http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Worthington_Peter/2008/03/17/pf-50 27321.html
NATO's big blunder Action in Kosovo one of the great outrages of our time By PETER WORTHINGTON Last Thursday, at the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto, a gathering sponsored by Lord Byron Society discussed Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia. This is an esoteric topic of limited concern to those not familiar with Balkan politics. It is one of the great outrages of our times, and certainly the most scandalous and unnecessary adventure of the presidency of Bill Clinton, who unleashed his incompetent Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, to declare war on Serbia and persuaded NATO to join in. Albright and the Clinton administration were persuaded that genocide was under way in Kosovo against Albanian Muslims who constituted a majority of the population. The spectre of massacres and mass graves resulted in the 1999 decision to bomb Serbia into submitting to a more independent, multicultural Kosovo. It was predicted by those who advocated war, that within 48 hours of being bombed, Serbia (Belgrade and Slobodan Milosevic) would capitulate and Kosovo would be free. Serbs, however, were made of sterner stuff than NATO and Washington anticipated, and the bombing lasted 78 days. In the end, Kosovo technically remained a province of Serbia under UN jurisdiction. As for genocide and mass graves -- that was a hoax. Nothing was found. Atrocities, yes, roughly divided among Serbs and Albanians -- the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). But not one mass grave. It was eventually estimated that four times the number of Kosovo civilians died under NATO bombs, than had been killed by Serbs. The "war," was largely the product of Kosovo Albanians provoking Serbs into retaliatory action, and having a willing international press -- and U.S./NATO staff -- eager to document what they were told. Jamie Shea, NATO's spokesman, announced that some 100,000 Kosovars were missing, unaccounted for, and probably slaughtered. NATO later reduced this estimate to 10,000. Winnipeg forensic pathologist Dr. Peter Markestyn was one of those designated to investigate and conduct forensic examinations. His team performed 1,800 autopsies. "That's it," he said. Hardly genocide. War crime prosecutor Louise Arbour -- Albright's choice for the job -- did her bit by charging Milosevic with genocide and war crimes. She and the U.S. believed he was responsible for a massacre at the village of Racak, in January, 1999, when Serbs supposedly massacred 45 Muslim Albanians. William Walker, head of the Kosovo Verification Mission, visited the site and called it "an unspeakable atrocity ... a crime against humanity ... the worst I've ever seen." Skeptical French journalists investigated, and discovered that the bodies of KLA fighters who'd been killed while fighting, were dragged to the ditch, mutilated, some decapitated, and presented as massacred by Serbs. Finnish pathologists found it odd that little blood was in the ditch, and many had been shot at random, rather than executed. In other words it was a phony massacre, aimed at framing the Serbs. To some it was mindful of Bosnian Muslims in Sarejevo mortaring market places and blaming Serbs -- and getting away with it. Fortunately for Arbour's reputation, Milosevic died before facing trial for Kosovo war crimes, else he'd likely have been acquitted. The Kosovo war was staged and unnecessary -- the U.S. and NATO hoodwinked into attacking. None of this suggests that Serbs were choirboys in the Balkans. Horrendous atrocities occurred. Today, the Bush administration and European Union recognize Kosovo's Independence. Russia and it allies do not. Nor does Serbia. Realistically, there's no way to right what was clearly a wrong, but at very least the truth of what happened should be recognized -- which is what the meeting at the Military Institute on Thursday was all about.
