Bill Clinton: War Criminal
by Jim Paist

The dishonorable and less than truthful Commander in Chief; William Jefferson Clinton is a hardened war criminal who should be tried, prosecuted and sentenced for ordering genocide against innocent Yugoslavian civilians. The Clinton-led NATO attack and occupation against the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia has killed more than 2,000 innocent people and has created hundreds of thousands of homeless refugees. As a result of the barbaric bombing attacks on the Yugoslav population, families are homeless, children are orphaned and maimed, and a large part of the country is now contaminated with fallout from sophisticated American weaponry, including radioactive depleted uranium from armor-piercing shells.

Another hideous legacy which NATO has created with its war machine is an enormous amount of unexploded ordinance (bombs). Up to 170 people have been killed or injured over the past month involving accidents with land mines and unexploded bombs just in Kosovo, according to the World Health Organization. "Human Rights Watch estimates that 11,000 unexploded cluster munitions of U.S. and British manufacture are scattered across Kosovo and greater Serbia," [Washington Post - July 19, 1999]. The death toll from this outrageous invasion continues to swell with civilians fatally discovering bombs, and with occupying NATO troops shooting both Serbs and ethnic Albanians alike. The ruthless and intentional bombing of civilian targets, which included trains, buses, bridges and day care centers has put the world on notice that there is an extremely powerful terrorist on the loose, and it uses the acronym, NATO.

In addition to the genocide committed against the Yugoslavian population, the short sighted and ill-conceived policies of Clinton/Albright have severely compromised world peace by fundamentaly damaging diplomatic relations with Russia and China. Clinton's empathetic refusal to consider a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the Balkans has pushed Russia into a New Cold War posture. In an official Russian government statement from Victor Chemomyrdin on May 27th 1999, he stated, "Moreover, the new NATO strategy, the first practicle instance of which we are witnessing in Yugoslavia, has lead to a serious deterioration in Russia-U.S. contacts. The world has never in this decade been so close as now to the brink of nuclear war." NATO is a military alliance that has outlived its purpose and currently does not have a clear charter or direction.

The NATO attack and occupation of Yugoslavia violates international law, the U.S. Constitution asd the charter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization itself. As an outdated military alliance that was intended to be defensive by nature, NATO has violated its own charter by attacking a sovereign nation without provocation. As someone who is no stranger to breaking laws, Bill Clinton has again abused his power by boldly violating the Wars Power Act of 1973, which requires congressional approval for the "introduction of hostilities" of American troops for 60 days of military action.

The ongoing NATO occupation of Yugoslavia will surely bring more death and suffering to the region, while driving a wedge between the United States and Russia, a desperate country that has admittedly become much more dependent on its nuclear arsenal which still happens to be aimed at America. We urge all responsible citizens to write you congressional delegation to demand the immediate withdrawl of American and NATO troops from Yugoslavia.

At the end of July, in New York City, former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, held a tribunal to expose war crimes by NATO in its attack on Yugoslavia. Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were tried for their actions.

In the past few years, the United States has been involved in quite a few wars (Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia). It's not often that you will find programs on television or articles in the newspaper that allow you to learn in depth about how women are involved and affected by these wars, conflicts and crises. This may be because most people don't think about what it would be like if they were living in that type of situation. If you were to think about it you would have to ask and try to answer many questions.

First of all - you are imagining that you are a woman (if you aren't already) - What country, that has recently been through a war are you from? There are many to choose from. What situations and confrontations are you faced with in every day life? Are you young and looking forward to experiencing life? Are you a mother, a grandmother, do you have children? Are any of your relatives fighting in the war? Husbands, sons, you? Do you play a role for or against what is happening in your country? How are people affected by it? How has your environment changed? Have you and your family been treated differently because of your political beliefs?

To help better understand how women confront war and possibly answer these questions, CISPES is planning a forum on the topic of women and war. Three women presenters will speak from their experiences in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Colombia, proving that women are a strong force when involved in war, even if our media and society doesn't want us to know it.

The United States government is continuing to bomb Iraq, killing innocent civilians and destroying the Iraqi people's way of life, almost daily. On August 18, the U.S. military launched four missiles just outside of Naraf, in Southern Iraq. This particular attack targeted a main road leading out of the city and a wheat silo. In the attack, seventeen innocent civilians were killed, mainly women, children and elderly people.

They were burnt to death in the cars, and the dead included a pregnant woman and her husband. Also in this attack, eighteen other civilians were injured, including a six-year old boy, whose right hand had to be amputated. There was no military target in the vicinity of this region.

Washington blames Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for all civilian deaths caused by these bombing sprees. They claim to be acting in self-defense, and said that this policy of self-defense would not be altered as long as Saddam Hussein opts "to challenge coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zone in the south, putting his own people in harm's way." (This according to State Department Spokesperson, James Rubin on July 20.)

