MIM Notes 188 June 15 1999

OPPOSE THE EXPANDING WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA
AMERIKA INCREASES TROOPS AND MONEY FOR WAR

by MC45

As MIM Notes goes to press, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 
(NATO) has agreed to increase its total number of soldiers on the 
ground around Yugoslavia to 50,000. This move will increase the 
number of Amerikan soldiers there to 7,000, and will likely spawn 
great disagreement within NATO over troop allocations.

This expansion in the imperialist war will undoubtedly lead to 
more deaths of the Yugoslavian people and increased flight out of 
Kosovo and Serbia leading to great health crises. The trade off is 
militarism for the sake of the imperialists retaining tight 
control over Yugoslavia at the expense of the lives and self-
determination of the people of the region. Throughout its history 
the U.$. has demonstrated that it is willing to sacrifice the 
lives, health and welfare of the majority of the worlds people to 
ensure its position of global domination. It is crucial that we 
build a peace movement to oppose this imperialist militarism, not 
just for this war in Yugoslavia, but for the on-going out-breaks 
of the imperialist World War III in Iraq, Latin America, Asia, 
Africa and around the globe.

Support of the NATO military chief's calls for more soldiers on 
the heels of more than two months of u.$.-led bombing has earned 
President Klinton this joke Serbs are telling:

"Q: How can you tell Bill Clinton will be the next President of 
Yugoslavia.

"A: He has succeeded in uniting the Serbs and destroying the 
Albanians."(1)

NATO Commander Wesley Clark officially requested the increase to 
45,000 to 50,000 ground troops on the borders of Kosovo on May 20. 
Arguing for the build-up, Clark said "if you prepare for ground 
forces, among other things, you make Milosevic contemplate the 
consequences of not going along with the political objectives."(2) 
With Clark's request approved, we can expect to see 50,000 troops 
in the region by mid-June.(8) The NATO commander's rhetoric 
highlights the grotesque militarism of the people running this 
war. MIM would say that the odds are Mr. Milosevic has been 
"contemplating the consequences" of non-compliance with 
imperialist demands since before the u.$. and England started 
bombing his country under NATO auspices.

Trying to make the increase in ground troops more palatable, a 
Pentagon spokespersyn, the Defense Secretary of England and u.$. 
Secretary of State Madeline Albright have all referred to the 
build-up as "planning for success" - referring to NATO's presumed 
success in getting Slobodan Milosevic to welcome so-called 
peacekeepers into Yugoslavia.(3)

This war - in defense of imperialist hegemony over the planet - is 
supported most fiercely by the u.$. and its English lieutenants. 
Internally, the u.$. government faces pressure to run a zero-
Amerikan-casualty war. So part of the story of putting troops into 
a ground war has been making this action seem justifiable; and the 
more "righteous" the imperialists can make the war look, the more 
options they close off for ending it. Most recently, the 
international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands 
declared Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to be a war 
criminal. The tribunal has issued warrants for his arrest to all 
U.N. member states for the crimes of "murder, forced deportation 
and persecution of ethnic Albanians."(4)

This list of offenses has particular resonance for those of us 
organizing from within the largest settler state on the planet. At 
the war's beginning, Amerikan citizens of Serbian descent were 
quoted on the television news pleading their home-country's cause. 
They argued that Amerikans should be sympathetic to Serbia, 
because after all the notion that Kosovo would break away and be 
independent was akin to the idea of this country giving back 
California and Texas to Mexico. MIM agrees this is a very 
important point to raise, and we believe that Amerika is guilty of 
murder, forced deportation and persecution of the people of Aztlan 
and in no position to judge Serbia. Amerika's formation out of a 
history of genocide and appropriation of land from the Indigenous 
nations is only the beginning of its development into an advanced 
capitalist and ultimately imperialist state. 

The small minority of liberal members of congress have made 
several public statements to u.$. President Bill Clinton, arguing 
that Amerika should not be at war in Yugoslavia for various 
reasons. The most recent volley took place on May 26 when 26 
members of the Congress filed a motion in u.$. district court, 
attempting to halt the bombing via court order. The congress 
members asserted in their motion that the War Powers Act of 1973, 
which allows a President to wage war for 60 days without approval 
of congress, has now been violated by the now more than 60-day war 
against Yugoslavia.(6)

While MIM puts no stock in elected officials of the Amerikan 
government to stop that government from pursuing its overall 
program of imperialism, it is always good to see pockets of public 
dissension within the government that activists can use to their 
advantage. While we acknowledge the small differences among u.$. 
government officials, we note that the principal character of the 
u.$. government is unity in this war against the Yugoslav people. 
In mid-May, the senate approved twice Clinton's requested budget 
for fighting this war and the beginning of a raise for Amerikan 
soldiers.(7)

Imperialism is an economic and military system - the highest stage 
of capitalism. Developing out of the tendency of capital towards 
ever greater monopoly ownership, imperialism represents 
international monopolization of capital. So capitalism in the 
imperialist countries relies on unfettered access to the economies 
of the oppressed nations. This access supports the standard of 
living in First World countries from mass transit, to eating out-
of-season produce year-round, to cheap prices on consumer goods. 
This reliance on oppressed peoples to support the wealth of a few 
privileged countries will not fundamentally change by virtue of 
the rules of war.

Notes:
1. The New York Times 21 May 1999.
2. The New York Times 21 May, p. 1.
3. The Washington Post 26 May 1999.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/nato052699.htm
4. The New York Times 28 May 1999.
5. See MIM Notes 186 or MIM's website 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/kosovo/fascism.txt for an 
article on the importance of identifying where fascism is and 
isn't in imperialist wars.
6. The Washington Post 26 May 1999.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/nato052699.htm
7. The Washington Post on the web.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/politics/daily/may99/emergency21.htm
8. NATO Adding Troops in Balkans, The Washington Post, 26 May 
1999. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/nato052699.htm

Article edited by MC17.