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9. THE NATO BOMBING |
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The story of NATOs military intervention in Kosovo
is well known. It is a story of unmitigated disaster. None of its policy objectives were
achieved. The long-range consequences of its intervention have seriously damaged the
global security structure established since the end of the Second World War. Its
intervention was in violation of international law and its own commitment to using only
peaceful means of resolving international disputes. |
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NATOs bombing of
Yugoslavia was done without the involvement of the United Nations. It failed utterly to do
serious damage to the Yugoslav military. The bombing has destroyed the infrastructure of
Serbia and has caused untold environmental damage to the countries along the Danube river
.In the name of humanitarian objectives it caused a humanitarian disaster. NATO took sides
in a civil war and became the air force of the KLA to wrest away from a sovereign state an
integral part of its territory. |
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The President of the Czech
Republic, has stated that Kosovo was the only war that was not fought over territory-but
in this he was terribly wrong, Kosovo has been taken from Serbia and given to the
Albanians |
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Many apologists in the west argue that the NATO
intervention was to stop ethnic cleansing but NATO bombed Yugoslavia because President
Milosevic would not sign the Rambouillet Agreement. The two provisions of that Agreement
which made it impossible for any sovereign state to sign were eventually dropped by NATO
after seventy odd days of bombing failed to subdue Yugoslavia. |
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Ironically, through the good offices of the
Russians, NATO agreed not to insist on the occupation of all of Yugoslavia by NATO troops
and to forget about insisting on a referendum in Kosovo within three years. These were the
two provisions of the Rambouillet Agreement that had caused the bombing in the first
place! |
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Some have argued that Yugoslavia
was from its inception an artificial state and was therefore doomed to eventually break
apart. This may or may not be true. What cannot be denied is that western involvement in
the internal affairs of Yugoslavia since it became a sovereign nation in 1918 has helped
to bring about its dismemberment. Western intervention there has been a history of
diplomatic failure. |
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