(CLICK HERE FOR THE SERBIAN LANGUAGE VERSION - KLIKNITE OVDE ZA SRPSKU VERZIJU) SERBIA, September 1999 - The following speech was delivered by the TiM editor to various audiences and/or press conferences in Nis, Aleksinac, Cuprija, Kragujevac and Valjevo on September 12-14, during his "Tour de Serbia". Here's the English language version:
Media War: An Insider's View 79 Days of American Infamy Colonizing the World by Bombs, Dollars A Lecture by Bob Djurdjevic, Founder of the Truth in Media, Phoenix, Arizona - www.truthinmedia.orgNis, Kragujevac, Valjevo - Serbia, Sept. 13-14, 1999 Ladies and gentlemen, professors and students of the University of Nis, distinguished guests of this distinguished academic institution, friends and survivors of NATO's aggression on your beautiful city and this small country, Thank you for inviting me to visit Nis and to address this Forum. I understand that this has been a place for your daily anti-NATO protests for months. I am honored to be able to join you in your righteous rejection of the "might is right" New World Order imperialism. I have only spent 6 days under NATO's bombs. But you, and the rest of Serbia, had endured 79 days of the merciless NATO terror. A military alliance of 19 nations with 780 million people; with over half of the world's gross economic product (GNP), and two-thirds of the global military firepower, ganged up on a tiny nation of 10 million. Day and night they dropped on you thousands of bombs and missiles in nearly 40,000 sorties. Yet you - the people and the army of Nis and Serbia - remained unbowed and unkowed! For that, it is my privilege now to bow my head before you in respect of your courage and love of freedom. [bowing] Your exemplary resistance against such overwhelming odds to a foreign aggression has inspired millions of patriots across America and around the world into staging thousands of spontaneous protest forums of their own. I will share some of these stories with you. I will also talk about the geopolitical reasons why the New World Order gangsters decided to pick on the Serbs. And in closing, I will share with you some ideas about what Serbia needs to do protect itself from further "help" by the New World Order "humanitarians" who sow death and destruction under the pretext of "saving lives." But let us start at the beginning. March 24. Even before the first bombs struck fell on Yugoslavia, we put up at the Truth in Media Web site the first of, what turned out to be 106 special war editions of TiM GW Bulletins, numbering 480 articles, 597 pages, 199,000 words and 198 photographs. That editorial ended with a slogan which was to reverberate around the U.S. and Internet for the next 11 weeks: "Drop Clinton, Not Bombs."
Here it is, for example, at the Phoenix anti-war demonstrations on March 27. In that first editorial I said that March 24, 199 will go down in history as the new Day of Infamy. Except that this time, American missiles and pilots were about to do to Yugoslavia what the Japanese did to America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. And worse... Because was waging war on civilians. When I traveled through Serbia in late April, I saw that this mighty military alliance was attacking old age homes, hospitals, schools, embassies, factories, churches, bridges, railroads, TV and radio stations... [SHOW THE PHOTOS] (click on NATO War Index below) Surdulica, Nis, Aleksinac, Cuprija, Cacak, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pancevo (I took this photo myself) Thanks to our Serbian sources dedicated to spreading the truth about NATO's war on Serbia, such as the CentNet in Nis, for example, these images were posted at the Truth in Media Web site practically instantly after the bombings took place. And they were viewed by millions of people from across the U.S. and over 100 countries around the world. An American author and commentator from California wrote in her June 8 newsletter a story about the TiM coverage of the war. Titled "Where Truth is Destiny and Destination," this column noted that the TiM had become the "Number One spot in NATO War reporting" on the entire Internet - out of some 40 million Web sites altogether.
