It is obvious that there are two irreconcilable sides in this conflict - one is Yugoslavia, the other is the West (Albanians are only a tool in the hands of Western politicians/military).

The majority of people in the West appear to be against the bombing, but I have not spoken with even one who really understands the Western politicians' manipulation of the Balkans (how it ethnically divided and is now conquering Yugoslavia). It was a war with a nil loss of Western lives, one of their most successful wars Germany and the US ever fought.

For 8 years, the Western media was filling the heads of their populace with "Serbian atrocities" and Serbs did nothing - they were silent, thought this would stop, they would loose interest and go away.

Well, Serbs were wrong and are now they are paying the price. It is too late to change this perception. Serb atrocities are deeply engrained in the Western minds by 8 years of Serbian silence. Even the Western people who are against the bombing say that Serbs have committed and are committing atrocities (they saw it on TV). Everybody in the West complains about the manipulations of the media, but just everybody sucks up the media truth on Serbia.

These "attrocities" are the credit that the Western politicians/military are now banking on.

Further, the Serbs have to realize that neither the so-called democratic Western leadership nor the citizens of those countries will ever admit that they were wrong. Even the Western countries which were not for the intervention, and were cajoled into it. They are in it now and they are the accomplices in the crime, so they will keep blaming the victim - the more bad things happen the more they will say - this is all because of Milosevic, not because of what we did (e.g. started bombing).

Now, when the so-called democratic Western leadership has managed to push their countries into this war through many lies and manipulations, it is too late to pull back. They will send in the ground troops and keep getting in deeper and deeper (that promise of no-ground troops was a Clinton's trick anyway).

This is a war of attrition between the Western media and technology on one side and the Serbian human capital and determination on the other.

The only choice that the Serbians have is to continue fighting against the West, indefinitely. Serbs may keep talking with the West, but this will not change anything. The cycle of violence has started and the only way out is for one side to pull out. The only way for the Serbs to succeed is to inflict so much pain on the West that its population requests a Vietnam like pull-out.

The only thing the world can do, is hope that this will only be another Vietnam instead of escalating into a nuclear war.

Max wrote on Sunday March 28th 1999 5:30pm

ALBANIAN TERROSRIST JUST Killed reporter from NTV
Russian TV NEWS AGENCY. And you are talking about help to those
dirty Muslims!!!!!

What is this trash u r saying? If someone starts terrorising you and assaulting, killing people ruthlessly, brutally..would you just sit your dirty ass there and let that happen????

You will have to retaliate and save your ass from those assholes....

Let me tell you as a muslim and as a human in general......anyone who supports Milosovic in this case...deserves to DIE and u 2 are among that group!!

Rabia Mohamed is my point. Once the cycle of violence starts, everybody only thinks about killing. Rabia is a human in general, but if you disagree with him, he wants you a dead human...

Any chance somebody is prepared to say - this has got to stop, now!

How about NATO, Serbians and even the KLA make a decision - WE WILL ALL STOP RIGHT NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW....

Then I woke up....

Refugee: Maybe a child who is crying because his/her family were executed by "freedom fighters"....

NATO has no right to bomb anybody. They are doing it to "help" but what they managed to achive is a humanitarian catastrophy, not only in Kosovo but in Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro. Why don't these HELPERS now send food, clothes and medicine to the countries that are sheltering the refugees? You can only help with bombs? The only country that has delivered help is Italy.

Macedonian peasents attacted "NATO PEACE KEEPING TROOPS" who ran like crazy for few miles south.I hope that's the message that not only are they not welcome in Kosovo they are not welcome in other countries aswell.
Other NATO troops are "keeping peace in Bosnia" by helping with bombings. I am sure bombing in Yugoslavia is has a really good affect on the peace in Bosnia. And it only shows these people can not be trusted.
God help innocent people and make sure criminals like Clinton will burn in hell.

Can you hear the prayer of the children,
on bended knee in the shadow of an unknown room.
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry,
turning heavenward toward the light.

Cry Jesus help me to see the morning light of one more day. But if I should die before I wake, I pray my soul to take.

Can you feel the hearts of the children aching for home..... for something of their very own.

Reaching hands with nothing to hold on to but hope for a better day..........a better day!

Cry Jesus help me to feel the love again in my own land, but if I'd known roads lead away from home........ give me loving arms away from harm.

Can you hear the voice of the children softly pleading for silence in their shattered world.

Angry guns preach a gospell full of hate, blood of the innocent on their hands.

Cry Jesus help me feel the sun again upon my face.

