May: 'Why Kosovo?', from The New American
http://www.jbs.org/tna/1999/05-10-99/why_kosovo.htm

'The public has been inundated with similar photos and footage: Kosovo Albanians driven from their homes, packed into boxcars, and consigned to wretched refugee camps; throngs of desperately hungry refugees reaching plaintively for bread; elderly women and young children racked with sobs. This barrage has been the most effective weapon of the war, since it has been calibrated to break down the American public's resistance to a protracted involvement in a ground war in the Balkans on behalf of NATO, the United Nations, and the cause of global government.' William Norman Grigg challenges the propaganda war.

April 1999: 'A futile exercise in fantasy', from The Scotsman
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/r.lyons/kosovo/pearce.htm

'As Tony Benn asked in an outstanding speech: "What do we hope to achieve for people being killed at one of a country by killing other people at the opposite end of that country?" Nothing! No, not so much; less than nothing. For the first casualty of the Passiontide War has been an intensification of murders in Kosovo. Was that not foreseen, thought about, imagined, contemplated? If not, it was an error of peculiar weight. If it was thought about, then someone somewhere in a high place has decided that further Kosovan deaths were - what? - a price worth paying? Eggs broken for an omelette? An acceptable overhead?' Edward Pearce points out the folly of the conflict

30 April 1999: 'From "peacekeeper" to war hawk - Canada and NATO's war on Serbia', from the World Socialist Website
http://wsws.org/articles/1999/apr1999/can-a30.shtml

'Canada has been militarily aligned with the US through NATO and a strategic air defence alliance for decades. But until last month, Canadian military forces had not seen battle service, except in missions authorized by the United Nations, since World War II. For four decades, from the Korean War to the Gulf War, Canadian troops exchanged fire only when policing UN sponsored truces and peace settlements. That Canada's role is essentially that of a "peacekeeper" in international relations has been incorporated into Canadian nationalist mythology. Yet all five parties in Canada's parliament quickly endorsed NATO's bombing campaign and have already indicated their readiness to support the introduction of ground troops.' Keith Jones offers a left-wing perspective on the Canadian authorities' increasing taste for war.

26 April 1999: 'Our illegal war', from The New American
http://www.jbs.org/tna/1999/04-26-99/illegal_war.htm

'The war on Yugoslavia, we must remember, was brought about by NATO's demand that Milosevic consent to the foreign occupation of his country by an international army, which would enforce the terms of an agreement intended to grant "autonomy" to ethnic Albanian rebels. When Milosevic refused to permit the occupation, NATO threatened to bomb his country, and ultimately carried out that threat. Once again, the Clinton Administration has been devastatingly candid about key facts. On February 10th, in testimony before the Committee on International Relations, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering confirmed that Kosovo is part of Yugoslavia's sovereign territory, and that an attack upon Yugoslavia waged because of Milosevic's refusal to allow foreign intervention would be nothing less than an act of war.' Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth takes to task America's unlawful war.

25 April 1999: 'The Hollywood paradigm', from Academy for Peace
http://www.zoran.net/afp/text/submitted/pc_hollywood_paradigm.htm

'The lavish 1999 Academy Awards ceremony, reigned over by the delightful Gwyneth Paltrow, replete with song, dance and celebration may one day be regarded as the last hurrah of America's soft power which has significantly augmented national influence through the seductive appeal of culture and lifestyle. Just a few days after Hollywood's tribute to the power of soft power, hard power took center stage as the US military and a tough-talking President prepared a nation for war. A global television audience was told that bombs had to be lobbed onto Yugoslavia in the name of US and Nato credibility. The President undoubtedly hoped the war would be a quickie, but the script went awry.' Philip Cunningham on a politically correct conflict

24 April 1999: 'Flattening a few broadcasters', from The Guardian
http://www.zoran.net/afp/text/guardian/flattening_a_few_broadcasters.htm

