-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.commondreams.org/pressreleases/may99/050399h.htm MAY 3, 1999 4:12 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: US Senator Paul Wellstone www.senate.gov/~wellstone/ Jim Farrell or Andrew McDonald 202/224-8440 Wellstone Proposes Conditional Pause In NATO Bombings To Bolster Diplomatic Effort WASHINGTON - May 3 - Senator Paul Wellstone called today for NATO to consider a brief, conditional and verifiable halt to the air campaign against Yugoslavia in order to improve the environment for diplomatic discussions now underway. In a speech to the Senate proposing the idea, Wellstone condemned the atrocities and ethnic cleansing committed against innocent Kosovars by the Milosevic regime. He stressed that any plan for a bombing halt would have to be linked to the assured safety of NATO troops, and to immediate, reciprocal action by Serbian forces, including stopping their attacks on Kosovar civilians and beginning their withdrawal from Kosovo. Wellstone also expressed support for Russian engagement in negotiations to end the crisis, and greater U.S. humanitarian aid for the refugees. "I voted, six weeks ago, to authorize the United States participation in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. I did so because it was my judgment that we had exhausted every diplomatic possibility, and that our best and most credible information was that without NATO military action, a humanitarian disaster was beginning to occur. I had no doubt about the wisdom and correctness of our decision. My rationale for supporting the airstrikes was a simple one: inaction in the face of unspeakable, imminent, and preventable violence, including horrific atrocities that continue even now, was absolutely unacceptable. In short, the slaughter must be stopped. I have no regrets about that decision," Wellstone said. "I think it's time for all the parties to consider a brief and verifiable time-out before we proceed further down the slippery slope of further military action, and before it's too late to turn back. With former Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin and the President talking today, what I am proposing for consideration--if it can be worked out in a way which would protect NATO troops, and would not risk Serb resupply of their war machine--is a brief and verifiable halt in the bombing, a cessation of what seems to be a slide toward the bombing of a broader array of non-military targets, a potential oil embargo directed at other countries, and deeper involvement in a wider war that I believe we could come to regret." "I am not naive about whether we can trust Milosevic; we have seen him break his word too many times for that. Nor am I proposing an open-ended halt in our effort. But rather a temporary pause of 48 hours or so, offered on condition that Milosevic not be allowed to use the period to resupply troops or to repair his air defenses, and that he immediately orders his forces in Kosovo to halt their attacks and begin to actually withdraw. It would not require his formal prior assent to each of these conditions, but if our intelligence and other means of verification concludes that he is taking military advantage of such a pause by doing any of these things, then we should resume the bombing. I believe that we may need to take the first step, a gesture, in the effort to bring these horrors to an end." "Such a pause may well be worthwhile; if it works to prompt a cessation of the ethnic cleansing and a return of Serb forces to their garrisons, it may create the conditions for the possibility of further talks on the conditions under which NATO's longer-term goals, which I support, can be met." "A brief cessation might also enable non-governmental organizations and other `true neutrals' in the conflict to airlift or truck in, and then distribute, relief supplies to the internally-displaced Kosovars who are homeless and starving in the mountains of Kosovo, without the threat of this humanitarian mission being halted by the Serbian military. A Serb guarantee of their safe conduct would be an important reciprocal gesture on the part of Milosevic. These people must be rescued, and my hope is that a temporary bombing pause might help to enable aid organizations to get to them." "For fifty years, we have spent the blood and treasure of Americans and Europeans to help provide for a stable, peaceful Europe. I believe we must again work with the Europeans -- and now with the Russians and others who have historic ties to the Serbs -- to try to resolve this crisis before the flames of war in Kosovo and of the refugee exodus which it has prompted consume the region. Stepped-up diplomacy, a possible pause in the airstrikes, and other similar efforts to bring a peaceful and just end to this crisis should be pursued right now," Wellstone said. ### NewsCenter | NewsWire Contacting Us © Copyrighted 1997-1999. All rights Reserved. Common Dreams www.sfgate.com Return to regular view Stop Bombing, Read Thoreau The nation's moral credibility is in jeopardy Alex A. Vardamis Monday, May 3, 1999 ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle URL: