In an age of lies,
actions in Balkans speak louder than words

By Charley Reese,
The Orlando Sentinel
April 20, 1999

In the fog of war propaganda, let us remember the facts. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is in the wrong.

NATO is in violation of the United Nations Charter, which forbids military aggression against a sovereign state at peace with its neighbors. Yugoslavia was at peace with its neighbors.

NATO is in violation of its own charter because it was supposed to be a defensive alliance only. No attack was launched against any NATO country.

The United States, which has orchestrated this war against Yugoslavia, has no legitimate vital, strategic or even marginal interests in the Balkans.

At the time the NATO attacks were launched, a total of about 2,000 people -- both Serbs and Albanians -- had been killed during a two-year civil war between the government and the Kosovo Liberation Army. To put that number into perspective, about 18,000 Americans lose their lives to criminals in one year.

One of the most stupid statements being made in Washington by both Republicans and Democrats is that attacking Yugoslavia was a mistake but that, because it has already been done, the United States has to win.

This is stupid for a number of reasons. War is not a sport. What the people making those statements are really saying is that it was wrong to begin killing people and destroying their property but that, because we are doing it, we have to keep on killing people and destroying more property. Second, there is no way the United States can win. If it takes Kosovo away from Serbia and gives it to the Albanians, then the Serbs will fight a guerrilla war to get it back. Moreover, the Albanians very likely will fight to get NATO forces out so they can pursue the goal of a greater Albania. Unless the United States halts its aggression, it will create a fire that will burn well into the new millennium.

Finally, to say that Americans and Serbs must die in order to salvage the reputation of President Clinton's incompetent foreign-policy team is obscene. The reputations of Sandy Berger and Madeleine Albright aren't worth the life of a rat, much less the life of an American or a Serbian man or woman.

In an age of lies, it is always best to look at actions rather than words, and the meaning of NATO's actions includes the following:

By expanding the alliance and immediately launching an offensive war against a sovereign nation, NATO has shown that its purpose is to be a weapon to enforce U.S. domination of Eastern Europe.

There were, in fact, no negotiations with Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was told: You will turn Kosovo over to the Albanians; you will accept occupation of your territory by foreign military forces; or you will get bombed. The Yugoslav leader had no choice but to reject the NATO demands. This cannot be blamed on the current leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Any Yugoslav president would have been forced to reject the dictate.

The consequences will be serious. This war has already precluded the chance of any pro-Western person being elected in Russia. Russia, in this case, is on the high moral ground and rightly sees the NATO aggression as a potential threat to it. Ukraine and Belarus, which had given up nuclear weapons, are both now reconsidering the issue. Russia and China have even more reason to establish close military ties.

The United Nations, like its predecessor, is a dead issue. The old League of Nations died when it did nothing to help Ethiopia, which had been invaded by fascist Italy. Now the United Nations has done nothing to help the Serbs, who have been attacked by NATO.

Clinton has poisoned the future. People who said character doesn't matter were wrong.