For when darkness clears I know you're near............bringing peace again!

Can you hear....the prayer of the children!

Pristina, capital and the biggest city in Kosovo is burning all over. Doesn't that have any affect on people running? How can Clinton say bombing doesn't have any affect on refugee situation?
That reminds me of the joke.
How do you know Clinton is telling a lie?
-He opened his mouth.

Serbs didn't emerge from Kosova. Kosova has all the time been inhabited by Albanians and their Illyrian ancestors. Serbs however fought a major battle against the Turks in Kosova - and lost. To repeat a lie and formalize it into official history is a national crime.

Another crime is the Nationalist Serbian massacres on foreign peoples: Croatians, Bosnians, Serbs, Albanians and i hope by GOD, no more peoples.

Someone have to punish the evil Serbs, NATO is not exactly a good World Police, but better than none, otherwise the evil will gain victory. Curse the Serbs (and BTW the Turks too)! You will be hated a houndred years like the Germans was hated for it's massacres on Jews and Gypsies!

To; All of extremist viewpoints:

Having read the ongoing discussion above, I feel very few contributors have grasped the real issues here. Many of you show real hatred for others, something which is obvious by the angry tone of your contributions, and the obsession with punishing others by vilolent means. If there is one thing that History shows us it is that once war has begun it does not stop until the awful truth hits home that there are no winners, only people who lose their lives. So, why are people allowing themselves to be sucked into war?

In The West, used here as a catch-all for all the NATO alligned countries, which for some reason does not include the Balkan countries, we have for a long while been told that ethnic cleansing is taking place in the states comprising the former Yugoslavia. Are some people in those countries now telling us this is not true? Are the pictures we see of children and families being herded away from Kosova by Serb "security forces" fakes? The Serb argument suggests that on the one hand, there is no inhuman ethnic cleansing in Kosova, but that on the other hand, the Kosova Albanians are all terrorists, whose only aim is the overthrow of Milosovic and his Serbian state. None of this makes any sense at all.

Neither does the view that the so called Western alliance, headed by USA & Germany?? have engineered the conflict in Yugoslavia to further some political aim really hold water.

More later

Smout

Smout said:

In The West, used here as a catch-all for all the NATO alligned countries, which for some reason does not include the Balkan countries, we have for a long while been told that ethnic cleansing is taking place in the states comprising the former Yugoslavia. Are some people in those countries now telling us this is not true? Are the pictures we see of children and families being herded away from Kosova by Serb "security forces" fakes? The Serb argument suggests that on the one hand, there is no inhuman ethnic cleansing in Kosova, but that on the other hand, the Kosova Albanians are all terrorists, whose only aim is the overthrow of Milosovic and his Serbian state. None of this makes any sense at all.

Aswede (me) replies:

Yes, You're right. There's no sense in the totality view produced by neither west nor the serbs, the viewpoints are too disparate to have anything in common. I myself is speaking from the experience of being a former communist (i now reject communism). Among a few things i have been able to save from my former political view is the marxistic economical view: all politics is driven by production forces and the society provision of food, necessities and (forgotten by communists) entertainment. The communist systems were very bad at that. When Tito died, Yugoslavia was in practice economically split. A communist who sees his ideology and wolrd view crumple to dust have two alternatives: to reject his/her old ideology, or keep hating capitalism (implying that he/she have to become fascist or something equally ugly). Yugoslavia probably had a harsh economical situation under and after Tito. People are "hungry" (poor and see no future), hungry people are angry, angry people tend to distrust minorities and peoples with other languages. In that kind of environment there is always a risk for internal national conflicts (remember for example the Austro-Hungarian Empire), and nationalist psychopaths comming to power (yes, there *are* psychically ill persons trying to cvome to power, remember Hitler). Since most former communist peoples, especially those who didn't choose communism by themselves have choosen a more peaceful direction after removing the yoke of communism, there is a moralic memento for every people to choose the right or wrong way, but the so called socialists around Milosevic wear a very, very heavy responsibility for leaving the original ideals of socialism this far. Since long the development of Serbia have left any trace of moralic decency, and i wish the ruling class of Serbia everything in return that they have inflicted on other peoples in order to retain power. The guilt lies on the Serb nationalists only - nobody else.

