Kosovo- (see addendum below)
"Humanitarian" effort? Who are we fooling?
Stop the killing! We have substantially hurt hundreds of thousands of people. More people have been killed in a few weeks of bombing than in 2 years of civil war (estimated 2000 died last year - on both sides). We are wrong! By bombing, we gave up 600 human rights monitors in the region, helping keep things in check.
When did our country decide to live up to "imperialism". We complain about school killings when children get guns. We should complain that our president perpetrates similar violence against the Yugoslavians. We should have stopped it before it began. Where is Congress with a Republican majority? Where is leadership? God help us! God help them!
Perjury in front of a Federal Grand Jury is a felony. According to Clinton's gun control plan, those individuals with a past history of committing a felony should not be allowed to purchase guns. We allow an individual with this similar history (? rapist- a violent felony) to have unchecked control over the most powerful military in the world.
How many people, like the old lady with the bag of carrots killed while walking home from a store, would be alive today if we had tried peaceful negotiations?
WE MUST STOP THE EVIL BOMBING. WE MUST REPENT. Will no one listen?
Addendum:
June 20, 1999
Officially the bombing has ended. Praise God. Please continue to pray for those people. There were a couple of interesting news reports today. Here are some excerpts.
Albanians who stayed hid like prey. By Paul Salopek (Chicago Tribune) June 20, 1999
Djakovica, Yugoslavia
The report tells of the horrors of some ethnic Albanian individuals during the time of the bombing. Specifically it refers to the terrible decisions people made when suddenly faced by angry Serb paramilitary ‘dressed up like Rambo’. The account goes:
"Would you go out and try to plead or reason with them? Would you hide your family in the basement? Or would you try to slip out the back window, hoping that the gunshots shattering the night’s darkness were not on the street behind your house?
These were the decisions faced by thousands of Kosovar Albanian families on the evening of March 24, when NATO launched its bombing campaign to loosen Slobodan Milosevic’s ruthless grip on Kosovo - and instead triggered an even more horrific backlash against the civilian population there.
What people decided that first night often determined whether they lived or died. Those who chose correctly survived, only to confront similarly terrifying decisions in the months ahead. And the stories they tell today – of chopping rat-holes through their garden’s walls to escape the killing, of disguising themselves as harmless old women, of moving constantly between houses like hunted animals – paint a compelling, nightmarish picture of life inside Kosovo during the 78 days of the bombing campaign…
(Quoting Fatime Boshnjaku, a 47 year old resourceful Albanian) "Nobody was prepared for this. It happened too fast," she said. "Nobody had planned for escape or made special arrangements to stockpile food. We just listened to the news at 8 p.m. and went to bed. An hour later the Serbs started shooting. By midnight, when the NATO planes stopped flying overhead, they started burning the Old City. Two hundred and fifty shops in one night."…
Most of the other Albanians stranded in the cities of Kosovo during the war followed suit. In this way, Kosovo became a surreal world divided between the hunters and the hunted. On the streets, the Yugoslav military and civilians ruled the ghostly urban centers of the province, harried only by the occasional NATO plane. Behind the walls and underground cowered the Albanian majority, darting outside only at potentially deadly risk.
"When the evening came, we said, ‘Oh God, please protect us,’ " the younger Boshnjaku recalled. "Nobody would speak.""
Last Hurdle for returnees is red tape By Colin McMahon (Chicago Tribune) June 20, 1999
(Discussing the plight of families returning from Macedonia)
""Like a lot of Albanians in Kosovo, the Sadikus lived simple, mostly quiet lives before 1999. Only about 10 percent of their village of 225 homes were Serb homes, matching the ethnic breakdown of Kosovo as a whole, and except for the occasional flareup, most folks got along fine.
That changed when NATO started bombing Yugoslavia on March 24. The Albanians celebrated the air strikes. The Serbs sought revenge. Albanian men and older boys who had had no problems before with Serb forces were detained in increasing numbers. Police and paramilitaries would demand money from them, threaten them with death and smack them with their rifle butts.""
Some mention "genocide". Yes, it has occurred, but wasn't it after our ill-conceived bombing began? Shame on Milosevic, he is evil. Shame on Clinton, too.
Our bombs did damage. It solidified hatred on both sides. Thousands have died and many more thousands are destitute. Some may die of poor sanitation and difficulties arising from the winter coming soon. Morality and moral judgement matters. Many are hurt and killed when we ignore this truth. Let’s not allow this to happen again.
Our troops are in danger, more than during the bombing. Pray.
Copyright © 1999 Dio, Inc.