Editorial
While the Bush Administration dances around their lies about Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction used to justify the conquest of Iraq, let us recall the Clinton
administration lied to justify their conquest of Kosovo in 1999. No mass
graves were found, except in places where a few dozen Islamic terrorists, and
civilians caught in the crossfire, were
killed in firefights with Serbian police. There was no "ethnic
cleansing" by the Serbian army, which includes thousands of Muslim
soldiers. Reports that civilians were forced to vacate cities by
evil Serbian police proved false; they fled because they were terrified as NATO
aircraft unleashed hundreds of bombs over a three week period, killing 2000 civilians. This destroyed
the Serbian economy and terrorized their
government into submission, which resulted in a compromise in which Serbia
retained sovereignty over its Kosovo province and agreed to allow NATO
peacekeepers to occupy Kosovo on a temporary basis.
As with the conquest
of Iraq, it is uncertain why this conflict arose. Some think it was created by the
powerful NATO bureaucracy to justify their post Cold war existence.
Defense contractors made handsome profits though supplemental funding while contractors like Halliburton
continue to pocket billions of dollars
to support the occupation of Kosovo. Others claim it was a
public relations gimmick by President Clinton, while a few think more
sinister reasons were involved. Here is an excellent update on
the present situation: THE
NATIONAL POST (Canada) | 2004-04-06 |
We bombed the wrong side?
Major General Lewis MacKenzie - Armed Forces of Canada (retired)
Five years ago our television screens were dominated by pictures of Kosovo-Albanian
refugees escaping across Kosovo's borders to the sanctuaries of Macedonia and
Albania. Shrill reports indicated that Slobodan Milosevic's security forces were
conducting a campaign of genocide and that at least 100,000 Kosovo-Albanians had
been exterminated and buried in mass graves throughout the Serbian province.
NATO sprung into action and, in spite of the fact no member nation of the
alliance was threatened, commenced bombing not only Kosovo, but the
infrastructure and population of Serbia itself -- without the authorizing United
Nations resolution so revered by Canadian leadership, past and present.
Those of us who warned that the West was being sucked in on the side of an
extremist, militant, Kosovo-Albanian independence movement were dismissed as
appeasers. The fact that the lead organization spearheading the fight for
independence, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was universally designated a
terrorist organization and known to be receiving support from Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda was conveniently ignored.
The recent dearth of news in the North American media regarding the increase in
violence in Kosovo compared to the comprehensive coverage in the European press
strongly suggests that we Canadians don't like to admit it when we are wrong. On
the contrary, selected news clips on this side of the ocean continue to
reinforce the popular spin that those dastardly Serbs are at it again.
A case in point was the latest crisis that exploded on March 15. The media
reported that four Albanian boys had been chased into the river Ibar in
Mitrovica by at least two Serbs and a dog (the dog's ethnic affiliation was not
reported). Three of the boys drowned and one escaped to the other side.
Immediately, thousands of Albanians mobilized and concentrated in the area of
the divided city. Attacks on Serbs took place throughout the province resulting
in an estimated 30 killed and 600 wounded. Thirty Serbian Christian Orthodox
churches and monasteries were destroyed, more than 300 homes were burnt to the
ground and six Serbian villages cleansed of their occupants. One hundred and
fifty international peacekeepers were injured.
Totally ignored in North America were the numerous statements from impartial
sources that said there was no incident between the Serbs, the dog and the
Albanian boys. NATO Police spokesman Derek Chappell stated on March 16 that it
was "definitely not true" that the boys had been chased into the river
by Serbs. Chappell went on to say that the surviving boy had told his parents
that they had entered the river alone and that three of his friends had been
swept away by the current. Admiral Gregory Johnson, the overall NATO commander,
further stated that the ensuing clashes were "orchestrated and well-planned
ethnic cleansing" by the Kosovo-Albanians. Those Serbs forced to leave
joined the 200,000 who had been cleansed from the province since NATO's
"humanitarian" bombing in 1999. The '"cleansees" have become
very effective "cleansers."
In the same week a number of individuals posing as Serbs ambushed and killed a
UN policeman and his local police partner. During the firefight one of them was
wounded which caused an immediate switch from Serbian to Albanian as he
screamed, "I've been hit"! The UN pursued the attackers and tracked
them to an Albanian-run farm where they discovered weapons and the wounded
Albanian who had died from his wounds. Four Albanians were arrested. Once again,
the ambush had been reported in the United States but not the follow-up which
clearly indicated yet another orchestrated provocation by the Albanian
terrorists.
Kosovo is administered by the UN, the very organization many Canadians have
indicated they would like to see take over from the United States in Iraq. The
fact the UN cannot order its civilian employees to go or stay anywhere -- they
have to volunteer -- combined with recent history that saw the UN abandon Iraq
after a single brutal attack on their compound in Baghdad and the reality that
Kosovo, under the organization's administration, is a basket case, disqualifies
it from consideration for such a role.