These no fly zones were imposed in the south and north of Iraq by the United States unilaterally, and have no legal standing under international law or United Nation resolutions. U.S. planes fly in the no-fly zones, causing Iraq to turn on its targeting systems in protest to the U.S. invasion of their air space. This, in turn, causes the United States to act in self-defense, firing surface-to-air missiles and laser-guided bombs, at military targets.

These military targets include the aforementioned road and wheat silo, along with the civilians on the road. Also included in the military targets was a seven- member Iraqi family and their sheep on April 30th, civilian infrastructure, water and electrical facilities, and homes. This destruction, combined with nine years of sanctions, aims to terrorize the Iraqi population into American submission.

On February 3, 1962, President John F. Kennedy ordered a U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Since that time, through nine U.S. presidents, the U.S. government has acted unilaterally to attempt to prevent all trade and all foreign investment in this tiny Latin American nation of ten million people. And since that time, the Cuban people have unhesitatingly stood up to the pressures created by the embargo and have refused to give up their way of life despite the hardships that the embargo and the political maneuvering of the U.S. government on the world political stage, have created for them.

What has the embargo meant for the Cuban people? Shortages of milk for children. A dramatic curtailment in the ability of the country to provide decent medical care for its people under its cradle to grave health care system. (Because so much of the world's advanced medical equipment and drugs are manufactured by U.S. firms, the 37 year-old American embargo is now literally killing Cubans, according to a 1997 report issued by the American Association for World Health.) Cubans face shortages of basic necessities like soap, light bulbs and other household supplies, and a lack of basic necessities like books and lunches for school children.

The embargo is an act of war that goes beyond many other acts of war in its barbarism and brutality, it's impact is like the bombing of hospitals and schools and homes. It is now opposed by a majority of the world's peoples and governments, by the United Nations, by the Catholic Church, and by an ever growing number of Americans who recognize it as the inhumane act it is. Dedicated anti-war activists should stand shoulder to shoulder with the Cuban people in the same way they stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of Yugoslavia and Kosovo during the U.S. bombing of their country. We should take every opportunity to express our solidarity with their struggle against the U.S. government and for their right to govern their country as they see fit, free of U.S. intervention.

The end of the U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia is not the end of U.S. aggression internationally. In fact, it is just another in a long line of U.S.-led attacks worldwide for decades. As anti-imperialists and peace-loving people, we must ask the question, who is next? One possible site is Kashmir, a region northeast of India's border. The Kashmir region has been hotly contested by both India and Pakistan, and the U.S. has already sided with India. What interests does the U.S. have in a small region halfway around the world? The same it has with Yugoslavia, political control of a strategic region. The Kashmir Valley is not just rich in mineral resources, but its location on the Chinese border will also be important if the U.S. ever decides that China's communist government is a threat to the U.S. capitalist interests.

You see the Albanians want to return to
their home
Just as much as the Serbians don't want to leave
their home
But both have been told not to move not an inch
not at all
You see the ground is alive with death:
"Unexploded ordinance."
That's the current euphemism for cluster bombs
"surgically" deployed en masse over homes, hospitals,
everywhere on everyone by the Peace Makers.
And when these unexploded euphemisms explode,
they take off arms and legs that humans and animals need
to live their daily life.
But the Albanians and the Serbs just don't
understand it.
You see they want to be in their home,
And home, they have been told since before recorded time,
is safe, it's where poet Frost said they have to let you in
when you go there.
But now since NATO peace has come to Kosovar, home is a death
zone.
Uncomprehending, the Kosovars still run to their home for embrace
and solace and to claim their Ancestral Memories, and they just
don't understand when it blows them to bits instead.

Next time we really have to do a better job
Maybe send over some Video Games or Network News Guys
To get everyone to understand
The New World Order
That has turned home into
Hell--an unintended but understandable "collateral damage" of the Peacemakers.
After all peace, like war, has a price.
 

U.S. Threatens Korea
by Mick Kelly

A series of naval battles between socialist North Korea and the U.S.-dominated South Korea have brought the peninsula to the brink of war. In June, warships of the South Korean navy launched a series of unprovoked attacks on fishing boats from the North.

The United States, Japan, and the South Korean authorities have been have systematically upped the level of tension with North Korea. Earlier this year, the U.S. government demanded to inspect underground industrial sites. Then, in the Asian press, there was widespread discussion of U.S. plans to launch a "punitive" strike against Democratic Korea. Now the U.S. has dispatched submarines and ships to KoreaÕs coast. Patriotic and progressive Koreans, want the country reunified. The 36,000 U.S. troops occupying the South are a barrier to reunification and a threat to the North.

Progressives in this country should oppose the war moves against Korea, and demand that the U.S. GET OUT NOW!

China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964 Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1964-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991-99
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
 

Anti-War Committee marches on Pentagon!
The Anti-War Cmte organized 30+ people to bus to the march on Washington against the bombing of Yugoslavia. Our delegation included Serb-Americans, high school and college students, and peace activists. June 5, protesters marched from the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial to the Pentagon. Marchers found it to be politically inspiring to be with close to 10, 000 other people opposed to US intervention in Yugoslavia.