Beginning on March 24, 1999, NATO unleashed a ruthless bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for 78 days. Despite the devastation wrought on human lives, it was and still is presented as a model of a successful “humanitarian intervention.” In the ANSWER Coalition’s newly digitized edition of NATO Targets Yugoslavia, which features original on-the-ground footage and interviews from during the war, filmmaker Gloria La Riva lifts the veil of imperialist propaganda to reveal the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.
Twenty years later, it remains as important as ever that all people interested in peace learn and remember the lessons from this war, including the roles that economic sanctions played in creating a humanitarian crisis and that the media played in selling the war as just and necessary. From Iraq to Libya to Venezuela, imperialism continues to deploy the same general script to carry out its objectives. The best way to honor the victims and survivors of this brutal war is to expose this script and build a mass anti-war movement in the US to prevent it from playing out again.
For more background information on Yugoslavia, check out this piece by Richard Becker.
