veteran Joe Schlesinger has followed the evolution of the alliance for many years and has this analysis of its venture into uncharted territory.

The Clinton Doctrine
TIME  APRIL 5, 1999 VOL. 153 NO. 13
BY CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
Read this; here's a sample:
"The problem with this doctrine, for all the ringing moral satisfaction it gives, is that it is impossibly moralistic and universal. It cannot be the policy of the U.S. Even as the Clinton people say it, they cannot believe it. Why? Because they remember Krajina." [Again, please read on abut Krajina]