To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia

Rating:
Summary: Parenti Raging
Review: Amidst all of the Kosovo War books that came out immediately following the war, this was notable since it doesn't take any standard line, starting with the title.

To Kill A Nation is a look at what many consider to be a big mistake--NATO's first war, fought against Yugoslavia in 1999. Parenti comes at every angle and rails against an unjust, trumped-up war that was dishonestly reported and then forgotten. It is nevertheless important as it set the stage for further international adventures out of the scope of international law, now a US policy staple.

Parenti is not denying that an ugly civil war was taking place. What he is disgusted with is the 'presentation' of this 'war' as a humanitarian effort, an unprecedented act of altruism by powerful states to save an opporessed people.

Parenti focuses on things like collateral damage, economics of Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, the media and 'their atrocities', bumbling politicians, etc.

Not everything here is so convincing, but there is much merit in the argument against the war, a war now forgotten and brushed over as our committment to this troubled corner of Europe ends.

Recommended for a different take on the Kosovo War.

Rating:
Summary: A little off-base on economic realities
Review: As someone who has lived and worked in four of the former Yugoslav Republics (Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia), I have had a chance to talk to a lot of people from different walks of life, pre-war and post-war. Parenti's assertion that the Yugoslav economic model was successful, and therefore suspect to capitalist powers is pure bunk. One need only look at the number of Yugoslav citizens who had exiled themselves to northern and western Europe in search of economic opportunities, well before any of the fighting started, to see what I am talking about. University educated engineers, scientists, and other professionals worked in hotels, fast food restaurants, and other places well below their qualifications in order to earn a living for themselves and their families. They crammed together in shoddy, overcrowded, living conditions to get access to hard currency as the Yugoslav dinar was eroded by the crumbling economy. True, of the total number who left Yugoslavia for low-brow employment, Serbs were in the minority. Perhaps this is becuase what little access to economic opportunity remained in Yugoslavia in the late 80s and early nineties was allocated mostly to Serbs.

As far as Parenti predicates the rest of his diatribe on the misguided notion of Yugoslavia's economic utopia, he's widely missed the mark.

That said, in challenging the party line of western governments and media, he challenges all of us to look further than the propaganda we are spoon fed. So, I don't disregard the work entirely, but it must be read with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Rating:
Summary: A note to biased thinkers
Review: As stated by other reviewers some people really need ot wake up when it comes to the subject of foregin wars. Which of you reviewers can actually say you have been to Serbia and examined the situation through your own eyes not through the propaganda that the America media feeds to you. Some people are too hard headed to look at things from a different perspective.

Think back and see how many times America has had a war on its own soil in the past century or so. Have they ever fought a war in which they weren't at a clear advantage? Have the Serbs not held Kosovo, and fought for it since before American even existed? How would America deal with it if Canadians started reproducting and becoming a majority in a state one by one. Slowly America would get overwhelmed since they could not prevent this without force. The actions of Milosevic were more of a counter attack. Defending against the Albanian ideal of a greater Albania of which only one goal of its many goals was to conquer Serbia's holy land : Kosovo.The Albanian supported Kosovars could anger many a nation since destroying icons, burning churches,killing preists etc. is a great attrocity. The things that many Americans accuse Serbs of doing in Kosovo were exercised far more by the KLA which was SUPPORTED by the Americans. They are the ones that raped, massacred, destroyed, looted,destroyed relegiosu sites and shot at retreating soldiers.

If that insight into the matter didn't provoke any thinking to your naive thoughts God help you...

Rating:
Summary: Bombs for Peace?
Review: One reviewer has lambasted Parenti for portraying a "World Imperialist Conspiracy masterminded by the United States." Well, that's not quite true, but Parenti does interpret the attack on Yugoslavia as an expression of neo-colonialism. And for good reason. You just can't argue with the wheelbarrow-load of facts this book will dump on you. Of particular note were details of wholesale infrastructure bombing followed by multi-million-dollar reconstruction contracts for international (read: Western) corporations - a textbook example of corporate profiteering from US-lead bombing campaigns. But don't take my word for it. Read the book for yourself. It will blow your mind. Or better, visit Yugoslavia and SEE the aftermath of for youself.

STILL REELING

j. william krueger
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: Parenti is simply amazing! He uncovers all those "details" that were hidden from us, when talking about the Wars in Yugoslavia. He writes brilliantly and his knowledge is profound. Parenti shows us that it was Croatian and Bosnian leadership that started and WANTED war in Yugoslavia. He also demonstrates to us that Milosevic is not as bad as we would think and that, if compared to Tudjman or Izetbegovic, he shouldn't be even considered as a nationalist. And, above all, he remains objective and neutral. After reading it, you will want to do it again and again! Bursting with little known facts, this book is written using simple language and it is dedicated to all social classes. Do not miss this book

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: Parenti is simply amazing! He uncovers all those "details" that were hidden from us, when talking about the Wars in Yugoslavia. He writes brilliantly and his knowledge is profound. Parenti shows us that it was Croatian and Bosnian leadership that started and WANTED war in Yugoslavia. He also demonstrates to us that Milosevic is not as bad as we would think and that, if compared to Tudjman or Izetbegovic, he shouldn't be even considered as a nationalist. And, above all, he remains objective and neutral. After reading it, you will want to do it again and again! Bursting with little known facts, this book is written using simple language and it is dedicated to all social classes. Do not miss this book

Rating:
Summary: Valiant
Review: Parenti's book is not a historical account of Yugoslavia's conquest by the West. Few dates are mentioned and only a rough chronology is followed. Instead it's a valiant attempt to set the record straight following years of drumfire propaganda aimed at toppling the Yugoslav federation and its non-western economy. By no means, is Parenti attempting a whitewash of Milosevich, his regime, or real crimes against non-Serbs. He is combatting the vicious, one-sided campaign waged in Western media against all things Serb or Yugoslav. That NATO has finally succeeded is testament to an overwhelming military and political superiority, not to any inherent rightness in the cause, ( consider the spate of international law violated by NATO's attack). This is the burden of the book and the author handles it well, with documentation and sources outside the usual CNN-NATO axis.

