TARGET YUGOSLAVIA: NATO's WAR OF AGGRESSION / Tuesday, 25 May 1999 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org TARGET YUGOSLAVIA: NATO's WAR OF AGGRESSION Tuesday, 25 May 1999 Radio Havana Cuba presents its coverage of the ongoing U.S.- led NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RADIO HAVANA CUBA'S HEADLINERS / 25 May 1999 One of the disadvantages of remaining in office over a long period of time is that former employees, colleagues and officials have time to write biographies that are likely to be embarrassing -- and, more importantly for the rest of us, eye-opening. A few weeks ago, former Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos wrote that his ex-employer had decided to teach Somalia a lesson because they had messed with the United States. His expose of the arrogance behind the Somalia operation -- in which anyone that questions U.S. supremacy needed to be firmly stomped on -- allows us to draw a parallel with the current Yugoslav operation. It is generally understood by anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the sequence of events that the main reason for bombing the Yugoslav Federation back into the Stone Age is that its leader simply refused to bow to U.S. interference in his nation's sovereignty. And you don't do that with the planet's Number One nation. This arrogance is illustrated in comments made by the White House spokesperson, James Rubin, who was responding to questions raised by former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali in his newly published book entitled "Unvanquished -- A U.S./UN Saga." Boutros Boutros Ghali blames the Clinton administration for seeing to it that he was not re-elected secretary general of the world body. Rubin commented that "it was always unfortunate that Boutros Ghali did not have the skills to successfully manage the most important relationship for any secretary general, which is smooth cooperation with the United States." The level of arrogance is astounding -- even to the degree of not bothering to say Boutros Boutros Ghali's name correctly. It is also a clear warning to the United Nations: bend to Washington's will or it'll bend and ultimately break you. In his new book, published by Random House, Boutros Boutros Ghali lashes out particularly at Secretary of State Madeleine Albright -- at what he refers as her manipulation and dishonesty. He said she "let pass no opportunity to undermine my authority and tarnish my image." The former UN secretary general clearly believed in the total independence of his post from U.S. lobbying and this led to frequent disagreements with Washington over Bosnia, Rwanda and the U.S. failure to pay its UN dues. Albright -- Boutros Ghali recalls -- "had little interest in the difficult diplomatic work of persuading her foreign counterparts to go along with the positions of her government, preferring to lecture or speak in declarative sentences." She seemed to assume, he says, that "her mere assertion of a U.S. policy should be sufficient to achieve the support of other nations." This arrogance extends to the Yugoslav conflict with statements made by James Rubin last week in which he proudly reported that the attack against the Federation was "the most precise in history" and that, in actual fact, only 12 missiles out of 10,000 launched had not reached their objective. Even allowing for the so-called `mistakes' of the Chinese Embassy and the attacks against the refugee caravan and the passenger train, this means that there can no longer be any doubt that the U.S. and NATO are deliberately targeting schools, hospitals, water purification plants, churches, prisons, hotels, residential neighborhoods and other civilian installations. With only "12 missiles" out of 10,000 hitting the wrong target, the remainder must have hit the right target... these schools, hospitals, churches, hotels and embassies... because so many of them have been hit. The bombing, as has always been maintained by astute analysts, was from the beginning directed against the civilian population in an effort to cause domestic unrest that would supposedly topple the new great demon: Slobodan Milosovic. Boutros Boutros Ghali writes in the pages of his new book that any international crisis that the U.S. lent its weight was doomed from the outset and cited Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda as examples. Where Washington had not attempted to lay down its own law, as in Mozambique, the UN operation was successful. "When the United States wanted to appear actively involved, while in reality avoiding hard decisions -- as in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda -- the United Nations was abused or blamed by the United States and the operation failed, tragically and horribly." Of course, it is very nice to have pangs of conscience -- as has Stephanopolous -- or regret not having acted with more assertiveness -- as in the case of Boutros Ghali. But these behind-the-scenes exposes simply confirm what most analysts have been saying all along: that U.S. hegemony and arrogance are the most serious threats to world stability and peace and that by bending to Washington's will and becoming involved in the attack against Belgrade, Europe has allowed itself to be used by the world's foremost power. Washington is aggressively intent on remaining as such -- at whatever cost to humanity and, it seems, biographers be damned. -30- [c] 1999, Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. This prohibition includes the distribution of this material via Usenet News, "bulletin board" services, e-mail lists, print media, radio and television. For the complete RADIO HAVANA CUBA NEWSCAST and other features, please write for our daily broadcast schedule. We welcome your comments and suggestions. For further information, contact us at: Postal Address: Radio Havana Cuba P.O.Box 6240 Havana, Cuba Telephone: (53) (7) 791053 Fax: (53) (7) 795007 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org WWW: http://www.radiohc.org rhc-eng-14211 1999-May-25 20:47:26