Grant/Michigan U.S.A. To respond on the situation in Yugoslovia, my feelings are for both sides. I can understand the Serb position, however I cannot see the killing of innocent Albainians who made their homes in Kosovo and have lived there for generations. If we did this thing in America can you imagine the different people that would die? All ethnic groups would be at each others throats and killing each other. Genocide is not the way (Remember Adolf Hitler) Every person in the world were disgusted with what the German people had done. Later alot never knew it was going on (Truth or Fiction?) The world has to have some order to it. I'm a Viet Nam veteran and after what I've seen and done I'll vote for peace over anything else. But what do you do when you have a dictator or a madman searching for more and more power in the world? Someone has to stop him.

Grant! I very much respect Your standing point. Wars are sort of equations with no solution. The wish to remove the dictator without hurting the people whome he is ruling/harassing is an imaginary solution, because he is very active in trying to retain the power and to protect himself and his likes from threats. Another solution would be to make sure people of his sort to never gain power, but how do we make that in this world? It's *very* hard, but still one have to react against the evil, although the reaction isn't that very effective.

Russia was a worry once but it isn't now. It is not one country but many - and none of them agree with any other. The 'nukes' (mentioned above) are as much a threat to them as they are to us. Nukes are as much a disadvantage as they are advantageous in that, no-one can actually use them without the fear of the same coming back - within MINUTES! Russia knows this - its Saddam Hussein who has not appreciated this succinct point.

(Talking of Muslims - have you not noticed how quiet they are now that we are fighting FOR them instead of seemingly against them? Full of criticism one minute and nothing when we do something 'right' in their eyes. We are saving their own kind for goodness sake! Why can't they put as much energy into helping there own kind over there instead of waiting in the wings to criticise us yet again - for helping them).

Everybody has forgotten that NO-ONE wanted this war - and I mean NO-ONE. This is why it took so long to get in there in the first place and actually DO something for humanity's sake. I couldn't care less who would gain what out of this as long as the killing stops - even if it was Russia but, when do Russia get involved with humanitarian commitments? EVERYTHING is a two edged sword to them and they are always guarranteed to fall on the negative side. And, make no mistake, there are people living in Serbia who would like to see the demise of their own leader and the murdering stopped as soon as possible. They are NO different from you and I in that they too don't wish to be a party to genocide on ANY scale regardles of who or what race. We just hear from the loud mouths who would fight at any cost for anything. We can make of it what we like but there ARE times when fighting DOES matter (Hitler) and that it sometimes IS neccessary - especially against drunken despots like this idiot is. And, I would say the same if it were my own leader killing a close neighbour regardless of our differences. It is the GENOCIDE that MUST stop and NOTHING else matters - that's it. Genocide is ALWAYS wrong no matter who is doing it and what religion/caste they may be! Stop looking deeper into it to find something to back up a weak-kneed attitude towards our own women children and young men dying. Focus on the REAL right and wrong in your own heart - and forget Clinton. He doesn't matter but that the action does matter for the furtherance of us all. Remember - YOUR God is watching and listening to you appeasing these killings under the guise of blaming America (of all people) for actually solving a problem that Serbia herself should have solved a long time ago. Their leader was given far too much rope but cannot complain now that he didn't have the time to make his mind up can he? Those people DO have a conscience but, like the rest of us, decided to ignore it, pretend it wasn't happening and, when it became blatantly obvious that it was happening on a very large scale, chose to do nothing about it - just like the UN did for far too long. One day, we shall ALL answer for this regardless of our religion, our God, or lack of one.

Is it not appreciated that, already, MORE people have been viciously murdered than ALL the killings from ALL sides in the second world war? MOST OF THESE WERE CHILDREN!!! This MUST stop - for ALL our sakes please God!

If any of us have a worry at all then, as intimated above - it is CHINA. Keep your eyes open there OK? Thank you for reading

Remove a dictator? Why do you think you have to remove anybody? Are other countries trying to remove Clinton? You have no respect for the soverigny of other countries. If you don't like their leader you feel you have to remove him. It's not your leader but Serbian. Dictator or not, if people would be so against him we would not be in power. And one more thing, that I know from personal experience. Even people who hated him before became his strong supporters when bombings started.
Not only will Clinton not achieve his goals quite the opposite is happening. Milosevic is even stronger, humanitatian disaster is worse and war and hate are getting stronger and are spreading.

Maya! What are you suggesting that we do to remove Milosevic? Or are you suggesting that he retains the power and continue his massacres against albanians, just for the right of Power? I can only respect national souveraignity as long as the nation in question doesn't harass its own citizens (of whome the Kosovan Albanians are). I cannot respect a ruling class coming to power by monopoly of radio and TV. By principle i don't respect Power as such - it is just a state of integrity either benevolent, or malevolent.