As you can see, "WARNING: Truth can be addictive!" - as the TiM T-shirt slogan also says The Internet was a powerful anti-war weapon which helped move the truth and freedom-loving Americans into action. Twice in the last five weeks of the war, I traveled to America's capital to speak out against NATO's war on Serbia at the demonstrations. The first time, I did it at the Ellipse, just back of the White House south lawn, on May 1, right after I had returned from the bombed-out Serbia. Here's a photo from the Washington Times story about the event: [SHOW THE PHOTO] and some which the TiM staff took: [SHOW THE PHOTOS] The second time I traveled to Washington was on June 5, when I addressed tens of thousands of anti-NATO protesters at the Vietnam Memorial. [SHOW THE PHOTO OF THE SPEAKER] It was by far the largest anti-war protest in America since the days of the Vietnam war. They came to Washington from all over - Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Alabama, and yes, even Phoenix, Arizona, over 2,000 miles away. [SHOW THE PHOTOS OF MARCHERS] After the speeches at the Vietnam Memorial, a crowd of some 30,000 people, a human column 20 to 30 abreast and over a mile long, marched on the Pentagon, across the Potomac river. [SHOW THE PHOTOS OF MARCHERS] Tens of thousands of ordinary Americans stood shoulder-to-shoulder, and shouted a loud "NO!" to Clinton's war on Serbia. And demanded an end to the Days of the American Infamy. Later on that evening, with tears of joy flowing down my cheeks that there are so many decent Americans, I wrote the following words and broadcast them around the world via the Internet: [SHOW THE PHOTOS]
[SHOW THE PHOTO]
Meanwhile, back in Serbia, the "Clinton Doctrine" was still at work, as Col. David Hackworth put it. "Hack," as friends know him, is America's most decorated living soldier, now a nationally syndicated columnist and bestselling author, whom I also have the privilege to count as a friend. What's the Col. Hackworth version of the "Clinton Doctrine?" Bomb the civilians and the civilian structures until that country's military can't stand to watch it anymore.
Ladies and gentleman, that was not war. That was terrorism! These were war crimes! In my May 1 speech at the White House, I said that we must charge the NATO terrorists responsible for such barbaric acts with war crimes. And on May 11, I called on the Truth in Media readers around the world to file their personal "home-made" complaints against the NATO war criminals... Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Wesley Kanne Clark, Tony Blair, Bill Cohen, Gerhard Schroeder, Jacques Chirac... and about 70 other NATO leaders responsible for these crimes against humanity. The same day, May 11, I personally filed such a complaint. Ten days later, Madam Kangaroo of the Hague, Louise Arbour, complained to reporters on May 21 in Fredericton, Canada, that the War Crimes Tribunal had been "seized by many complaints urging us to charge the entire NATO leadership with genocide..." No wonder most Americans who wrote to us said that they were outraged by such war crimes. No wonder some of them wrote to us to apologize and say they were ashamed of being American. Others wrote and said they wanted to volunteer to go and help Serbia. Like the decorated Vietnam veteran from Texas who said he was in awe of the Serb citizens' bravery who were guarding the Belgrade bridges as "human shields," night after night. "Save me a spot on the bridge," he wrote to me. "I'd be honored to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Serbs," said a 36-year Army veteran from Oregon, a German-American, by the way. Or an Irish-American from Minnesota who put up a home-made sign at her front lawn which read: "Stop bombing my friends in Yugoslavia."
Or the TiM reader from the state of Washington, who was surprised by all the attention and honking he attracted as he drove through downtown Seattle one day.
But perhaps the most touching note in the early days of the war came from a Pennsylvania lady. After having heard that I had also taken a spell at the Brankov bridge one night, she pleaded: "Please say my name on the bridge." I did. That is why, I also told the Serbian people during my April visit, both in person and through the Belgrade media, that they should not hate all Americans. Nor burn American flags. For, when they do that, they also burn a piece of my heart. And that of the millions of decent American hearts who were beating for Serbia during the 79 Days of the American Infamy. So if he didn't have the support of the American people, why in God's name did Clinton bomb the Serbs? And on whose behalf? I have been saying for years the real motto of the New World Order terrorists is not "world peace through world trade," as its leaders claim; it is "perpetual commerce through perpetual war." First you knock them down; then you build them up. Either way, America's "death merchants" and their industrial and media partners-in-crime win. Serbia is just the latest case in point. Bottom line? War is good business. Always has been. Just ask the CEOs of Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, United Technologies, Textron, Litton Industries and other top Pentagon suppliers whose shares soared as mankind lost. The stocks of the top 10 Pentagon suppliers outperformed the rest of the bullish stockmarket (S&P 500) by a 2.5-to-1 ratio during the first 60 days of the war. Furthermore, this NATO "humanitarian mission" was premeditated mass murder. It had little to do with what Slobodan Milosevic did or did not do. Would it surprise you to learn, for example, that the Clinton administration requested an additional $112 billion for the Pentagon budget in February of this year - almost six weeks before the NATO bombing started? Would it surprise you to learn that last year's Pentagon spending on the arms was "only" $44 billion - the lowest level in more than a decade? Would it surprise you to learn that, following the NATO war on Serbia, the spending will go up to $60 billion next year, for a total Pentagon budget of $319 billion in year 2005. As I said in a January column for the Australian "New Dawn" magazine, the "Kosovo problem" was a product of the Washington Crisis Factory. Ladies and gentlemen, the Kosovo was just the latest example of an evil, genocidal, parasitic, Machiavellian military-industrial-financial complex enriching itself on the backs of other fellow-humans' pain and suffering. Not that long ago, in 1983, President Reagan justifiably called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire. In both of my Washington speeches I said that now, Washington is the seat of an Evil Empire and Belgrade is the capital of the Free World! Every time I said that, crowds of American protesters erupted in cheers and applause. As one proud Scottish-American from Arizona put it, "we're all Serbs now." In another column which I wrote in February for the "New Dawn" magazine, I said that if Winston Churchill were to deliver his famous "Iron Curtain" speech today, he might say:
Keep in mind that both this article and the map were published well BEFORE NATO's attach on Serbia. How could we know that? Because of geopolitical interests which guide the actions of the New World Order imperialists.
