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October
11, 2001
Arrogance
of Power
As
American and British missiles obliterate what little there
is left of Afghanistan much the same way as they pounded Serbia
thirty months ago, US media gleefully announce the revenge
phase of "America’s New War" against world terrorism. Yet
halfway around the world, between Kabul and Washington DC,
a massive body of evidence testifies that this war is the
same old one, and that all terrorism is definitely
not on its target list.
In
the papers and on television, attacks on Afghanistan are described
in terms echoing those of NATO’s 78-day war against Serbia.
Again, the US is "degrading" the foe’s military capabilities
by devastating urban areas; again, the foe’s statements are
censored or discounted as "dangerous propaganda." Even the
manner of fighting is the same – missiles at dawn, rhetoric
at noon. Clearly, the Empire is re-fighting its last war.
Only now, instead of Jamie Shea, Ari Fleischer runs the Office of Official Truth.
CONTRADICTIONS
By
using the same methods and rhetoric in fighting Bin Laden
and Al-Qaeda as they did fighting Slobodan Milosevic and the
Serbs, what sort of message is the Empire sending? Perhaps
that the war 30 months ago was as justified as this one, or
that Milosevic and Bin Laden are simply different incarnations
of pure evil? Few warmongers in Washington would disagree
with either conclusion.
In
this brave new world, jihad can be America’s enemy
in Afghanistan but its friend in Bosnia. Depending on whether
their victims are Americans, Serbs or Macedonians, murderers
are defined as "bloodthirsty terrorists" or "rebels" fighting
for "American values." Self-defense is a sacred right when
claimed by the United States, but a crime against humanity
when claimed by Serbia, Macedonia, or anyone else. Serbs are
monsters when they fight the mujahideen, who are monsters
when they kill Americans. And so on. It doesn’t matter. If
the Empire’s behavior in the Balkans this past month is any
indication, the "war on terror" was never more than a catchy
sound bite for CNN.
WHOSE
LAND IS IT, ANYWAY?
Take,
for example, tiny Macedonia. Trusting the good intentions
of the United States and Europe, its leaders let the Western
envoys craft a proposal that would end the seven-month reign
of terror by the separatist Albanian "army." What they got
was the monstrous Treaty of Ohrid, in which the Albanians
are granted special privileges and a parallel society at the
government’s expense, in exchange for giving up some 3000
rifles to NATO. Macedonia was even strong-armed into granting
amnesty to all Albanian separatists, despite the horrendous
crimes they committed.
When
Macedonian police tried to reenter the areas
conquered by the separatists, however, NATO quickly
intervened and "advised"
the government in Skopje that this would be a bad idea. Albanians,
who see NATO as their savior, wholeheartedly agree and claim
they only feel secure because a NATO force of 1000 troops
and a yet unknown number of foreign observers are around.
The troops and the observers are there to protect
the separatists, not some 150,000 ethnically cleansed
Macedonians who are now trying to get home. Albanians "don’t
feel safe" with Macedonian police around, but Macedonians
should merrily stroll into the outstretched arms of the "disbanded"
separatist mob. And as far as the US is concerned, this is
perfectly normal and even desirable.
PILLORYING
THE PROTECTORATES
Life
doesn’t make any more sense in either of the two Western protectorates
in the Balkans. A few weeks from now, the UN will stage a sham election for a
"legislative assembly" in Kosovo, composed almost entirely
of independence-minded Albanians. To maintain a pretense of
fairness, 10 seats out of 120 will be reserved for the remaining
Serbs, who live in ghettos enclosed by barbed wire and guarded
by NATO’s occupation troops. If the Serbs show up at the polls,
they will legitimize the occupation authorities of a province
that was taken from them by force, in exchange for a token
presence in an institution of Albanian statehood. If they
boycott the poll, the UN governor will simply appoint ten
Serbs to serve as quisling assemblymen. Yet the US and its
NATO allies see this lose-lose "choice" as a right and proper
way to establish democracy.
