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War Letters

ETS!, The commentary on the NATO bombing of Serbia in the most recent ETS! (March 31, 1999) was awful. Not once is it mentioned that the most displaced ethnic group in the former Yugoslavia are Serbs (Democracy Now!). In August 1995, the Croation Army, using German-made weapons and the aid of the CIA, drove out hundreds of thousands of Serbs living in the Krajina region of Croatia, a region they had been living in for hundreds of years. Of course, the Western media has long since forgotten this. While we are seeing calls for the immediate return of Albanians being driven from their homes in Kosovo, you don't see anybody in the mainstream media making the same call when it comes to Serbs driven from their homes in Krajina. Alexander Cockburn relates in his latest National Notes column:"The biggest single ethnic cleansing of the mid-1990s in the former Yugoslavia was conducted by Croatia under the supervision of the United States, whose military generals and CIA officers issued targeting instructions to Croation artillery for the ethnic clearing. Heading the Croation cleansers was President Franjo Tudjman, who has rehabbed Nazi war criminals. Yet somehow it is Serbia's Milosevic who is demonized here as Hitler." And you can bet there are no calls in the U.S. media for trying the Nazi-loving Tudjman for crimes against humanity. Stephen Zunes does little besides repeat U.S. media conventions in his commentary ("Bombing Serbia Not The Answer") on the current situation in the former Yugoslavia.

"The cause is certainly just: The Serbian authorities have imposed an apartheid-style system on the country's ethnic Albanian majority and have severly suppressed cultural and political rights." Zunes sounds like George Bush issuing apolegetics for the invasion of Panama in 1989 and the bombing of Iraq in 1991. The "cause" in this case is a western military garrison in Serbian territory, which Belgrade understandably refused to allow. Belgrade was willing to except a peace agreement in Kosovo but did not want a U.S. dominated military base in its own territory. So if you can't increase the military budget by way of building a base in Kosovo, then bomb Serbia and watch the orders for new missiles by Pentagon contractors quickly follow. Again, the U.S. directly participated in driving out the Serb minority from Croatia so a rational person can discount the notion that the current bombing is being conducted for humanitarian reasons. Zunes continues with the standard U.S. media line that the current installment of the war in the former Yugoslavia is all the fault Serb nationalists. "The root of the Kosovar crisis, as was the root of the Bosnian tragedy, is the extreme Serb ethno-nationalism which emerged from from the collapse of Yugoslavia." It is worth noting that Western (Particularly German) insistance on the rapid break-up of the former Yugoslavia played a major role in the events we see unfolding today. To argue that it is all the fault of the Serbs is clearly an uniformed and unenlightened opinion. There are dispicable nationalist elements among Serbs, to be sure. Equally despicable has been the treatment of the Albanain majority in Kosovo. Serb criminals need to be brought to justice but so do those Croats and Muslims who have committed crimes since the break-up of Yugoslavia. If only Serbs get tried for their crimes during these wars, which has been the case for the most part, then we can hardly call that justice. It is too bad I had to read something in ETS! I could have read in Time or Newsweek. It is also worth noting that German pilots have been taking part in the bombing of Serbia. About 700,000 Serbs were gassed to death by the Nazi's and their Croatian accomplises during World War II. Now imagine the outcry if German pilots were helping bomb a city with a majority Jewish population. But these are Serbs so it is alright to hate them and bomb them. I am ashamed to see my own country leading an attack that can only be seen by Serbs as a continuation of the Nazi assault more than 50 years ago. NATO, Sieg Heil!

--Rick Giombetti, Fort Collins CO

Open letter to the local News:

Your choice of slogans like "NATO zeroing in on 'military' targets" and "targeting military infrastructure" and "stopping Milosevic" provided some of the most biased coverage I have witnesses since the Gulf War. Can any of you think for yourselves? Or are you all consigned to regurgitating the Orwellian newspeak of Pentagon press releases, U.S. officials, and other PR hacks--a deliberate manipulation of truth. Can you not comprehend a perspective gained under fire, under bombs, and under oppression?

Our 10,000 men and women serving around Kosovo are much farther from harm than the civilians caught under our bombs. And we should not forget who put them in harm's way, President Clinton.

As Americans, we have had the luxury of not experiencing the full horrors of war. No war has been fought on our own soil for over 130 years. With the exception of combat veteran and some courageous humanitarians, 99% of Americans don't know the horror of hiding from bombs. It is easier for us to consign others to the hell of war. With little hesitation, we can indiscriminately destroy power stations, knocking out power to hospitals, entire cities, and water facilities. We can bomb bridges and communication centers with impunity. We can do all of this because, after all, as you have so obediantly parroted, these are "military targets."

With little guilt, we can violently disrupt daily life with little sense of responsibility. We can murder innocent civilians and call it "collateral damage." We can do all of this conveniently under the pretext of "standing up to a dictator."

Milosevic does not justify the bombing of Serbia and Kosovo. A year or so ago, I distinctly recall the fraudulent elections that kept Milosevic & Co. in power. I distinctly recall the large student demonstrations that were tear gassed and violently dispersed. Activists and some journalists remain exiled and jailed. Tight media control continues. And although dissent is often silenced, a majority of Serbs do not seem to be in support of Milosevic. Why else would there be a need to censor the media, crush demonstrations, kill opponents, spread hateful propaganda, prevent political pluralism and manufacture consent through fraudulent elections? I do not think it is the people of Serbia who support the killings in Kosovo or "ethnic cleansing" anywhere. It is the ultranationalists in power and their military backers who not only perpetrate these crimes, but profit from it, both financially and politically. Bombing will bolster their claim on power (as what happens to any nation that is bombed, people tend to rally around their leaders.) Bombing will also likely create a cover for further crackdowns. And most importantly, bombing has never worked over the past century in winning any war. But I assure you that civilians will die.

Let me be very clear, the United States and NATO bombing of Serbia and Kosovo IS NOT BOMBING Milosevic. We are BOMBING the PEOPLE of SERBIA including civilians, oppositions groups and persecuted communities. I hope the views like those expressed by Edward Herman and Rachelle Marshall, as well as firsthand witnesses from ground zero, will be heard in future news broadcasts.

--Erik Gustafson, Gulf War Veteran