Take a look at this map. We designed it and published it in November 1995. Yet everything on it is as accurate and true today, as it was back then. The "green" countries are considered U.S. allies; the "yellow" ones the American vassals; the "orange" and "pink" are potential enemies (Russia and China). The "white" are the countries of low strategic importance.
In April of 1995, we published an article about Russia's strategic position. We asserted in it that the so-called "Partnership for Peace" was nothing more than a more perfidious version of the old "Drang Nach Osten." We said that Russia is still the Enemy No. 1 despite all the sweet talk from Washington. And that the former Soviet dominions in Eastern Europe have now all become western minions, having been conquered by dollars, rather than bombs. The subservient behavior of some of Serbia's neighbors during NATO's war attest to their vassal position.
In a May 9, 1997 Washington Times article, "The Plutocrats of the New World Order," I said that the anti-Russian policy by the NWO architects has three prongs:
And where does Serbia fit in all of this? Well, Serbia is the only non-vassal nation left in Eastern Europe.
Plus the country lies unfortunately right on top of a key geopolitical fault line. As I first said in a November 1995 Arizona Republic article, and again in an October 1998 Washington Times column titled "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict:"
Ladies and gentlemen, some of you may be seeing these charts for the first time, even though the conclusions of my geopolitical analyses were formulated 4-5 years ago, when I first predicted that Kosovo would become "Bosnia II." But the Serbian leaders have no such excuse. I have personally briefed about this most of the key political, military, academic (SANU) and even church leaders, including His Holiness Pavle and some Metropolitans. And although I have not met with Milosevic since February 1992, I know that some of the people around him have also tried to make him see the light. And yet here we are, Serbia is once again facing a dead end, only poorer than before. And minus several thousand of its citizens killed by NATO. So, does that mean that you should lie down and surrender? Not at all. Just choose a different field of battle. One where the odds are better.
Moral of the story? First, action speaks louder than words. Second, a smart person will choose his own field of battle. The field where the odds are better. In Serbia's case, it means going AROUND, rather than AT NATO and the NWO. It is pointless to go with NATO toe-to-toe, even more so than it would have been fruitless for this Arizona truck driver to challenge the bikers. As "Venik," a pseudonym for a well versed TiM reader, wrote in late August:
So that may be a military way out of the dead end in which Serbia finds itself today. But just because no NATO plane would cross your border in one piece would still not win Kosovo back. Nor would it mean that you can eat, be warm, feel good and sleep well at night. So is there is a way out from a poli tical, economic and spiritual standpoint? Yes, there is. But it isn't easy. And it requires a lot of patience, perseverance, courage and creativity. Let's start with politics. "Everybody" these days is calling for Milosevic's resignation. I've also said that I'd like to see him gone from power. But not because Clinton said so first, as seems to be the case with some Serb opposition leaders. I said that years ago, when he betrayed the Bosnian and the Krajina Serbs. And I said that because Milosevic's incompetence has caused so much pain and suffering to the Serbian people. Which means that only the Serbian people, the VICTIMS of both Milosevic and the New World Order, and not the war criminal Clinton, and his obedient vassals among some Serbian opposition leaders, can decide when "enough is enough." The "devil you know is better than the devil you don't," says another American proverb. Before the Serbian people decide when and how it is time for Milosevic to go, they must consider the alternatives. To this end, it is instructive to look at the experiences of other NWO vassal nations which took Washington's advice on how to implement economic reform and democracy. Look at Russia. In a Special Report, titled "Killing Russia Softly," published after my first-ever visit to that vast country in the spring of 1997 [SHOW RSD PHOTOS AT THE KREMLIN, SERGEYEV POSSAD] we pointed out that the life expectancy of an average Russian male has dropped from 65 to 57.7 years between 1987 and 1995, according to the latest World Health Organization data. And the Russian women have a life span shortened by three years - from 74 years under the Soviets, to 71 years under the NWO regime.
