It was a show business disaster, a director's nightmare: there was the U.S. President delivering a major war address, using refugees to pluck heartstrings, appealing to history and human decency, and then delivering the emotionally-climactic soundbite "this is America at its best."

What a time for news of two American atrocities--oops, two cases of "collateral damage"-- to stage an appearance. But there it was.

Yes, there was one U.S. war plane rocketing a passenger train, incinerating its occupants. And there were others dropping anti-personnel bombs on a village, shredding several families and their animals, the scythe of explosion-driven razors actually cutting off trees at their trunks.

Of course the orchestra and chorus sprang into action, trying to cover over the moment. There was a grand rendition of the favorite tune "Whatever it is, blame Milosevic." Meanwhile script doctors scrambled to rewrite. "How's this sound," one of them no doubt said: "we say the pilot was targeting a bridge when--to his horror--a train suddenly appeared in the picture, too late to stop the missile."

Sounds great. Sounds even better when the critics writing reviews for the next day's papers are also invested in the show. (One, the unbelievably callow and gaggingly cheerleaderish New York Times foreign policy expert Thomas Friedman, calls the United States "the Michael Jordan of nations.")

Making sure
Too bad a military spokesman had to go and casually mention the pilot's second pass and launch of another missile that also struck the train. [13 April, MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour (PBS).] Yes, you read that right: the pilot went back and rocketed the train again.

Funny how that little piece of information didn't appear in the next day's papers.

But then the President's punchline shared the same fate, even though it was certainly destined to be the top headline on hundreds of U.S. newspapers. "This is America at its Best," they would trumpet -- the line not only inspiring, but the tag-line for the whole show.

But the script writers realized it wouldn't look good above pictures of the skeletal, half-melted passenger train--even highly-sanitized--in the next day's papers.

Too bad -- what a waste. Can you imagine a more eloquent--and accurate--catch-phrase for the air war against Yugoslavs and Kosovars? "This is America at its best."

Less than 48 hours later U.S. planes made four separate attacks on columns of Kosovar refugees, killing more than 60 of them.

"This is America at its best" -- it's perfect.

* * * *

Of course accidents will happen. And there's no disputing that hundreds of thousands of Kosovars have been reduced to refugees and that hundreds of them have been killed by Serbian death and terror squads, thanks to an unspeakable program of "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the forces under the control of Slobodan Milosevic.

There's also no disputing that this is just what Washington wants.

After all, U.S. pretensions of humanitarian concern are more than a little suspect given Washington's behavior during the Holocaust, during the Rwandan genocide, or during previous murderous "ethnic cleansing" in Yugoslavia.

But beyond lack of credibility, there's Washington's public description of independence-minded Kosovars as "terrorists" -- a declaration which green-lighted Milosevic's previous (unopposed) assault on Kosova.

And to this day Washington remains a staunch opponent of independence for Kosova. (A small, but telling, reflection of this is its [and its news media's] use of the Serbian spelling "Kosovo.")

Removing a roadblock
In fact the first obstacle to Western plans for Yugoslavia is Kosova. Consider the scene: Yugoslavia is shattered. Stalinist-led nationalism created "ethnic cleansing," killed over 200,000 Yugoslavs, and tuned over two million into refugees -- all of which allowed 60,000 NATO troops to (thank you very much) occupy large swaths of the country.

But there were two uncleansed places where people were not yet atomized -- first and foremost Kosova where Kosovars hit back at oppressive Serbian nationalism with strikes and demonstrations, where people defiantly built (first) alternative schools and other institutions and (second) a popular revolutionary army to defend themselves. (It didn't hurt that two years ago one of the great revolutions in modern European history erupted in neighboring Albania [however inadequate its immediate outcome], in which people armed themselves, the army and the police, and even created some revolutionary forms of self-government.)

"Terrorists!" cried Washington and then sat smugly back while Milosevic' s butchers were sicced on the Kosovars. "An internal matter," Washington and Belgrade agreed, although Washington began a cynical show of "concern" over "human rights abuses" as the news of atrocities began to get out.

But last year's offensive failed. Instead, some 90% of Kosovars turned to embrace the insurrectionary perspective of the Kosova Liberation Army, which was over-run with volunteers in a matter of weeks.

Washington issued an ultimatum to the KLA and its supporters: disarm and let us occupy Kosova with 28,000 Western troops. And one to Milosevic: get your troops out and let ours handle this.

Both essentially refused, perhaps foolishly not realizing they were dealing with the Michael Jordan of nations

Success
And so Washington has been bombing Kosova for over a month -- rather a strange "humanitarian" measure, to say the least.. Last night alone (25 April) over 50 missiles fell on Pristina, Kosova's capital.

And Milosevic's butchers handle the work on the ground.

But (ironically) Serbia itself was the other place where people still stood up against tyranny. Don't forget that little over a year ago tens of thousands of opponents of Milosevic demonstrated against the government for a record 76 straight days. Or that an alternative trade union that opposes the government and backs autonomy for Kosova now claims a membership representing 20% of the working class.

And so Washington's forces pound Serbia too -- the bombardment gone to 24 hours now, like a convenience store. The Serbian working class is the target -- factories, bridges, oil supplies, municipal heating and electrical plants are bombed -- hurting primarily working people and strengthening Milosevic at the expense of his popular opponents

Troops
Could the Western objective be any clearer? It's nothing less than the military occupation of all of Yugoslavia. But that's possible only once the insurgent Kosovars--and secondarily the domestic opponents of Milosevic--are shattered.

Already some 60,000 troops occupy Bosnian and other wastelands.

Yet fools and propagandists debate whether ground troops are needed, forgetting (or pretending to) the original ultimatum: 28,000 Western troops and a Kosova cleansed of the KLA -- or else war. That was the content of the "peace agreement" which, left unsigned, was the immediate cause of the NATO air assault.

In other words, the choice has always been between troops or . . . troops.

And so we have war, war progressing exactly according to plan. Kosova is bombed and burned, more than half its people in flight. Serbia is militarily softened up, defenses wrecked. I

Next, Imperial troops will take Kosova, as Washington and Belgrade arrive at a partition agreement. Yugoslavian war criminals will retain power, at least until the Empire is ready for the next bite.

So if there's an occasional embarrassing slip on the stage, if body parts land while a misty-eyed President emotes "This is America at its best," so what? Until new actors seize the stage with a script of their own it's the only show in town.

America --and the world-- at its best.

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