Editorial: An appeal to troops
Are you a member of the U.S. Armed Forces? Do you have a
friend or relative who is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces? If
so, this message is meant for you.
President Clinton and the Pentagon generals have put you in
harm's way. They pretend they care about you. They say they
would do anything to protect your life. But they have put you
in danger.
They did this by ordering an attack on Yugoslavia.
Clinton has said U.S. aims are "humanitarian." But Clinton
has lied before. He lied about his personal relations. He lied
about his political fund-raising. He lied about the
pharmaceutical plant in Sudan being a "chemical-weapons
factory." He lied about getting U.S. troops out of Bosnia by
the end of 1996. They're still there.
He is lying about the attack on Yugoslavia.
U.S. planes are bombing a sovereign country. Yugoslavia's
soldiers have crossed no borders. They threaten no other
country. Yet they are under NATO attack.
The Pentagon generals say NATO is only bombing military
targets--anti-aircraft batteries, command centers, air defense
centers, etc. But pictures from Serbia and Montenegro show
bombed schools, hospitals, houses and factories.
Yugoslavia is a small country with several different
national groupings. The U.S. and its allies are much bigger and
more powerful. But the 11 million people who live there are
furious that U.S. bombs are killing their children. They know
they are defending their country. They feel the moral right to
strike back. And because Clinton and the generals have ordered
the attack, you will be a target of this fury.
If--and the generals are talking about it already--they send
you into Yugoslavia to kill, you will find the entire
population ready to rise up against you. And though Yugoslavia
is small, during World War II Yugoslav
partisans--guerrillas--pinned down 300,000 troops from the
German Wehrmacht and finally defeated them.
On demonstrations here against the U.S. bombing assault,
thousands of people are chanting, "Kosovo is Vietnam." It
brings up the memory of the last time U.S. troops tried to
occupy a country. All Vietnam rose up against them and drove
them out.
During that war, a U.S. lieutenant--William Calley--led his
troops in the burning of a Vietnamese village, killing 330
women, men and children. Calley just took a little further what
the Pentagon had ordered--a burn all, kill all assault on the
civilian population. Atrocities like that also led many U.S.
soldiers to drug addiction, suicide and mental breakdowns.
But there were other U.S. troops who resisted the war.
Hundreds of thousands refused to go into aggressive action.
Others refused to fight. Some actively organized their buddies
against the war. Some felt the war was so unjust that they went
over to the other side. Finally the generals decided they had
better get out.
Some 55,000 U.S. troops were killed in that aggression on
the other side of the world. Many young men were sent home in
body bags before thousands began to resist.
You still have the chance to resist this war--before you
become a target. You have the right to speak out against it.
You have the right to pass out leaflets and organize against
this war. You can refuse to re-up as a protest. You can refuse
to take the anthrax vaccine and other preparations for chemical
and biological warfare.
You have the power to stop the Pentagon's unjust war against
the people of Yugoslavia.
Use it.
Workers World urges all anti-war and anti-imperialist
forces to find ways to deliver this message to the
rank-and-file troops of the U.S. military.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page