In this post I write about the NATO bombing in Kosovo of 24 March to 10 June 1999. I begin with a quote from an ethnically Albanian survivor and proceed to describe in brief the period leading up to the NATO bombing and the results of said bombing.
"One 17-year-old boy describes how on his way to Velika Krusa/Krushe e Madhe (Orahovac), he was stopped by police and put in a line of young men. They were forced to say 'Long live Serbia' and give the Serbian sign (three fingers). A 25-year-old mute man, since he could not say "Long live Serbia ", was ordered to get into a pool of water. He was shot in the back and a second time with an automatic weapon. The police then took four or five men from the group and put them in the water, one by one. They forced them to drink from the pool where the bodies were. They were then shot." (Human Rights in Kosovo: As Seen As Told. Volume I, Ch 15)
In 1999 the US collective moral conscience was awakening to the horrors of Serbian violence towards ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. National news reports were conveying stories, similar to the one above, to incensed American households. The American public's conscience was especially sensitive due to a pervasive sense of guilt over American inactivity during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. As Senator Kerry said of the Bosnian confict, "History has taught us that we can't sit idly by while people commit these incredible evil acts against humanity" (Boston Globe, 1994). Kerry used this rational for NATO intervention in Bosnia in 1994; he also backed NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999. The scope of political involvement was greater than just the States, though. The political outcry against Serbian atrocities was international; all the NATO nations began to demand withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo. After continued belligerence by the Serbian government, the moral outcry from the West became so great that a NATO bombing campaign was begun in Kosovo on March 24, 1999. The plan was to end Serbian violence by striking the Serb forces in Kosovo.
When the NATO bombing campaign began on March 24th, areas that had previously been unaffected were targeted by Serbs. "Indiscriminate attacks on populated areas, sporadic prior to 24 March 1999, became a widespread occurrence after that date. For many civilians there was no chance to escape and many were killed due to indiscriminate shelling or grenade attacks by Serbian forces" (Human Rights in Kosovo: As Seen As Told. Volume I, Ch 4). Apparently when the bombing began, Serb forces immediately realized that the Albanian Kosovars had solicited the help of the West. On the day the bombing began Serbs began taking revenge on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo for "bringing the NATO bombing campaign upon their troops."
The bombing campaign received popular backing in America because of the sensational reports of Serbian violence. Something had to be done. History had taught us that we "couldn't just sit idly by while people commit these evil acts." How ironic is it that the majority of Serbian violence occurred after the NATO bombing campaign began? In fact the story of the 17-year-old boy quoted at the beginning of this blog occurred eight days after the campaign had begun. What is the moral of the blog? In the Kosovo situation, international aggression brought further harm to the 'victims' to such a degree as to be considered a blunder from a humanitarian perspective. Let me remind you that it was the humanitarian issue that brought the public on board with the NATO campaign, not any issue of state rights or oil pipelines.
At this point I cannot resist a little editorializing related to the above Kerry quote. This bit of political spin was yet another interpretation on the quote, 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,' which is falsely attributed to Edmund Burke. Often lurking in the dark corners of pronouncements like these is an insidious evil far greater than the evil of which they speak. The insidious evil comes in the form of unwarranted justification of national aggression. Unwarranted in two ways. First, because human violence can never be made right by further human violence; the result of human violence is always a certain wronging even if a degree of righting is achieved. Second, because often the 'good men' represented by such a saying are far from innocent in the 'incredible evil acts against humanity' category. Justification is out of the question with concern to any approval of human violence.
Let us say, then, that national aggression is not justifiable. We may still decide that it is a necessary evil. For instance, how can one say that national aggression should not be pursued when such wickedly violent acts are being perpetrated upon vulnerable people? To make this question even more vivid we could consider the story of a Muslim woman in Bosnia. She says, "My student, Zoran, the only son of my neighbor, urinated into my mouth. As the bearded hooligans standing around laughed, he told me: 'You are good for nothing else, you stinking Muslim woman...' I do not know whether I first heard the cry or felt the blow. My former colleague, a teacher of physics, was yelling like mad, 'Ustasha, ustasha....' and kept hitting me. Wherever he could. I have become insensitive to pain. But my soul? It hurts." (The Killing of Sarajevo, Vukovic) What are we to do with this woman? Sit around and pretend nothing is happening? Allow her tormentors to take advantage? Is it not right to flex a little muscle on behalf of the weak? I will return to this strand of thought in another blog regarding the current Darfur humanitarian crisis. Just thought I'd raise the question now.
One positive in this whole story is that former President Clinton authorized the establishment of Camp Bondsteel after the NATO bombing campaign. Fortuitously it was established along Corridor 8 where the AMBO oil pipeline will run. America now has military presence along a corridor that should provide lucrative Caspian Sea oil. The legal company that the former President joined after leaving the presidency has overseen the legality of the AMBO contract while Halliburton has established connections with the company performing the construction. Corridor 8 pipeline development in the Balkan area had been in the works since 1996...three years before the NATO bombing. Even though thousands of Serbs and Albanians died after the NATO attack, at least the US might be able to get some economic gain from it all.
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