There's a genuine horror story unfolding right now.

It's lead, fire, and iron against flesh -- a one-way war against the civilian population of Kosovo, the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian province of Yugoslavia's remnants ruled by the Serbian-nationalist, mass murderer and erstwhile "Communist" Slobodan Milosevic.

It's heavy artillery barrages on villages, it's merciless pillage and arson of overrun towns. It's tracking the children, women and old people hiding in the woods and slitting their throats. It's the systematic burning of the fall harvest, the local equivalent of burning every workplace and grocery store.

It's over 300,000 people fleeing for their lives into an oncoming winter with nothing, the children crying from hunger and cold, the parents able to offer only words.

For Kosovars it's like the earth has suddenly cracked open and vomited the demons of hell upon them.

But the horror is about to get worse--far worse: the United States military is getting ready to strike.

Yes, Kosovars are about to hear the last words anyone wants to hear --usually the last words they'll ever hear: "We're the American Armed Forces and we're here to help."

How could the U.S. make things worse?

Look at current events first: air strikes will only drive the Serbian population deeper into Milosevic's embrace. After all, there's nothing like being bombed to make you root for the local authorities, no matter how distasteful they might be (imagine armed Klansmen rampaging through Chicago -- and how good police SWAT teams would suddenly look).

Further embargoes--likely to accompany military action--will only hold the population deeper hostage to government thugs who control distribution of food and other critical goods, silencing any opposition with the threat of starvation.

In short, hostile action by Washington against Milosevic's Yugoslavia will only strengthen his bloody hand.

And that's exactly what it's designed to do.

Look at Washington's stance on Kosovo: Milosevic's war began when the U.S. ambassador gave him a green light, publicly condemning Kosovar independence advocates as "terrorists."

Moreover, Washington has repeatedly declared independence for Kosovo unacceptable--even amidst the atrocities--thereby ruling the ethnic-cleansing campaign a 'matter of internal security' and irreproachable under international law.

Murder unavenged

But look at the bigger picture: Kosovo's nightmare is no a sudden cataclysm paralyzing the world with horror-struck astonishment. It's just the latest chapter in the most dreadful events on European soil since World War #2.

Is it possible to do justice to the agony of Yugoslavia's dismemberment that begin in 1991? To give voice to the nightmare that that erupted like machine guns at a wedding in eastern Europe's most educated and cosmopolitan nation?

Sadly, no. And it's all ancient history now, less memorable than O.J. Simpson or Princess Di. Even the most authoritative book on the wars (Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation) gives no casualty totals, no counts of the horror (though over two million people were made homeless or killed).

We can only try to recall, for the sake of justice, Sarajevo's years of torture and the appalling bloodbath in Srebrenica -- the "safe haven" where UN "peacekeepers" gathered refugees for Serbian murderers to butcher, killing over 8,000 in days of slaughter.

"Ethnic cleansing," genocide and concentration camps amidst the great libraries, art galleries and universities of Europe . . . the atrocity of it all persists like a tell-tale heart, like a damn'd spot.

Plans made good

"We don't have a dog in that fight," smugly explained U.S. Secretary of State Baker as reports poured in during the early days of the nightmare.

But of course, they did. Washington's goal was first to shatter the Yugoslav Socialist Republic. To that end they carefully proffered diplomatic recognition and negotiations to the various sides, keeping its blessing on the assorted belligerents balanced.

More importantly, the U.S.--world's largest weapons dealer-- kept a hand on the hardware spigot, turning it on and off to first one side and then the other, keeping the conflict as protracted and bloody as possible.

At last, as Yugoslavia lay in hate-filled, bloody ruins, Washington seized its long-sought opportunity: first bombing the country and then sending in troops -- achieving the first military occupation of a non-capitalist country in history. One could almost hear General Jack Ripper (the anti-Communist maniac in Dr. Strangelove) pumping his fists and shouting "Yes! Yes! Yesss!"

Here we go again

So where do things stand today?

Here's what Los Angeles Times commentator William Pfaff says in his 2 October syndicated column: "International officials, aid workers, and journalists are now providing the same kind of reports as they did six years ago [from Bosnia]. The pattern is identical. Towns and villages are being destroyed and the inhabitants forced to flee. Men of military age are separated out, and taken away. Civilian systems of food and fuel distribution are blocked to enhance military control. . . . [w]hat is going on is the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo by Milosevic's police and army."

