NATO Disband!

Michael Parenti - The U.S. War on Yugoslavia (1999)

".....Now, such A Country is a kind that Global Capitalism normally would not tolerate -- still Yugoslavia was allowed to exist for some 45 years because it was seen as a buffer to the Soviet block the warsa pack Nations at the same time efforts were made to undermine the socialistic features of yugoslavia's economy Yugoslavia opened this up up to Western Capital penetration as early as the late 60s early 70s I I think it was I think they made the same mistake that the Polish Communist Party leaders made they said well what we're going to do is continual basic industry building up the industrial base heavy industry and we're also going to increase and improve consumer production now how are we ever going to be able to do both of those things you see um very simply we got the answer we'll borrow from the West well once they started borrowing with borrowing from the West came IMF penetration and an enormous debt with debt came if IMF demands for restructuring restructuring is a euphemism for a harsh austerity program you cut back in public sector spending you cut wages you cut un you cut employment uh you abolish worker Management Enterprises in other words you force your people to work harder for Less producing more consuming less and with that difference you pay off your debt schedule or at least the interest that's accumulating on this wealth still much of the economy was public sector and not for-profit including the very rich reserves of minerals and and other natural resources in uh the province of Kosovo and elsewhere then came another blow what I'm saying to you is that there was a conscious and deliberate plan to to fragment and break up Yugoslavia the other blow was in November of 1990 when President George Bush went to the US Congress and pressured them to pass the foreign Appropriations law that called for the cutting off of all Aid and credits to Yugoslavia trading without credits can be a disaster especially for a country that doesn't have a hard currency and this this had a devastating effect on the country;

The Law also demanded that if any Republic in Yugoslavia wanted further U.S. Aid it would have to break AWAY from Yugoslavia and declare its independence! 

Okay, it's NOT "a Conspiracy Theory", it's NOT my "speculation", it's NOT "my analysis", it's The PUBLIC LAW! 

It's a public law! November 1990 the 1991 Foreign Appropriations act it's written right there go look at it! 

It required The US State Department approval of election procedures and RESULTS! in every one of the republics;

it required that the republics do not hold National Elections but hold elections only in their own republics and that the aid would go to individually to those republics and when the aid did go it went to those groups which the US defined as Democratic groups which meant small right-wing Ultra Nationalist and Even fascistic parties the ultimate goal was to break up Yugoslavia into a weak and helpless cluster of right-wing banana republics privatized de-industrialized the US decided to destroy with the other Western Powers decided to destroy Yugoslavia in 1989 when it became evident that it was the one country in E Eastern Europe that would not voluntarily overthrow what remained of its socialist system. 

