by Gordon S. Clark, Apr 1, 1999

Why is that when our leaders suddenly decide to pay attention to a foreign crisis, pick an individual in it to demonize and tell us we must drop huge numbers of bombs, most of us just nod our heads?

This is a tragedy, for Americans who want peace as well as for the millions abroad who need it, because bombing is almost always the worst strategy available: the one that addresses none of the root causes of a conflict, that emphasizes and inflames the worst elements in a society, and that destroys the most and kills by far the most people. And that is exactly what is happening in Yugoslavia right now. Nothing good will come of this.

When a reporter asked President Clinton if the bombing has accelerated the atrocities of the Serbian army, he said "Absolutely not." Say what? Is it possible that the leader of the free world does not look at newspapers?

Of course the bombing accelerated the atrocities. The bombing was a dramatic increase in hostilities, and the Serbian leaders and army responded, predictably, by dramatically increasing their own level of violence. Violence begets violence, remember? Far from achieving the supposed goal of protecting the Kosovar Albanians, our bombing has led to the expedited exile from their homes, at best, and their outright extermination at worst.

Do we know how many Albanians are being killed by the bombing itself, let alone how many Serbs? And what army, literally, is going to keep the peace once the bombing is stopped? How long will it take hatreds inflamed by this larger war to heal, and how many billions will it cost us to maintain a militarily imposed "peace?"

The enlarging war now being waged also strengthens extremists among the Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, and weakens democratic opposition in Serbia. We have now all heard the name Milosevic a thousand times, but how often have we heard of "Women in Black," the Serbian group which has been struggling nonviolently against Milosevic for years? Why do we hear only of the Kosovo Liberation Army, but never of Ibrahim Rugova, the president of the former Albanian shadow government in Kosovo, a man who has been preaching non-violent resistance for years?

And not only do we ignore Russia's ability to possibly broker a deal here, we also ignore their strongest concerns and pleas not to bomb, just like we completely ignore their concerns about NATO enlargement and missile defense. How often do we think we can humiliate this fallen giant before something terrible happens? Already Russian citizens rally in masses outside our Embassy, and one man tried to fire a grenade launcher at it. Have we forgotten their 7,000 nuclear weapons?

Why aren't there ever any other choices between dropping bombs and doing nothing? Why can't there be 100,000 specially trained UN troops which can be poured into a region like this to prevent the outbreak of violence? Or how about organizing a huge religious gathering, and flood the region with clerics suing for peace and tolerance? Why haven't we been supporting groups like Women in Black for years? Why aren't the leaders of civil society groups included in negotiations, and why have we so totally ignored those -- like Rugova -- who for years have warned us of precisely this impending catastrophe?

But ignore the situation we do, and when we finally decide to get involved we bring either "diplomacy," i.e. - the threat of war, or war itself. The threats did nothing to stop the violence in Kosovo, and the bombing has only escalated it, yet our leaders cling to these as the only two options and then insist we must act.

The oldest wisdom is still the best: violence begets violence. And only when our government can develop strategies that do not depend on massive violence or the threat thereof will we have any hope of dealing with an increasingly chaotic and violence-filled world.