In March, NATO started a war to prevent Slobodan, “the Butcher of the
Balkans,” Milosevic from exterminating ethnic Albanians in the Kosovo
province of Yugoslavia. Last week, NATO ended a war its bombs couldn’t
win with the blood of innocent Serbs and Kosovar Albanians on its hands.
NATO troops and the western press are finding indisputable evidence
of the savagery of the Serbian paramilitary police and army. They are
finding unmistakable proof that yet another modern day holocaust
occurred while the whole world was watching.
NATO’s leaders want us to believe that they won an unqualified
victory. They are wrong. Every Kosovar Albanian body that we find
represents a soul that they sacrificed on the altar of NATO politics.
Every Serbian civilian that NATO’s bombs killed is buried with the ashes
of the Serbian democracy movement.
Some will say that blaming NATO for Serbian atrocities is unfair. I’m
sorry, but I believe in holding people to their word. NATO said that its
bombing would protect Kosovar Albanians. It didn’t, so NATO’s hands are
also covered with the blood of innocent people it failed to protect.
At the beginning of the war, refugees told NATO that the Serbs were
slaughtering people in Kosovo. What did NATO do? Nothing. As the war
progressed, NATO showed us pictures of “mass graves” that are sadly
turning out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Nevertheless, instead of
immediately taking action to stop the carnage, what did NATO do?
Nothing. No ground troops, no Apache helicopters, no rescue missions.
Nothing. NATO stood by for 74 days knowing that some Serbs were raping,
brutalizing and killing the people it was “sworn to protect.”
Now, NATO is compounding the error of its ways by doing nothing to
prevent departing Serbs from killing Kosovar Albanians. Why did NATO
have no plans in place to rid Kosovo of land mines and booby traps
before allowing Kosovar Albanians to return? Hundreds of more Kosovar
Albanians may die because of NATO’s failure. Is it wrong to expect more
out of NATO?
If we started the bombing because of our “humanitarian concerns,” why
is NATO now failing to protect Kosovar Serbs from retaliation? Are
Kosovar Serbs any less human than Kosovar Albanians? Is Kosovar Serbian
blood any less red than the blood of Kosovar Albanians? Do we want a
world where the definition of “humanitarian concern” is purely
political?
Today, tens of thousands of Serbian residents of Kosovo are voting
with their feet and are leaving their ancestral homes. How does this
make Kosovo and Yugoslavia better places for its people? How can NATO
call this a victory?
What I don’t understand is why NATO’s military leaders allowed the
politicians to make such a mess of things? Why did they agree to go to
war with two hands tied behind their backs? Why did they fail to take
action when credible evidence surfaced of a holocaust in Kosovo? What
about what has happened in Kosovo in the past week did they not imagine?
After all, they had months to prepare for the bombing, surely they spent
some time thinking about what they would do after the bombing ended?
Why did NATO let Serb troops keep most of their weapons? Why did NATO
give them days to move out before they moved in? How could NATO have
allowed Russian troops to get to the Pristina airport first? Why hasn’t
NATO kicked them out, or at least started using that critical asset
also? What more will NATO give the Russians before this is all over? The
Russians didn’t lift a hand or spend a dime to protect Kosovar
Albanians. Why is NATO bending over backwards to lick their boots? What,
pray tell, will NATO do about the Kosovo Liberation Army?
While I am asking questions, here is a good one for you: What is the
real reason behind the partitioning of Kosovo? Why a French, German,
American, British and Russian district? We tried that in Berlin fifty
years ago and it didn’t work. Why did each country fight to get the part
of Kosovo that it got? What is really going on?
Oh my friends, all is not well in Kosovo, and things are going to get
worse. My only hope is that the lessons the world learns from Kosovo
will teach us to take military intervention much more seriously next
time. Remember, the job of the military is to kill people and break
things. Now, we are asking our soldiers to be police officers. That is
wrong.
Kosovo and Bosnia together are going to cost more than $5,000,000,000
a year. Guess who is going to pay for this? Couldn’t this money have
been put to better use? At the end of it all, will the Kosovar Serbs and
Albanians love each other?
The Yugoslav government says that reconstruction will cost 30 to 35
billion dollars. That doesn’t include helping Montenegro, Macedonia,
Albania, Bulgaria or Romania, as NATO promised during its 50th
anniversary “celebration.” Now that the bombing has stopped, does anyone
believe that bombing was the only way to solve the human rights problems
of Yugoslavia? After we spend more than 100 billion dollars in the next
twenty years, will the hatred between Serbs and Albanians have abated?
So remember, when you see pictures of mass graves in Kosovo, ask why
NATO didn’t stop the slaughter. When you see lines of Serbs leaving
Kosovo, ask why NATO isn’t protecting them. When you see land mines and
booby traps injuring and killing people, ask why NATO didn’t remove them
first. When you see the hatred and the cost escalate, ask what NATO
accomplished with its dirty little war.
The death of Obamaism, and the historic MAGA opportunity
Josh Hammer