Our News Comes via "the Biggest Lying Machine in the History of the World"*

• Media ignores marches
• Chomsky on Peace Accord
• High cost of "Victory"
• Left-Right Bedfellows
• Banned photos, 1993
• Background
• Not a victory:

I was at the "Stop the Bombing in Yugoslavia" march and rally on Saturday (June 5th) in San Francisco, and it was exciting and very enlightening. There were really a LOT of people -- Market Street was filled up, solid, on one side of the street for more than two long blocks with floats, people carrying signs, playing instruments, using megaphones to chant "1,2,3,4 Stop the Bombing, Stop the War" and things like that. We found a spot between the Green Party and some Buddhists. It felt good to walk with this large group of people through downtown SF and the Castro, ending up at the back end of Dolores Park. Then there was a kind of amorphous trek across the park to find the actual rally site, which was out of sight over the hill -- I know some people never found it.

There was a lot of information to absorb from the many speakers and the info tables. Basically we have been lied to and lied to, by our government and the media. It is hard to grasp the level of manipulation that goes on. This is a war that has to do with economic interests, and nothing to do with "humanitarianism." I wish you had been at the rally to hear for yourself, because it opened my eyes. Why is spending $13 billions on bombing considered to be a good option? That much money could have been successfully used to persuade people to cooperate. (People in this country are also victims of the war because all that money has to come from our taxes.)

--> One thing we might keep in mind is that there is oil in the Caspian Sea, so much oil that it equals what we were in the Gulf War about. The route for piping that oil would lie through Yugoslavia...

No matter what you choose to believe about the reasons behind this, civilians are being slaughtered by US bombs -- this is wrong. Depleted uranium is being scattered across the Earth, poisoning and ruining it! This is just insane.

A few quotes from people who spoke, just things I was able to scribble down quickly (sorry for the incompleteness):

"Why are people so confused and disoriented about this war? Why do we choose to believe Clinton's lies? Why do we believe that the Pentagon and the government are suddenly houses of humanitarian agencies? ... They call Milosevic a war criminal, but Clinton and Bush are responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million Iraqis, with 5 million more now on the brink of death because of the economic sanctions ..." [plus many more examples]1

"WE live under a regime of war criminals."²

"You hear people say about the bombing of the Serbs, "This war is different" because it's for "humanitarian reasons". Well, every war they fight they always say it has a humanitarian reason. This bombing is no mistake, the civilians being killed are not by accident, it is to destroy the industrial base of Yugoslavia."3

"Yugoslavia was the only country in Eastern Europe that did not voluntarily strip itself of its social system after the collapse of Communist Russia -- so it had to be demolished. This was a country that had free medical care, paid vacations, guaranteed right to a job -- all destroyed. Now it will be reduced to an impoverished "client state". Now you have yet another population that will be willing to work at Third World wages... Whenever you destroy someone else's capital you enhance your own: when you destroy someone else's factories you increase the value of what your factories produce."3

"They say they care so much about the refugees, but as a consequence of this bombing the refugees will not have a home to return to... They say it will take 2 decades to repair current damages -- but the depleted uranium in the bombs will really make it impossible to repair." 2

"They told us at the start of the Vietnam war that the North Vietnamese were ruthless torturers, that the US would have to intervene to prevent a bloodbath." 1

"The Corporate World is the enemy of the people of the world."4

Gloria La Riva: "I salute the soldiers of Yugoslavia, they have a right to defend their country. NATO troops don't care about the refugees. The soldiers of Yugoslavia know what they are fighting for, they are fighting for their people. 30 countries have been named as "rogue states" -- any countries that don't agree with privatization/globalization." [Cuba given as one example]

Poem from Constantine Markitis, Cypriot-American (I wish I had the whole thing). "...Uncle Sam, your people they are suffering from having too much and knowing too little ... but I hear something rustling Uncle Sam, I hear Joplin revving up for a ..., I hear Morrison _____ from his grave, I hear Hendrix' guitar shrieking through the bombers, I hear something rustling, Uncle Sam, and it is coming from your children. They will rise up in the midnight hour... "

Hilda Roberts (activist since the Spanish Civil War) "The US has been telling lies about Yugoslavia since 1991, but we know the truth and it is our responsibility to spread this message to all the people in our country ... so that they can stop this bombing."

----------------
Other quotes:

"The US military budget totals more than the 8 largest military budgets of the next countries taken together!!" 5

Karen Talbot: "The so-called peace agreement imposed on Yugoslavia --- Our country is the key imperialist country in this matter. How can they believe that killing children in Belgrade saves children in Kosovo?

"Clinton, Albright, Schroeder, et al NATO leaders have been charged with war crimes by a group of lawyers... we need to hear more about that.

"There is more military spending proportionately to social programs in this county than ever before in history."

The settlement is not a peace settlement ... it further undermines the independence of what remains of Yugoslavia. It differs little from the Rambouillet Agreement. After 72 days of resistance, they are signing in order to preserve the core of their government and stop the bombing of their people.

The IMF and world monetary institutions (responsible for "repair aid" as well as other aid) require outrageous austerity measures from countries that do not toe the line, before they will give their aid. [What this means is that the countries must give up their social services.]