BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
As the NATO military alliance escalates its war against
Yugoslavia, the imperialist intervention is deepening the
course toward using ground troops. This intensification in
their military operation has sharpened tactical debates among
U.S. capitalist politicians and other ruling class figures, who
are nervous about the political consequences of a ground
assault.
On April 28 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution, 249 to 180, requiring President William Clinton to get Congressional approval for launching a ground invasion. The big-business politicians rejected another measure, 2 to 427, to declare a "full" war against Yugoslavia. Another nonbinding resolution declaring bipartisan support for the bombing campaign failed 213 to 213.
"We're on the verge of ground troops," said Rep. Thomas Campbell, a Republican who asserted during the debate that the attack on Yugoslavia was unconstitutional without a vote of support by Congress.
"The best course of action ... is to use the overwhelming military might we have at our disposal to end this war swiftly and quickly," said Democratic Rep. Eugene Taylor, who pressed for a declaration of war.
The day after the Congressional debate the House Appropriations Committee approved a $12.9 billion "emergency spending" bill for the military operation in the Balkans through September 30. The funds would also cover Washington's assault against the Iraqi people and enforcing the "no-fly zones" there.
In the Senate, Republican John McCain, a presidential contender, has taken the lead in pressing for a resolution authorizing Clinton to "use all necessary force" in the Balkans. Democrat Charles Robb co-sponsored the resolution, which failed by a 72 to 22 vote May 4. "We are now weeks into an air campaign that may last months, and Americans need to prepare themselves now, psychologically at least, for war," Robb said May 3.
"We should not give the president blanket authority to get us into another Vietnam," said Sen. George Voinovich, opposing the measure.
Meanwhile, the imperialists have stepped up their air war with round the clock bombing attacks resulting in more civilian casualties. "We will not stop the bombing but will intensify the bombing," declared U.S. defense secretary William Cohen, responding to a call for a pause in the bombing by Democratic Party politician Jesse Jackson to pursue negotiations.
Jackson, who supports imperialist intervention in the Balkans but with more diplomatic cover, led a delegation to Belgrade that secured the release on May 2 of three U.S. GIs captured by the Yugoslav military. The delegation included Congressman Rod Blagojevich, who has pushed for partitioning Kosova.
Washington and the big-business media are attempting to inure the U.S. population to the steady increase of what they cynically call "collateral damage" - Yugoslav civilians killed by "errant" missiles. Cohen announced April 30 that B-52 bombers will begin dropping conventional bombs on Yugoslavia, which are "more likely to cause unintended damage and injury" than guided missiles, the New York Times reported April 30.
After a NATO missile slammed into a bus May 1 in the central Kosova village of Luzane, killing 39 people, Col. Conrad Freytag, a NATO military spokesman remarked, "When [Belgrade] allows public traffic over these bridges they risk a lot of lives of their public citizens." Two days later NATO warplanes killed at least 17 people after bombing and strafing a bus and some cars 18 miles from the Kosova city of Pec.
On April 29 a "stray" missile destroyed a house in the outskirts of Sofia in neighboring Bulgaria. It was the fourth report of NATO missiles hitting Bulgaria.
Joining the chorus to justify the rising death count and the imperialists' attempt to impose a military occupation force in Yugoslavia was the liberal New Republic magazine. A "large percentage" of Yugoslav workers and peasants are "legally and morally incompetent to conduct their own affairs," wrote Daniel Goldhagen in the May 17 issue.
Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust claims that German working people actively supported fascist attacks aimed at Jews. He makes similar allegations against the Serbian people, asserting that a holocaust against the Albanians can be prevented by an "allied-occupied Serbia, and a redrawn map that would certainly include a Kosova detached in whole or in part."
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman also blamed the Yugoslav people for not getting on their knees, calling for "sustained bombardment" to wreak havoc on the entire country. "The idea that people are still holding rock concerts, or going out for Sunday merry-go-rides," while the imperialist are waging a war against them is "outrageous," he exclaimed in his April 23 column.
He asserted only "a merciless air war" destroying power grids, water mains, bridges, roads, and factories would intensify enough pressure on Belgrade to make a deal. "Give war a chance. Let's see what months of bombing does before we opt for weeks of invasion, where if we win, we get to occupy the Balkans for years," Friedman declared.
When the Clinton administration first weighed launching an invasion into Kosova last fall, they ruled out using ground troops after reviewing the defeat of the Nazi occupation army by the Yugoslav partisan movement during World War II, the Miami Herald reported April 15. "Hitler badly misjudged the sentiments" of Yugoslavia's workers and peasants, the article noted. "The difficulty of the terrain and stubbornness of the Yugoslav people remain powerful common denominators."