One must understand what fear means: what it implies and what it rejects.  It implies and rejects the same fact: a world where murder is legitimate, and where human life is considered trifling...All I ask is that, in the midst of a murderous world, we agree to reflect on murder and to make a choice.   After that, we can distinguish those who accept the consequences of being murderers themselves or accomplices of murderers, and those who refuse to do so with all their force and being.  Since this terrible dividing line does actually exist, it will be a gain if it be clearly marked.

--Albert Camus

Neither Victims nor Executioners

We can choose only among opposing armies, which are either frankly murderous, or professing, with varying degrees of fraud, to be for Peace.

--Robert Pickus

COLLATERAL DAMAGE.  You need not have to be aware or to think about our soldiers and civilians who may die or lose their legs and arms. All you have to do is plug in the phrase: "SOME COLLATERAL DAMAGE" and all is well! Ah, doesn't that feel better?

And aren't you proud to see our military pilots bombing Belgrade's public bridges, water and electricity? Why should the people of Kosovo have access to roadways, heat, food or water supplies? "This is Milosevic's fault," replies President Clinton.  "He's responsible for our military bombing!" You've seen it on CNN: all those bombs going off, sending everyone into havoc, Albanian Serbs, Serbs, chaos, thousands of Albanian Serbs on the run since the bombing commenced. That's called: AIR CAMPAIGN! Ah, that feels better. It's just a little "AIR ACTIVITY." Just a bit of active stuff happening up there, I guess? Not to worry.

Yes, don't worry, we're BOMBING FOR PEACE, HUMANITARIAN PEACE EFFORTS!! We have to be good humanitarians about this STRIKE! We're bombing to save people's lives!! BOMBING SAVES LIVES!!

"But!" say our U.S. pundits, "This is not enough, we can't have VICTORY with just an AIR CAMPAIGN alone!! Time to send in the GROUND TROOPS! Now I really feel better. Whew. For a moment, I thought they were sending in American soldiers so they can begin an all out war with the Serbs. No, no, no. It's just GROUND TROOPS. Not to worry.

But do we want to go to war with the Serbs? NO! WE'RE JUST AFTER MILOSEVIC! It's necessary for our military forces to blow up the entire country if we have to – in order to get MILOSEVIC!! But we're not waging war against the people!! Sure, we have to blow up civilian homes, churches, schools, everything in sight – in order to get Milosevic, and then, after everything's blown to pieces, we'll find him!

Some of you may be saying, "Didn't we do that in Iraq?" Yes indeed! So what if the people of Iraq are suffering more now than ever before! We showed Saddam Hussein!! DON'T MESS WITH THE UNITED STATES!! And if you don't do it our way, (according to the CIA that is): Expect COLLATERAL DAMAGE, HUMANITARIAN BOMBING, GROUND TROOPS, STRIKES, AND AIR ACTIVITY!!

__________

Let me say that we certainly should help the Albanian refugees, but bombing Kosovo will make it impossible for these people to live together, now. Bombing will not alleviate the suffering; it has only made it worse for all involved. With the hundreds of millions and millions of dollars we're spending on bombing Kosovo, we could establish a safe sanctuary in Albania for Albanians who were being persecuted or threatened.  Who actually believes that the Albanian refugees can peacefully live in Kosovo among the Serbian people, now, after the bombing? The bombing merely intensified the vengeance, hate and violence between these people.  Some have argued that this is the only way to stop Milosevic; negotiations proved time and again--a failure. 

An email friend, William Saletan, who writes for Slate Magazine, told me that, "there are evil people in the world. Milosevic is one of them. Sometimes we have to die, and even kill, to stop them. And I blame Milosevic for the "cleansing" in Kosovo, not NATO. There was no good way out of this crisis. Every other course of action by NATO would have led to even worse results than this one." {Read Will Saletan's article, Ground War Euphemisms.}

I don't know if I agree with Saletan.  I only know that journalists have a responsibility to speak the truth.  They should not use euphemisms nor should they play the role of "military propagandist."  Just this morning, a friend emailed another extraordinary euphemism to me: "As Serb authorities claimed civilian casualties in attacks on Pristina, NATO warplanes peppered dozens of targets across Yugoslavia before dawn broke Thursday."

Peppered: explosions, gunfire, bombing.
Civilian casualities:  "Civilian" means ordinary folks.   "Causualities" means people who died in the crossfire.  These people were not Milosevic's soldiers.

 
--Jacqueline Marcus

Bombing Belgrade's Federal Building directly across from the University Hospital and Maternity Ward.

Bombo

Bombing Saves Lives! 

"I think what I'm seeing here is the largest civilian causality toll since the beginning of NATO airstrikes," said Sadler (CNN).  "I saw quite clearly that these were civilian homes...I saw body parts inside these buildings."

"I think what I'm seeing heIre is the largest civilian casualty toll since the beginning of NATO airstrikes," Sadler said. "I saw quite clearly that these were civilian homes. ... I saw body parts inside these buildings

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

NATO Bombs Kosovar Refugees, unknowingly.

"Whatever it takes!"

is the U.S. NATO party line.

Bombo,,,mm