WAG THE CLINTON
U.S. moves closer to war strikes on Yugoslavia
By Gary Wilson
The number of pay-per-view orders for the movie "Wag the
Dog" tripled in the week after President Bill Clinton admitted
an "improper relationship" with intern Monica Lewinsky. They
doubled again after Clinton ordered a missile attack on Sudan
and Afghanistan. And rentals of the video have remained hot for
the last month.
"Wag the Dog," for those who don't know, is a movie about a
U.S. president caught in a sex scandal who tries to hide it all
by creating a phony war. The movie president has a Hollywood
director fake the war on film. It is then broadcast on the
nightly TV news.
As an election nears, the president rallies the country
behind the phony war and the sex scandal is no longer top
news.
Real, not reel, war
Some saw the missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan as
following the "Wag the Dog" scenario. But one big difference is
that these were no phony attacks.
They were real. Innocent people were killed. An essential
pharmaceutical plant in Sudan was destroyed.
That was a criminal affair much more serious than any
Washington sex scandal.
Now the media are reporting that another U.S. military
attack is being prepared. Since Sept. 15, there have been
repeated reports in the major big-business-controlled media
that military action against Yugoslavia is being planned.
On Sept. 20, a New York Times editorial urged the Clinton
administration to tell Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic that
"he has until mid-October to restrain his forces or face air
strikes on military targets in Serbia." The editorial added
that if Washington cannot get "other NATO leaders" to go along
with a military strike, "America should act on its own."
This is a chilling call for war by one of the leading
ruling-class voices in the United States.
Clinton is not wagging the dog. The dogs of big business and
militarism in the United States are wagging a weakened
president.
What the New York Times editorial board deems worthy of U.S.
bombings is socialist Yugoslavia's legitimate effort to repel
an armed insurgency in the Kosovo province of Serbia. The
Yugoslav government is not acting outside its own borders. It
is not threatening any of its neighbors or the United States.
It is defending itself against an armed attack.
There is overwhelming evidence that the Kosovo insurgency is
armed, financed and directed by foreign powers. Many reports
point to a war created by a CIA-backed contra army.
The PBS Newshour confirmed in a July 15 report that the
military trainers of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, both
at a base on the estate of Sali Berisha in Albania and on the
front lines in Kosovo, include Vietnam War veterans from the
United States.
The New York Times is saying that unless the Yugoslav
government surrenders and gives up its self-defense, the United
States should begin bombing. But it's not just the New York
Times urging the government toward war.
Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole went to
Kosovo Sept. 5 for what was billed as a fact-finding trip. He's
back and testifying on Capitol Hill. He too has been urging
"action" against the Yugoslav government.
And an ad in the Sept. 20 New York Times carried the
headline: "Mr. President, Milosevic is the problem." The ad was
also about Kosovo and urged "decisive action." But, the ad
said, this is not enough. The United States must "actively
support in every way possible [Milosevic's] replacement," the
ad declared.
It was signed by much of the Washington brain trust behind
the Reagan administration's contra war against Nicaragua in the
1980s: Elliott Abrams, Richard Armitage, Frank Carlucci, Jeane
Kirkpatrick and Richard Perle, as well as Morton Halperin,
William Kristol and others.
Imperialists divide
former socialist region
The arrogance of imperialism lets them talk openly of
replacing governments, as though it were nothing more than a
game of checkers. But more than that is driving the United
States pell mell toward war.
U.S. imperialism is faced with a widening crisis around the
world, from Asia to South America, Eastern Europe and Russia.
The crisis in the Balkans has not diminished since the United
States imposed the Dayton Accords.
Bosnia-once a thriving part of socialist Yugoslavia-has been
destroyed by an imperialist division of the whole region.
Bosnia has become a country run by foreigners, where foreign
troops patrol daily. Prices in stores are given in a foreign
currency. Even the flag and license plates were chosen by
foreigners. Bosnia, in other words, has become a colony.
Recent elections reflected resentment of the foreign
occupiers. A Serbian nationalist opposed to U.S. occupation
easily won over a candidate openly supported by the U.S.
government at a cost of $20 million.
But U.S. military threats don't really end at the borders of
the Balkans. Any U.S. military action there is meant to send a
message throughout Eastern Europe and Russia. The imposition of
capitalism on the former socialist bloc has been a disaster. A
general capitalist economic meltdown has begun. The capitalist
crisis in Russia is not diminishing.
The time to stop a war is now, before this goes any further.
The voices opposed to war and imperialism must be heard. It is
time to say no to any U.S. military action against Yugoslavia,
including so-called "humanitarian" bombings over Kosovo.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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