http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/kosovo.htm PRESIDENT CLINTON GAVE Monica a copy of Walt Whitman's ``Leaves of Grass.'' Too bad she did not reciprocate with another key 19th century text, Henry David Thoreau's ``Civil Disobedience.'' At this point in America's protracted aerial war in the Balkans, President Clinton needs to read it. One wonders why this erstwhile admirer of romantic poetry now charts a policy of death and destruction. We are told that Clinton authorizes bombing to save the Kosovars, but surely their fate has worsened since the war began. Does Clinton bomb to improve his image? Or is he convinced by hawks, like Madeleine Albright, Bob Dole and John McCain, that he must win at all costs in order to preserve American military and political credibility? Somebody should warn the president that his, and the nation's, moral credibility is in jeopardy. In ``winning,'' Clinton reflects the worst features of the enemy. Historians will link Clinton with this century's other destroyers of the Balkans: the Austrian kaiser and the German fuehrer. In 1913, Franz Josef warned that when Austria ``demands something, the Serb government must obey, and if it does not, then Belgrade will be bombarded and occupied until the will of His Majesty is fulfilled.'' The result of that policy, the assassination of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, triggered World War I. A generation later, in April 1941, Hitler's Luftwaffe, in ``Operation Punishment,'' bombed Belgrade continuously for three days and three nights, reducing the city to rubble and killing 17,000 civilians. He never managed to quell Yugoslav resistance. Clinton should emulate neither the kaiser nor the fuehrer, but Henry David Thoreau. In his essay, ``Civil Disobedience,'' Thoreau, in opposing America's war with Mexico, urged citizens to elevate conscience over law, morality over politics, and right over expediency. Thoreau described ``a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal . . . marching in admirable order against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences . . . . The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies . . . . In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense.'' Thoreau foresaw that the General Wesley Clarks of this world, once unleashed, would blithely drop bombs and fire cruise missiles, with little regard for the death, dismemberment and destruction that they cause. Clearly, Clinton cannot rely on the military for ethical council. Do politicians show a keener moral sensibility? Thoreau thought otherwise. He wrote that ``most legislators, politicians . . . serve the state chiefly with their heads; and as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God.'' The Albrights, Doles and McCains are not reliable moral agents. They see the world in geopolitical terms. To whom can Clinton turn for moral advice? Thoreau would say he should seek out the ``heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers, who serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.'' Jimmy Carter comes to mind. So does the pope and Jesse Jackson. The president should consult with the members of Congress who opposed the bombing, as well as with the hawks. In the meantime, as we wait for Clinton to do the right thing, we citizens, too, should follow Thoreau's advice and listen to the small, still voice of conscience. According to Thoreau, the only way to react to an immoral policy is to oppose it. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. took his advice and, through nonviolent protest, changed the world. The American public should demand, first of all, that the United States stop bombing. It is the policy of an immoral nation. Instead, our government should pursue a massive relief campaign to shelter, feed and clothe the refugees who are the victims of the NATO attacks. A new Marshall Plan would raise the standard of living of the entire area. The price of peace is cheap, compared to the cost of war and the moral disintegration of the Western world. Fresh negotiations, in the form of a neutral, high profile international conference, should be launched. Participants should include not only the western European nations that have already caused two world wars through their meddling in the Balkans, but, as well, the Russians, the Greeks, the Turks and other smaller, but perhaps wiser, powers. Have the conference chaired by true men of conscience, such as Nelson Mandela. Encourage reconciliation. Treat the Serbs and the Albanians like responsible adults. Offer all parties the good offices, but not the interference and threats, of the international community. True leadership shapes, it does not follow, public opinion. As Thoreau asked, ``Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?'' Clinton should muzzle the bombastic dogs of war and rechart a new course with Henry David Thoreau. In that direction lies moral and presidential greatness. Alex A. Vardamis is a retired U.S. Army colonel and former director for European affairs at the Army War College. ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. 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