Establishing
a legislative assembly in a territory occupied by NATO (and
"administered" by the UN) is definitely prejudicial to the
eventual political solution of Kosovo’s status. Then again,
so is the occupation itself. Ah, but that is "old" logic.
In the "new" world, all of this makes perfect sense, and is
perfectly consistent with American values.
That
is probably why the International Crisis Group, a notorious
militant "think tank," has no qualms about advocating
the destruction of the Bosnian Serb Republic. According
to ICG’s newest report, the Serb Republic is a creation of
genocidal aggression, and should not have been recognized
in the Dayton Accords to begin with.
This
is an old argument, most notably championed by Bosnian Muslim
politician Haris Silajdzic and his mentor, Alija Izetbegovic.
Both extensively cooperated with the mujahideen during
the 1992-95 Bosnian War; both have since "retired" from
politics at the Empire’s polite urging, Silajdzic only after
September 11. Yet the ICG declines to comment on the panic
among Bosnian Muslims after the WTC and Pentagon attacks,
focusing its white-hot wrath on their favorite target and
sole culprit for everything that has ever gone wrong in Bosnia:
the Serbs.
MANIPULATIONS
OF LAW
Not
wishing to lag behind, the Hague Inquisition issued another
major indictment on Tuesday. This time, it accuses Slobodan
Milosevic of crimes
during Croatia’s war of secession (1991-92). The long
list of alleged crimes, from murder, torture and looting to
"ethnic cleansing," hides the real heart of the Inquisition’s
latest endeavor. Fifteen other people were cited as Milosevic’s
accomplices. Of them, eleven are government officials. Among
them are two former presidents of the disintegrating Yugoslav
federation, two top Yugoslav generals, several security service
officials, and even a former president of Montenegro, Momir
Bulatovic. Combined with the previous indictments for alleged
crimes in Bosnia and Kosovo, all Serb leaders of the
past decade have now been accused of war crimes.
The
Inquisition stated with incredible self-assurance
that:
"The
purpose of this enterprise was the forcible removal of the
majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from approximately
one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia, an
area [Milosevic] planned to become part of a new Serb-dominated
state."
Well
of course it was – so what if there is no evidence
of this whatsoever? Old jurisprudence retreats before
the new.
Two
and a half years after helping the NATO war effort in Kosovo
by declaring Milosevic a war criminal, the Inquisition has
finally revealed its true purpose: all Serb leaders and policies
of the past decade are to be declared criminal and genocidal.
This would make European and American interventions in the
Balkans legal and legitimate, annul the existence of the Bosnian
Serb Republic, cement the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from
Croatia, form a basis for secession of Kosovo…
This
three-ring circus in robes, a kangaroo court established outside
the law to further the Empire’s political objectives, claims
to be a legitimate UN body. Yet its actions can only be described
as "legal terror" against the people of the Balkans. Those
Muslims and Croats jailed by this "court" have been mainly
lower-ranking officers and politicians, sacrificed to establish
the "tribunal’s" credibility where there can be none.
FULL
SPEED AHEAD – TO DOOM
So,
as it becomes abundantly clear, rumors of a possible policy
shift after Bush fils came to power, or after the horrible
tragedy of Black Tuesday, were greatly exaggerated, and can
be attributed to wishful thinking. Nothing that has happened
in the Balkans over the past month – nothing – indicates
that the Empire is the least bit willing to change its ways.
Playing
favorites among the "savages," the Empire pits Serbs, Croats,
Muslims, Albanians and Macedonians against each other in a
game of endless war, increasing its dominion over the peninsula
every day. Convinced of its absolute righteousness, infused
with the boundless arrogance of power, it crushes the Balkans
even harder under the boot of "democracy" and "human rights."
When it attacks Afghanistan, at least it claims to be motivated
by vengeance.
Unless
all those missiles, bombs, planes and troops are really meant
to avenge the commitment to absolute power and complete invulnerability,
which died with the thousands of innocents on September 11.
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