All true. But since it was Washington itself that engineered the internecine warfare in Yugoslavia, advocates of U.S./NATO military action should think twice before welcoming the fox into the chicken coop.

Washington's grander agenda is to "reposition [its] forces closer to Russia's border ... [and] to dominate pertroleum production and distribution in the oil-rich former Soviet republics of the Caucusus region," summarizes the U.S. socialist newsweekly The Militant. "The U.S. rulers' ultimate goal is to use their military might to maintain an edge over their capitalist competitors in Europe and to restablish the domination of capitalist property relations" in the former Soviet bloc.

Guess where humanitarianism ranks in that agenda.

Real relief

Of course anyone following events in Kosovo is tormented by the need to stop the horror now. But that's no excuse for falling into a carefully-laid and deadly trap -- however laudable the sentiments.

Are there any quick fixes for Yugoslavia's latest suffering? Certainly the emergence of a Yugoslavia anti-war movement, mass desertions and refusals-to-serve by Serbian troops and police, and finally the overthrow of the Milosevic regime would do the trick.

But it is precisely these changes that U.S. policy is designed to prevent.

In any case, only Yugoslavs can accomplish them. Those outside the country can help share an broader understanding of events -- especially by exposing the machinations of Washington, a contribution of no small value.

Westerners--especially those in the United States--can have a more immediate and powerful effect, though, by protesting any and all threats against any part of Yugoslavia by Washington and NATO, however "humanitarian" the guise.

Yugoslavs--whatever their ethnicity--are not barbarians gripped by "centuries-old hatreds." True--like all of us--they have a long way to go to turn their land into one of harmony, equality and justice. Yet already significant desertions and refusals-to-serve are emerging amidst Milosevic's forces. And Kosovar commitment to fighting for independence has only deepened in the face of Milosevic's offensive.

But it's still a horror story. And there will be no happy ending until the Great Satan is out of it.

[SIDEBAR]

Moral Judgement, Washington-style

"The U.S. has reached its atrocity limit," said one State Department official in a recent unguarded moment, referring to Kosovo.

Oh - there's an "atrocity limit?" An atrocity limit??

Gee ... how do you open an account? Does it get closed or frozen when the limit's exceeded? Does a good atrocity record get your atrocity limit raised?

And the biggest question: what IS the limit?

The industrial extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis didn't hit it -- Allied bombers knowingly never struck a single rail line to a death camp, even while they were incinerating the city of Dresden. Why, the U.S. even sent back Jewish refugees lucky enough to make it to American shores.

Dropping a nuclear bomb on city, instantly liquidating tens of thousands of civilians, is obviously below the limit too, since Washington itself did that itself not once, but twice.

Most importantly, making millions of Yugoslavs refugees and killing tens of thousands of them did not reach the atrocity limit -- even the most naive and generous account of U.S. actions would be they did nothing to stop it. (Meanwhile indicted war criminals like Ratko Mladic, butcher of Srebernica, somehow still continue to elude 30,000 NATO troops.)

On the other hand, Guatemala definitely crossed the atrocity limit when it threatened the property of United Fruit. (That got quick action, action that ultimately rang up a good 150,000 uppity natives.) So too did Iran when it nationalized its own oil (which quickly brought CIA-organized installation of the Shah). Likewise Chile apparently crossed the atrocity limit when it freely elected a Socialist government, earning another CIA coup and bloodbath.

As for the Balkans, in Washington's eyes the "atrocity limit" was first breached in the mass 1997 uprising in neighboring Albania, where workers effectively smashed the government's military and police forces, armed themselves, and would have easily seized state power but for the lack of an organization to lead it.

Then came the emergence of a mass movement in Kosovo of ethnic Albanians unwilling to continue suffering oppression--a movement backed by a popular revolutionary army.

People rising against gangster capitalists? Trying to take their fate into their own hands?? We've seen enough, says Washington: "the United States has reached its atrocity limit."

Too bad . . . for if the deep popular support among Kosovars for the Kosovo Liberation Army -- and the growing protests inside Milosevic's home bailiwick -- are any indication, Washington going to see the "atrocity limit" breached even more.

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