That puts Russia at the level of Afghanistan and some of the poorest African countries. And it is a direct consequence of the kinds of the economic reform which destroyed Russia's health care system. With the help of the local quislings, the West has plundered Russia, transferring over $500 million of her assets into foreign bank accounts. In short, the NWO version of "democracy", "reforms" and "free trade" boils down to a license to steal, cheat and kill. ] Take a look at this photo, taken in Moscow in September of 1998. This, ladies and gentleman, is the picture of NWO "" and "reforms" at work. A little Russian girl forced to beg for food. An outrage! And tomorrow, this could be your daughter if the Clinton vassals come to power in Serbia.
And this is what average Russians think of it. This photo was taken during my visit to Russia in 1997. The sign on the garbage can reads, "Democracy here." Also, look around other Eastern European countries. In your neighboring Bulgaria, for example, you will see similarly devastating results. Just before leaving on this trip, I received a copy of the letter addressed to the 'Serbian Opposition' by Jana Doncheva, a Bulgarian:
Is that the kind of "democracy" the Serbian people want? Well, it's the kind you can expect if the pro-western NWO vassals ascend to power. Milosevic sold out Kosovo. These guys will sell out all of Serbia. As they have already sold out Montenegro long ago. Of course, they'll never tell you that. Not anymore than Boris Yeltsin told the Russian people the truth. "Look at how strong the U.S. economy is, which also operates under the same rules?", these western quislings say. Okay. Let's look at what the allegedly "strong U.S. economy" has meant for an average American.
It used to be said that the Japanese are the hardest working people in the world. No longer. Today, the American worker toils the longest hours. Japan is second. Furthermore, while the Japanese worker's hours decreased between 1980 and 1997, the American's went the opposite way, according to the just-released International Labor Organization survey. The French and German workers' hours also decreased during the same period. So the Americans work the hardest now, but do they make more money? Actually, no. Most don't. In a May 1998 column published in the Chronicles magazine of Chicago, I pointed out that the "income inequality has been growing in 48 of the 50 states. The wealthiest ONE percent of Americans received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population - COMBINED."
As if that weren't bad enough, the latest U.S. government statistics released just before I left on this 'round-the-world trip, showed that the after-tax income of the top 1% of the U.S. households increased by 115% between 1977 and 1999. But the corresponding income of the bottom 20% of the population dropped by 9% during the same period. So the rich got richer, the poor got poorer. Is that the kind of "democracy" you want to emulate? Don't you already have it? Wouldn't it better if you were to export it from Serbia? J To me, the preceding statistics are a classic definition of PLUTOCRACY. Which, in Eastern Europe, has mutated into a KLEPTOCRACY. As for the state of democracy in America, it has evolved into an "American Demo Farce," as I said in my November 1996 Washington Times column. Take a look at the two presidential candidates the 1996 elections:
Both frontrunners were horses racing for the same stable owner - big multinational companies; the "Princes of the 20th Century." That's why American politicians wear turbans, fes's or yarmulkas - whatever suits their bosses' interests at any given moment. In short, taking the advice and money from such thoroughly corrupt systems as is Clinton's America is a recipe for disaster. So what then should the Serbian people do? "Trust in themselves and their own horse" ("Uzdati se u se i u svoje kljuse") Instead of "panem et circenses" ("bread and games"), which is that the dying Rome offered its citizens as a sedative, the Serbs should work for "bread and electricity." "Bread," so the nation can eat before signing on to the Internet. "Electricity," so that people can spread their creative energies around the world. As Tesla, Pupin and other Serbs have done before. We are living in the midst of a revolution - the information technology revolution, a revolution no less dramatic than the invention of gun powder. In an article published in July 1997 in the FORBES magazine on-line edition I explained "The Internet and the PC - two post-industrial era technological revolutions - are returning Homo Sapiens back to nature. It's the beginning of "Renaissance II." "Move over Einstein, Signor Da Vinci Is Back" was the column's title. The ubiquitous PC and the Internet have empowered individuals and small companies to compete with giant enterprises on a level playing field. They've become equalizers. Kind of like the invention of gun powder or handguns enabled a little old lady to overpower a giant aggressor. