Why Kosovo?

I spent an hour on the phone with a friend the other day, talking about economic issues, especially the U.S. trade deficit and the emergence of the euro. For folks who missed it, this January marked the establishment of the euro as a new currency in Europe; it will eventually become the common currency for all of the member nations of the European Union. What does this have to do with the U.S. trade deficit? Well, in simple terms, currently the U.S. can run up as big a trade deficit as it wants because the U.S. dollar is the currency of choice for international trade. Think of our trade deficit as an unlimited credit line extended by the world to U.S. consumers: we can buy what we want from the rest of the world because they desperately need our dollars to pay their own dollar-denominated debts to the World Bank, IMF, western banks, and western corporations. Now think of those same western banks and corporations accepting euros in payment on those loans. Now imagine them beginning to prefer payments made in euros over payments made in dollars. Uh-oh. Suddenly that big U.S. trade deficit that so many economists now think of as only white noise becomes economically destabilizing for the U.S. economy.

Which could explain why the U.S. government is so damn interested now in bolstering NATO, to the exclusion of all other foreign policy matters--even the "problem" of overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Literally, the U.S. has a major interest in ensuring the destabilization of Europe, which--after the Asian economic crisis, Russia's debt default, and the currency collapses in Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, and the rest of Latin America--is the only healthy economic competitor in the world to challenge U.S. hegemony. With the resources of Russia and the former Soviet republics up for sale after a decade of disastrous free market policies, the unification of neighboring Europe--which would naturally look eastward for resources--is the U.S.'s worst nightmare. So there exists a very compelling reason for Clinton & Co. to strengthen NATO and drive a wedge between those European countries that belong to NATO and those that don't, and between Western Europe and Russia.

In spite of those efforts, Russia's finally becoming the active agent in negotiating peace in the Balkans--as it should have been from the first. This is the direct result of hard work done by Kofi Annan, the German government, the European Union, and the Russian government (and this whole process has been largely ignored by the U.S. press). By making an end-run around the U.S., the U.K., and France, these folks have finally come up with a solution that could end the war in Kosovo, and salvage relations between Russia and Western Europe.

In the meantime, Clinton and NATO have tried their best to derail the peace process, particularly by stepping up the bombing runs during key times in the negotiating process. Last Friday, the night after Milosevic agreed to a workable peace plan--including the deployment of international troops in Kosovo--NATO planes conducted the heaviest attack on Yugoslavian cities so far in the war. While managing to destroy the Chinese embassy in Belgrade with three missiles (one missile could have been described as a stray, but three make it seem like an intentional act), the news leaked out that NATO planes are dropping cluster bombs on cities.

In the past two weeks, we've seen pictures and read vivid details of the nail bombs detonated in London: children with nails driven through their skulls, men and women with nails imbedded in their bodies, faces covered with blood from deep lacerations. Last Friday night, NATO planes dumped cluster bombs on a market and hospital in Nis, the third largest city in Yugoslavia. Cluster bombs explode near the ground and send metal shrapnel flying in all directions; they are explicitly designed to be anti-personnel devices, and are far more deadly than land mines. Some explode right away; others remain as neat little unexploded packages among the rubble: a nasty surprise for rescue workers. It's long been known that NATO planes were dropping these vile things--small British Harrier planes, in particular (which aren't big enough to carry laser-guided bombs)--but NATO has always claimed that they were dropping them on Serbian troops and military targets, not on cities and civilians. Naturally, we won't be treated to pictures of babies in Nis with shrapnel imbedded in their skulls, or heart patients with blood running down their faces, but we should know that these people are now military targets. And any NATO claims about surgical strikes or precision bombing are outright lies.

In the meantime, for your reading pleasure, here's a list of sources and resources on the current Balkan conflict. It was forwarded to us by a radical librarian in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Kosovo: A bibliography

"The saga of Kosovo: focus on Serbian-Albanian relations," Alex N. Dragnich and Slavko Todorovich, East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, 1984.

"Kosovo: a short history," Noel Malcolm, New York University Press, Washington Square, NY, 1998.

"Between Serb and Albanian: a history of Kosovo," Miranda Vickers, Columbia University Press, New York, 1998.

Background on inter-ethnic history of Yugoslavia:

"Yugoslavia's ethnic nightmare: the inside story of Europe's unfolding ordeal," edited by Jasminka Udovicki and James Ridgeway. "Written by a team of antiwar Muslim, Croatian, and Serbian journalists and a ... Croatian historian," Lawrence Hill Books, New York, 1995.

"Ethnic nationalism: the tragic death of Yugoslavia," Bogdan Denitch, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1996.

"Broken bonds: the disintegration of Yugoslavia," Leonard J. Cohen, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1993.

"Bosnia and Hercegovina: a tradition betrayed," by Robert J. Donia and John V.A. Fine, with maps by John C. Hamer, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994.

"Serbs and Croats: the struggle in Yugoslavia," Alex N. Dragnich, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.

"Yugoslavian inferno: ethnoreligious warfare in the Balkans," Paul Mojzes, Continuum, New York, 1994.

"Balkan babel: the disintegration of Yugoslavia from the death of Tito to insurrection in Kosove," Sabrina Petra Ramet, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1999 (3rd ed.).

"The improbable survivor: Yugoslavia and its problems, 1918-1988," Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Ohio State University Press, 1988.

"Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia," Rebecca West, Penguin Books, New York, 1969.

On interventionism:

"The warrior's honor: ethnic war and the modern conscience," Michael Ignatieff, Metropolitan Books, New York, 1998. Discusses "the ambiguous ethics of engagement, the limited force of moral justice in a world of war, and the inevitable clash between those who defend tribal and national loyalties and those who speak the universal language of human rights."

"Endless enemies: the making of an unfriendly world," Jonathan Kwitny, Congdon and Weed, 1984. Jacket subtitle: "How America's worldwide interventions destroy democracy and free enterprise and defeat our own best interests."

"Against empire," Michael Parenti, City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA, 1995.

Some web sites:

International Action Center: http://www.iacenter.org/ Kosova Crisis Center: http://amahelp.com/kosova/ Nonviolence Web: http://www.nonviolence.org/ Znet: http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/kosovo.htm

Statement by librarians: http://www.germany.net/teilnehmer/100/115158/kosovo.htm