Why There is
No Balkan Anti-War Movement

I've been repeatedly asked why there is no anti-war movement at this time. I think that there are a few reasons:

• Most "pacifists" are what might be called "just-war" advocates, meaning that they believe that when there is evidence of atrocity, intervention is justified. (Bill Clinton is such a thinker. It explains why he opposed the Vietnam War but supports this one.) This is is the hardest thing we are fighting at the moment. One talking point to pose is to note that bombing and military intervention is a kind of death penalty. If you object to its use for criminal matters, why not international matters, especially when more innocent people die in bombing than in miscarriages of justice?!
  
  
• The Serbs have been able to inflict tremendous losses against the other nationalities of former Yugoslavia simply because they have the larger stockpile of weapons. This does not exculpate the other nationalities for any atrocities they committed, but it does mean that the Serbs have received more attention.
  
  
• The other nationalities of former Yugoslavia have been propagandizing the media for years. They have successfully shouted down many Serbian counter-assertions which, I feel, must be addressed if true conflict-resolution is going to take place.
  
  
• Some members of the anti-Milosevic movement in Serbia have endorsed the bombing!
  
  
• What there is of a "peace movement" (as opposed to an anti-war movement) has its primary headquarters in Zagreb. The hatred of Croats for Serbs and Serbs for Croats is downright pathological. It has meant that the anti-war movement has focused almost entirely on Serbian atrocities. It also means that the available forum for dialogue between the sides is distrusted by the Serbs.
  
  
• The aims of the various peace movements in former Yugoslavia are in conflict. The Serbian peace movement's goal has been to stop all the killing. The other peace movements have focused on stopping Serbian atrocities by whatever means they can. Individuals within these movements have their own opinions, of course, but this is the general drift that I have observed.
  
  
• This is a white vs. white war, so many groups which might have intervened claiming that this war is racist are now silent.
  
  
• The extreme right wing, which has suffered major credibility losses, opposes the war. I don't consider them my allies, to tell the truth, because their objection is not even based on just war but on hatred for Bill Clinton and an anti-Slav racism.
  
  
• The Croatian and Bosnian governments have successfully repressed any criticism of their regimes by indigenous media. Milosevic is only now getting around to this.
  
  
• Antiwar movements have typically relied on information given to them by the governments under attack. No one seems to trust the Milosevic regime (and I don't either). In this case, despite our past experience, we have chosen to believe the governments on the offensive.

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