Two key points are worth mention. The vaunted killing fields of Kosovo never materialized despite near hysterical reports all over Western networks. Turns out that many of these claims were based on rumor, exaggeration, or KLA mendacity. That these reports of Serb massacres were circulated as fact by an uncritical media testifies to a level of subservience to NATO war aims, which , not incidentally, work to strengthen European prospects of this same corporate media. Now that the conquest is complete, backtracking is quietly underway, but so what, the damage has been done, and more of the same cheerleading can be expected next time Western peace-keepers go after some rogue nation or crazed foreign devil.

A second point: Parenti documents terms of the Rambouillet conference, a NATO-Yugoslav diplomatic meeting that set the stage for the armed attack on Serbia. Seems this parley was sabotaged from the outset. To meet Western terms for peace, Serbia was required to permit NATO forces to occupy the country, renouncing in effect sovereignty over its own territory. In short, it was a demand Serbia could not afford not to refuse - just as NATO had calculated, and the air attack got underway against what was now portrayed as an unreasonable regime in Belgrade! (This is reminiscent of the diplomatic trickery surrounding talks between April Glaspie, US ambassador to Iraq, and Saddam Hussein, prior to the Gulf War, in which Hussein was told the US had no interest in the disposition of Kuwait or its royal family, thereby setting a trap that Hussein immediately fell into.)

What should be apparent to critical observers, is that truth, goodness, and fellow feeling mean nothing when power and wealth are at stake, regardless of the regime involved. Western transnationals see an opportunity to gobble up the world economy behind a facade of "free trade" and "democracy" and, by god, they're going to do it, whether people like it or not. That's their version of democratic thinking. If this seems an exaggeration, read the book. The truth is out there, but don't expect to hear it on the six o'clock news.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate example of, "swimming against the current."
Review: This book faces an uphill battle; it reveals the nature and extent of American corruption of Eastern Europe and its media bias in covering events of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the breakaway Yugoslav republics. It then relates those to a more general worldwide agenda. It is meant to be read by those who want to see the actions of NATO in Yugoslavia for what they are, not by those who would rather pretend that America's policy of military interventionism has some sort of positive side.

After the introduction, the book begins a history of what has happened in Yugoslavia over the last half-century, such as its success in being an industrialized socialist country and having a good economy. It also discusses when the successions began, Bosnian ethnic cleansing and Albanian violence against Serbs and when the American media started to cover events in that region in a one sided way; I had no idea that there had been so much ethnic violence against Serbs, and I'm glad that Parenti wrote this book because I wonder whether anyone else would have had the courage to say it.

Parenti goes into detail concerning how the Kosovo Liberation Army began to provoke violence in Kosovo to trigger reactions from Serbs, and then how at a diplomatic meeting the United States deliberately drafted a treaty that the FRY would be forced to refuse so that there would be an excuse to attack Serbia. He then describes the brutal bombing policy in Yugoslavia and the disinformation campaign at home. Parenti does not try to claim that Serbian violence against Albanians did not occur, but he does show that an organized campaign of genocide such as the one spoken of by NATO officials was extremely unlikely. He shows that the crimes that did occur were more likely to be revenge killings for the KLA violence against Serbs, and also done while searching for such militants.

The writer not only criticizes the American government and corporate media, but also the public stations like NPR or PBS for failing to be critical of the bombing campaign. Even American left isn't spared.

Finally Parenti compares the American government's policy against a socialist Yugoslavia to its campaign of free market promotion and exploitation which takes place in the rest of the world. He reveals that Yugoslavia was a country that was hated because it put forth an alternative to this model, showing that a country can be successful in with a socialist economy.

I give this book five stars, Michael Parenti had the courage to assign blame where blame was due for the destruction that took place Serbia and Albania. I would recommend reading this book and spreading the information before the biased view of Yugoslavia that the American media and literary world has not hesitated to push becomes permanent.

Rating:
Summary: Rock and a Hard Place
Review: This short book is a courageous gesture on the part of Michael Parenti; certain to anger the right, Parenti just as sharply criticizes the so-called left, taking to task the Greens, NPR and Susan Sontag just to name a few. Perhaps it is this assurance of condemnation from all sides that makes it so imperative that this book be read.

This is a horror story of course, but written with an intelligence and passion that makes the book very difficult to put down. Relying upon White House and Nato press reports, various mainstream media, first-hand accounts and his own visit to the war-torn country, Parenti attempts to tell the untold about a war, the media coverage of which has become a history of retractions and unsustained claims.

This book is as much about media as it is about politics, a fact that bares considering given some of the reviews below, several of which seem to promote an ideology rather than address the book itself. This is unfortunate given the lengths to which Parenti goes to state repeatedly that "Again, it cannot be said too many times: to reject the demonized image of Milosevic and of the Serbian people is not to idealize either nor claim that Yugoslav forces have not committed crimes. It is merely to challenge the one-sided propaganda that laid the grounds for the imperialist dismemberment of Yugoslavia and NATO's far greater criminal onslaught" (186).

To see how Parenti goes about defending this assertion one must read the book. Academic and yet very lucidly written, the book is as unsettling as it is thought-provoking. Indeed, it is convincing, and given the recent arrest of Milosevic and continuing tensions in the region, extremely pertinent.