by the way there's 100,000 albanians living in Belgrade in Belgrade themselves they have their own stores in Albania and all that sort of thing and they're getting hit too I want to read one other thing this was written by Tom Watson anybody know who Tom Watson was a 100 years ago he wrote this in 1898 Tom Watson was an American populist he was governor of Georgia and US senator elected on the populist ticket to fight the Democratic and Republican Monopoly of that day and what was happening was William McKinley was very craftily drawing the American people into the Spanish American war McKinley said we've got to go in and the newspapers all said we got to go in to rescue the Cubans against whom the Spaniards are are committing some of the worst horrible atrocities that you can imagine and by the way the Spaniards were no angels in Cuba but most of those atrocity stories were coming out of the febal fertile imaginations of Joseph pul and William Randolph hurse and put into the penny press and also coming out of US Congress too and by the way that's the same thing I'm saying here about Yugoslavia to say that these atrocities are contrivances for the most part in propaganda is not to say that mosovich and the serbs are blameless and that they're Angels not saying that at all not saying that we have to even be fans of anyone's side regardless of what you think of those people certainly you can see that this bombing is a horrible thing now Watson understood that this war was not in the interest of the American people and he wrote This Way who gets the benefit of the war the Spanish American war he's talking about the bond Seekers the capitalists the railroads National Bankers will profit by this war the new bonds give them the basis for new Banks and their power is prolonged munition makers will profit by this war the privileged classes all profit by this war it takes the attention of the people off economic issues and perpetuates the unjust system they have put Upon Us politicians profit by the war it buries issues they dare not meet what do the people get out of this war the fighting and the taxes what is the United States doing in this war with Spain in the first place true Spain is oppressing Cuba but so is England oppressing Ireland Egypt and India France is oppressing Siam and Madagascar, turkey is oppressing Armenia should we then take up arms against the oppressors of the world? We would more likely end up by becoming oppressors ourselves the Spaniards and Cubans were bushwhacking one another and killing from three to five men at a battle we have gone down there and killed more people in 3 months than they would have killed in 13 years if they were starving before who feeds them now what are we going to get out of this war as a nation endless trouble complications expense republics cannot go into the Conquering business and remain republics militarism leads to military domination military despotism imperialism Smooths the way for the emperor and that's what you got when you have a president when you have a president who's in violation of the NATO Charter who's in violation of the UN Charter who's in violation of the War Powers Act and who's in violation of the US Constitution where the the founders of the Constitution said that you cannot leave this decision of War to only one man and if you leave it to the president you no longer have a president you no longer have a republic you have an emperor you have a king if he can commit a whole nation to war and killing just by his own personal judgment that's not a democracy and they said there's got to be a debate and there's got to be accountability I remember dur I remember during the Iraq War a student said to me well that's where you and I differ you see because I have faith in the president he was talking about George Bush I I said excuse me you have faith in the president said I trust the president I have faith in him said what I said what does that mean you have faith in the president this isn't religion I mean you have faith in him the way my Italian Grandma had faith in St Anthony do you have a picture of George Bush on your Bureau you light little candles to him do you you trust you trust your president you mean the way trust meaning you give a certain your destiny a portion of your destiny to someone unquestioningly as you might to very close loved ones or close relatives and even them check them out once in a while right right no democracy isn't about faith it isn't about trust it's about distrust it's about accountability it's about challenge it's about debate it's about exposure it's about people becoming the active agents of their own lives wanting to know what's going on I don't have to trust you I don't want to trust you I want to see what's going on Whose interest do you really represent my friends and we hear we hear people say including some of our Progressive friends our liberal friends yes I oh I know the bombings don't work oh I I'm not supporting those bombings the bombings are stupid I know but well we've got to do something the bombings aren't stupid they're profoundly immoral the the Serbian the Serbian Army which is expelling expelling people by the way many of those people are fleeing the bombings if you read those account closely you find a lot of these people saying we're fleeing the bombings 50,000 serbs have fled from coo in the last three months are the serbs ethnically cleansing themselves? 

The Bombings DO Work -- The Bombings are working they know what they're doing just because YOU don't know what they're doing doesn't mean THEY don't know what they're doing of course they know what they me the bombings are achieving what they're supposed to which is to destroy Yugoslavia to turn it into to a de-industrialized beggar poor nation of cheap labor completely defensive to the interest of capital investors  --

This is A Batterer's policy -- the battery is not irrational, The Batterer uses violence against his helpless spouse; he uses just a certain amount of level to get a certain response and batters that person down and batters the person down and that's what this is --  It's A Battering Policy to destroy and smash them down but smash them and Splinter them so badly that they will never rise again and never come back to again even even as a viable bis Nation let alone socialists the old arguments we hear with regard to Vietnam are coming back well we can't just pull out oh yes we can we can we can do it with two words you can pull out with just two words It "Go Ceasefire" and then another two words "NATO disband." 

and yes we we the real we we we really do have to do something call the White House call your Congress people your media talk back demonstrate organize agitate educate yourself and others let them know how you feel don't think they're not interested my friends oh man are they interested and oh man do you think they are not watching you all the time why do you think guys like me are under surveillance I mean I'm not kidding you when I pick up my when I the phone rings and I pick it up and someone starts talking to me mimicking and ing tone a conversation I just had on the phone two hours ago with someone else then then you're moving from surveillance to harassment but they let me know that I'm under surveillance but it's not just it's just not not just people who are super active and all they want to know what the general public is thinking they never stop thinking about you when you say oh they don't care what we're thinking oh no they always always focus on you cuz they know they're standing on your shoulders and if this great Mass began to shrug and Rumble and all that sort of thing it gets very wobbly up there so against the lies against the lies and the homicidal violence of this National Security aberration the thin frail voice of reason and democracy can become a mighty chorus and a strong resistance I have seen it happen before and we can make it happen again thank you ladies and gentlemen that