Home » Politics & Society » European Politics » Bombing Yugoslavia: The Inexorable Logic of War

Bombing Yugoslavia: The Inexorable Logic of War

© Peter Weber

After five weeks of military conflict the news arriving from Yugoslavia and Albania has recalled to our memory (for those about to forget) that war means above all an endless chain of immense human suffering. Even NATO's most intelligent bombs, highly effective in destroying the Yugoslavian infrastructure and industry, could not avoid the death of thousands of victims among the civil population, nor the agony of the refugees. Bombing an enemy can never resolve the problems and will only increase them, but sometimes such action can at least avoid even major damage and accelerate the will to resolve the problems by negotiations. That way a war, though it will always remain deeply immoral, can sometimes become necessary. This is the tragedy of war, of the victims and of those who have to decide on it.

A series of NATO errors

On their way to getting involved in Kosovo, NATO leaders have committed a long list of errors. In the first place come Madeleine Albright's Rambouillet talks, where NATO had long been asking too many concessions from the Serbs and then failed to convey the determination to impose these requests, if necessary, by force. Thus Slobodan Milosevic, who probably never had any intention of signing the Rambouillet protocol, was permitted to continue to deceive his opponents, his supporters and himself. When it became clear that the Serbian leader was not only preparing, but already carrying out his plans for ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, a very painful decision became inevitable for NATO.

The NATO leaders were probably aware that the step into war, their decision on air-strikes against Yugoslavia, would provoke an immediate ethnic retaliation of the Serbs and a massive refugee problem. A short glimpse at the history of the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia could have given at least some clue about what was to come. Nevertheless the NATO forces were not prepared for the arrival of the refugees.

Serbian atrocities

The Serbian atrocities against the Albanian population in Kosovo are the result of years of harassment and hate propaganda on the Yugoslavian state TV controlled by the Milosevic regime. These incitements were much easier since the Serb minorities, especially in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, had been undergoing different kinds of ethnic repression, too. The Serbian nation has without doubt paid a major price for the dissolution of Jugoslavia, since many Serbs are now living outside their mother country.

The Serbs never managed to get the attention of the public opinion on the crimes committed by other nations simply because they never really tried. In fact they considered them as quite normal in a tribal conflict and often they were already preparing to do even worse to the other side. Generally they didn't care too much, because they were quite sure they would obtain their rights by their own means and measures.

The copyright of the article Bombing Yugoslavia: The Inexorable Logic of War in European Politics is owned by . Permission to republish Bombing Yugoslavia: The Inexorable Logic of War in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.