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from industrial incumbents to information technology challengers. Bill Gates, by far the richest man in America, is today much wealthier than the IBM CEO. Yet 20 years ago, he was a relative nobody. Similar opportunities exist today for small nations with talented people engaged in the field of information technology. The industrial era automated the simplest (physical) forms of life; called them SCIENCES; held them in high esteem; and rewarded handsomely its apostles (Albert Einstein, et. al.). It also put down the more complex forms of life - the ARTS. Now, with the advent of PC's and the Internet, a (re)fusion of arts and sciences is taking place Leonardo Da Vinci would have been pleased. He'd be probably wearing the Mona Lisa's heavenly smile. If in doubt, picture a CNN reporter sticking a microphone in front of Signor Da Vinci, and asking him: "Sir, do you consider yourself an artist or a scientist?" What do you think the great Renaissance man's answer would have been? "Son, I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about. What is the difference between artists and scientists?," is my guess." Ladies and gentlemen, Serbia is a small country. It cannot afford to be all things to all people. Its economic policy must be very focused if it is to succeed. Which means that agriculture, energy and the Internet-related information technologies should be given top priority. [pause] Last but not least, a word about Serbia's spiritual renewal. Did it ever occur to you that all the suffering through which the country has been in the 1990s may be God's way of punishing the Serbs for 45 years of Godlessness under communism? Forcing the people to find their souls again? I was told that I would be the last speaker at the Nis University Forum, after whom this Forum of protests against NATO's aggression on Serbia would close. To be a period at the end of a long and eloquent sentence which exemplified Nis' noble resistance to the New World Order is certainly an honor. But only on one condition As Christians, we can forgive the sinners who genuinely repent; even the NATO war criminals. BUT WE MUST NEVER FORGET! We must never forget what they've done to your beautiful city and to this small country which had meant them no harm to them. You must never stop resisting any form of slavery which foreign interests are trying to impose on you in Serbia. Sorry, but YOU, the victims of NATO's aggression, simply have no other choice but to keep this Forum open. In spirit; in your own minds. And that's where it must stay open as long as foreign boots and tanks are trotting over the centuries-old Serbian lands - in Kosovo, as well as in Bosnia and Croatia. Will you promise me that? You have been blessed, or cursed - take your pick - to be walking in the footsteps of the noble Serbian Kosovo heroes of June 28, 1389. And in those of Generals Misic, Putnik and others who had turned the Serbian Golgotha of World War I into a national liberation triumph. Not just for Serbia, but also for its western allies, today's NATO, which had been bombing you. The Yugoslav Army was never defeated by NATO. That became evident as its soldiers and armor pulled out of Kosovo after June 11. Which is why the Serbian patriots must continue to defend their country against all foreign and domestic enemies. And they must do it not because I said so, but for the sake of their own salvation.
Sooner or later, we will all meet our Maker. And He will ask us the same questions He had asked Prince Lazar over 610 years ago:
[ ] I am sure, you Prince Lazar's answer:
Such a spirit is something the communists, the materialistic western leaders and their Serb opposition quislings - may never understand! For, that is a God-given power which only God-fearing people can muster. Kosovo is today merely under a TEMPORARY occupation by foreign troops and terrorists. As are the ancient Serb lands in Croatia and Bosnia. How TEMPORARY? Let us hope - a few weeks, or months. Since the KFOR "international community" has broken just about every term of the armistice agreement signed on June 10, this gives the Yugoslav Army a legal and legitimate right to return to Kosovo, as Gen. Pavkovic said in a recent interview. After all, no one is disputing that Kosovo is Serbia's sovereign province, not even the NATO war criminals. But even if it is God's will that it should take the Serbs another 500 years to liberate Kosovo from the NWO, as it did from the Ottoman Empire, so be it! "Kosovo Is Serbia!" Always has been, always will be. Thank you. And now, I'll be pleased to take some questions. --- The preceding were the prepared remarks. The actual speeches may have varied slightly from them. Also check out... "Globalism: Dictatoriship of Capital", "New World Order's Inquisition in Bosnia", "Let's Reclaim Our Constitution", |