The New Military Humanism: Lessons From Kosovo

Definetely a masterpiece-kind of art for which there is no exuse:"I do not know what art is,but I do know what I like".With eloquence and distinction,Noam Chomsky restores oposition to militarism-as He did in the past,by exibiting all the tragedy left by North Atlantic Treaty Alliance for the peoples in Yugoslavia-whose only sin was their "no!" for "Pax Americana".NATO has transformed itself from a defence alliance to organized gang of pirates.

Used,checked and proven methods of brainwashing were used-but this times in function of "protecting human rights"-formulae that,if it were to be used literaly,should mean that some NATO countries should bomb themselves! "Tale Told By An Idiot"-Shakespeare.Indeed,NATO's action was that! As if NATO's spokesman were competing who is going to surpass who in lies,deceptions and falsifications!Fact is:

"There is something rotten in Euroatlantic alliance"!

Finnaly,for all those who have asked themselves:"Shouldn't Noam Chomsky wait a little bit-until things were clearer enough?"-one loud:NO! .He cleared the thing at once,and his vision must be admired...because we are witnessing that NATO leaders are in a process of confessing.. one TV interview here...another for newspapers there..All those who wish to investigate NATO's acts of agression have wealth of primary material,and Noam Chomsky's book is reliable guide.Honest,truthfull,with flavor og independent intellectualism-an instrument against totalitarisms of all kind.

The NATO's intervention in FR of Yugoslavia was event that represented paradigm for entire opus of Noam Chomsky.Never before all elements of unjust and unmoral war were present in such exergated degree. Victim was proclaimed Guilty.Terrorist were given aura of 'fighters for liberty'.Rules of warfare were broken.Even some s.c.'humanitarian' and 'monitoring' organisations were expositures to NATO,and this is extremely disturbing.Illusion industry produced impression that were intendend to serve as exuse for agression.

One could imagine that paralel with development of warfare technology and methods,there is straightproportional development in propaganda methods.NATO's reign of terror in the Balkans was indeed one episode of history that showed bestiality of entire 'pragmatic approach' called 'benevolent interventionism' and those who think that perhaps policy-makers of NATO pact learned something from their own propaganda mistakes,are witnesses that these days history repeats itself with even lesser atempts to hide real motives.

This book is obligatory for all those who wish to immunise themselves from repertoire of NWO's brainwashing methods,that stream from few secluded power circles who are in desperate need of apolitical public,both home and abroad. Nothing lesser than lucid and thorough, apocaliptical essay is within content of this book.A truly remarkable,brave and unique oposition to absurdity exemplified trough situation that was extremely representative of NATO's first steps into pattern of behavior that does not deserves lesser epithet other than Global Terrorism.

Poor poor Patrick Carroll. I have yet to read anywhere that Chomsky thought Pol Pot himself was some sort of hero. Perhaps you should try to avoid 'skimming' through Chomsky, his writing is rather dense, and skimming will leave you with obviously incorrect notions of what Chomsky has expressed. While Chomsky generally appreciates popular (read: democratic) movements of all sorts, he most certainly despises thugs, that is those who would turn such movements into opportunities to feed megalomania. Pol Pot would be one such thug, and Chomsky expresses his despise for the Pol Pots of the world, contemporary and historic, quite well in this work, as he did even more in World Orders Old and New.

Chomsky's latest is a meticulous dissection of the role played by the Western, primarily American, media during the 1999 Kosovo crisis. Although a bit tedious at times if one has already read his classic critical works on the mass media as propaganda system (e.g. "Manufacturing Consent" and "Necessary Illusions"), "New Military Humanism" is still a crucial work to read if one wants to understand an important aspect of this war. Perhaps my only criticism of the book is that Chomsky is not sufficiently familiar with recent Balkan politics, so that his overriding message at times seems to be that Kosovo did not become a problem until the U.S. government, followed by the American media, came in and made it a problem. Kosovo and its Albanian population were in fact one of the major contributing factors to the breakdown of Yugoslav politics in the late 1980s, eventually leading to the collapse of that country with the consequences that are well known to us all. The problems in Kosovo itself festered for over ten years before taking the form of open hostilities in 1997/1998. Where Chomsky is correct is in pointing out that once the U.S. and (to a lesser extent) its NATO allies decided to take a more active role in Kosovo for whatever reason, the media promptly jumped in to generate public support for any policy moves. What the media did, following cues from the State Department, NATO headquarters and elsewhere, was to turn something that was essentially a regional dilemma (albeit an extremely troubling one) into a matter of major international concern. After all, why should Kosovo be more important to the average American citizen than East Timor-as Chomsky frequently points out? The stage was then set to make even air strikes against Serbia publicly acceptable-much as the war against Iraq was in 1991. Parenthetically, I don't say any of this, and I don't necessarily think it was Chomsky's intent, so much to condemn or defend the local actors in this conflict, i.e. the KLA and Milosevic's regime of thugs and war criminals, but to criticize the way the problem was handled by the "world's only remaining super-power" once it become involved. Just as in Bosnia, the timing of involvement and the political structure set up to maintain "the peace" are all wrong, as the continuing turmoil of Kosovo under international military occupation is now proving.

I read this book after a friend who is originally from Montenagro recommended it. I was amazed at this book. Chomsky can be a bit one sided at times, but his analysis of what the US and England were really trying to accomplish in this war are strikingly accurate. This book is probably the best I've ever read on this subject. If you are wanting to more fully understand the situation in Kosovo and are not afraid to be challenged, then you should read this book.