The Pentagon War in Bosnia

Part of the Global Perspectives on War and Peace Collection. From the box: "What is behind the largest U.S. military operation in Europe since WWI? Combat the growing war propaganda with a powerful expose of the role of the Pentagon and NATO. This video provides a historical view and a political analysis of why working and poor people should oppose a new U.S. military expansion. It is based on a the first in a series of national campus teach-ins on Bosnia held in NYC in October 1995."

0:00Copy video clip URL Count-in.

0:35Copy video clip URL Over images of fighting in the Balkans, author and filmmaker Najia Tesich lists grievances against the United States and the international community for ignoring and simplifying the atrocities in this region.

2:29Copy video clip URL Sara Flounders, of the International Action Center, lists the war-like actions committed by the U.S. as part of their “humanitarian” mission. “You may already be questioning, ‘Is the U.S. just a well-intentioned, bumbling giant?'” She says that the night’s program will outline past U.S. wars and invasions in order to make the argument that the intervention in Bosnia is, in fact, a war, and not a peaceful action. “They’ve all been different. But they do have one thing in common: Not one of them has been a humanitarian mission.”

5:50Copy video clip URL Barry Lituchy, from the Coalition to Stop Western Intervention in Yugoslavia, emphasizes that this is in fact, a war, and it is a war of governments against the Serbian people. “My experience over there really drives home the point that the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs as a people, are under siege. They are a people at war with the United States of America… Even though the United States government denies it, this IS a war, and everyone has to be aware of that… It is a genocide and is an attempt to destroy an entire people.” He lists arguments to support the use of the term genocide under footage of atrocities.

8:08Copy video clip URL Tesich describes the effects that the conflict has had on her personally. “I call it ‘the dictatorship of the New World Order.'”

9:38Copy video clip URL Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark says that the conflicts have come out of an insecurity in Europe over control of the continent. “We need to recognize that these thinks don’t just happen. These things are planned and controlled.”

11:22Copy video clip URL Flounders refers to a March 1992 New York Times article entitled “The Pentagon Plan For World Domination.” The article states that in the mind of the Pentagon, “it was essential to U.S. economic interests that the Pentagon remain the primary undisputed military power in the world. And that the U.S. goal was to prevent the emergence of any European-based bloc or security arrangements. That the U.S. could allow no rivals. No competitors could even aspire to a larger role.” She describes the current conflict as “inter-Imperialist rivalry,” claiming that any peace plans involving military control by French, German, or other European countries were sabotaged by the U.S. She gives evidence for the view of the International Action Center that the U.S. initiated the breakup and the civil war in Yugoslavia, and it is not, as commonly painted, a war based on ancient ethnic conflicts.

18:49Copy video clip URL Lituchy again focuses on reinforcing the idea of a Serbian genocide: “The one word today that people [in the Balkans] use to describe what the Americans are and what they are doing is the word ‘Nazis.’ And perhaps Americans should get accustomed to that… The United States is aiming to destroy the Serbs as a people.” He lists the motivations of the U.S., including a desire to destroy socialism and the imposition of a colonial economic system in Yugoslavia.

21:48Copy video clip URL Clark describes the atrocities suffered by Yugoslavia and Croatia during World War II and relates this to the U.S. plans to create civil war in these areas.

27:35Copy video clip URL Tesich describes the United States propaganda that allowed them to undergo their plans for the Balkans freely.

28:21Copy video clip URL Clark urges the audience to stand up to the United States’ actions and help the Bosnians rebuild their lives.

29:29Copy video clip URL Credits. Closing message: “The struggle continues.”