'The effect of bombing on populations has generally been to increase support for their leaders. So, logically, the effect may be to glamorise the survivors. Certainly, it seems to me that, in a similarly blitzed Britain, broadcasters would become heroes. Newscasters who happened to be off-shift at the time of the bombing would speak from makeshift studios on flickering screens. The power of samizdat publications on paper or the internet would increase. Organised state broadcasting would be replaced by an informal and less reliable network of gossip and rumour. Resentment at the enemy would rise and it would become easy for demagogues to suggest that the hostile power was frightened of the truth.' Mark Lawson wonders what the reaction would be if British broadcasting houses were bombed by a foreign power

22 April 1999: 'The fatal flaws underlying NATO's Intervention in Yugoslavia', from the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
http://www.transnational.org/features/fatalflaws.html

'My year long experience as the Force Commander and Head of Mission of the United Nations Forces deployed in the former Yugoslavia has given me an understanding of the fatal flaws of US/NATO policies in the troubled region. It was obvious to most people following events in the Balkans since the beginning of the decade, and particularly after the fighting that resulted in the emergence of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, that Kosovo was a 'powder keg' waiting to explode. The West appears to have learnt all the wrong lessons from the previous wars and applied it to Kosovo.' Lieutenant General Satish Nambiar (retired) wonders if the West will ever learn.

15 April 1999: 'Bahus war diary', from Yurope News
http://www.yurope.com/kosovo/arhiva/bahus/26.html

'Rajab Abu Sarieh commented in independent, pro-Palestinian Authority Al-Ayyam: "The Serbian government in particular and the Yugoslav federal policy in general, are considered to be deviations from the New World Order, and therefore the United States is using the Serbian [crisis] to enforce its own policy and coerce the Serbs into obedience. The goal of the American and NATO intervention in Serbia is to discipline the Serbian regime and not to defend the right of the Albanian Kosovars for a homeland".' Just one of a number of quotes from newspapers and journals around the world

10 April 1999: 'A war of words', from The Guardian
http://www.zoran.net/afp/text/guardian/burchill_40reasons.htm

'Forty reasons why the Serbs are not the new Nazis and the Kosovars are not the new Jews:
1.Because the Nazis did not put Jews on the train to Israel, as the Serbs are now putting ethnic Albanian Kosovars on the train to Albania.
2.Because we're the ones fighting alongside the Luftwaffe and the Serbs are the ones whom the Luftwaffe is bombing.
3.Because the Serbs tend to be really good- looking, especially the women.
4.Because pop stars don't, and never will, dress up as Serbs.
5.Because Serbs don't feature in pornography.'
Julie Burchill's take on the comparisons between the Serbs and the Nazis.

April 1999: 'Atrocities management', from ZNet
http://www.zmag.org/atrocities.htm

Atrocities management works, but it also requires a complementary gross misunderstanding of the issues at stake and context of the actions taken....Past NATO policies have contributed to the ongoing violence and are part of the problem - their bombing strategy is the culmination of policies that have exacerbated the crisis. The bombing is not merely immoral and illegal, it is part of an ugly and destructive policy sequence rooted in self-serving geo-political strategies. Edward S Herman discusses the West's responsibility for the conflict in the Balkans

To debate some of the ideas on this page or to voice your opinion about NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, visit the LM Online discussion pages .

Saturday 8 May: A major rally will be held in Trafalgar Square, open to all those opposed to the NATO bombings. Organised by the Committee for Peace in the Balkans. For more information, phone (0171) 354 5200.

Tuesday 11 May: 7.30 pm. LM debate: NATO and Kosovo - a just war? Speakers are Mark Seddon (editor of Tribune and member of Labour Party NEC) and Jonathan Freedland (Guardian columnist) vs Mick Hume (editor of LM magazine) and Edward Pearce (Scotsman columnist). Methodist Central Hall, Storey's Gate, Westminster, London SW1. Nearest Underground stations: Westminster or St James's Park. Price: 7/ 5 For more information, phone (0171) 269 9200.