Since the NATO/UN intervention in 1999, Kosovo has become the crime capital of
Europe. The sex slave trade is flourishing. The province has become an
invaluable transit point for drugs en route to Europe and North America.
Ironically, the majority of the drugs come from another state
"liberated" by the West, Afghanistan. Members of the demobilized, but
not eliminated, KLA are intimately involved in organized crime and the
government. The UN police arrest a small percentage of those involved in
criminal activities and turn them over to a judiciary with a revolving door that
responds to bribes and coercion. The objective of the Albanians is to purge all
non-Albanians, including the international community's representatives, from
Kosovo and ultimately link up with mother Albania thereby achieving the goal of
"Greater Albania." The campaign started with their attacks on Serbian
security forces in the early 1990s and they were successful in turning
Milosevic's heavy-handed response into worldwide sympathy for their cause. There
was no genocide as claimed by the West -- the 100,000 allegedly buried in mass
graves turned out to be around 2,000, of all ethnic origins, including those
killed in combat during the war itself.
The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and
indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and
independent Kosovo. We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators
of the violence in the early '90s and we continue to portray them as the
designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve
independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden
and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to other
terrorist-supported independence movements around the world.
Funny how we just keep digging the hole deeper!
Maj-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, now retired, commanded UN troops during the Bosnian
civil war of 1992.
(c) 2004 National Post . All Rights Reserved.
Serbia
is a European democracy which maintains friendly relations with all nations. It
delivered Milosevic to the war crimes
tribunal in the Hague two years ago, although they are having trouble accumulating evidence
that he used excessive force to suppress Islamic terrorists in Kosovo.
Fighting had increased in the late 1990s as the CIA shipped arms to the KLA
terror group and helped coordinate Iranian weapon shipments to Albania funded in
part by Al Qaeda. Deposing Milosevic and turning him over for "war
crimes" was a key demand, yet NATO (e.g. the United States) has yet to announce
when the temporary NATO peacekeepers will depart.
Kosovo has been part of Serbia for hundreds of
years, and remains part of Serbia as recognized by every nation on Earth,
including the United States. NATO and the UN have failed to keep the peace
in Kosovo, and lack the resolve to pursue Islamic terrorists and criminal gangs
based there. The United States hasn't the resources to provide security
forever, and no European ally is anxious to add troops. The solution is
obvious; allow Serbian peacekeepers to return to Serbia's Kosovo
province. They are willing and experienced at this task, something they
had
done successfully for hundreds of years, until NATO pushed them aside.
Yes, there will be increased violence as Islamic terrorists and criminal
gangs battle Serbian police, once again. The Serbians will win, once
again. The terrorists will be pushed out and criminal activity reduced.
Violence will also decrease in neighboring Macedonia which is often terrorized
by gangs from Kosovo. Serbians can return to their stolen properties and rebuild their Christian
churches. During a 2000 presidential debate, George Bush said: "But one of the problems we have in the military is we're
in a lot of places around the world. And I mentioned one, and that's the
Balkans. I would very much like to get our troops out of there." Given
the strain on the US Army, American troops should leave Kosovo by years'
end. The last American officer to leave should tell his Serbian
replacement: Sorry about all this, it was our mistake. Good luck and good bye.
Carlton Meyer editorG2mil@Gmail.com
G2mil editorials may be
freely distributed without permission
Editor's Note: Perhaps you noticed this is
the "Summer" issue. G2mil has been a monthly on-line
publication for almost four years, however, producing a monthly issue is time
consuming and reduces the time I have to write on deeper issues of future
warfare. In addition, I am writing a book "The Spectrum of Future
Warfare" and that requires time as well. Therefore, G2mil has
become G2mil Quarterly for the remainder of this year and will include
more topics on warfare and less on current events. I will also take
several long vacations so e-mail responses may be delayed for several weeks.
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Summer 2004 Articles
Letters - comments from G2mil
readers
The Netfires Boondoggle - $1.1
billion wasted this year alone
The Calamity of Urban Warfare
- a 2002 G2mil article
C-Mag
- twin rotary rifle ammo drums
For the
Record - the US Army's official report on prisoner abuse Army
Running Out of Ammo - not good The
Gray Zone - Rumsfeld's Secret Technical
Realities - National Missile Defense is a scam
2004 US Air
Force Almanac - every fact you need
Defensetech - G2mil
without the attitude
The
US Navy's New Automated Ship - fewer sailors
US
Troops Intrude - Pakistan remains a safe haven for terrorists
Military
Prepositioning - GAO report on recent and future ops (pdf)
Prison
Abuse in Iraq - an insider clue
Russian
Airmobile Forces - still impressive
An
Open 2002 Letter to President Bush - prisoner abuse is not new
Military
Week - military news
G2mil Library
Previous G2mil - May 2004 issue
Transforming National Defense
Past Editorials - by Carlton Meyer
2005 Base Closures - likely closures
Library Tour - visit G2mil's library
Library Entrance - members only
All material in G2mil Copyright 2004
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