IS A NEW "MASSACRE" IN THE WORKS?

The question now for anti-war forces is this: Are the United States military and CIA actively preparing for a new "massacre," a new "horror story" of Serb atrocities to serve as a pretext for an expansion of the war? Why would they do this? Because the air war, while it has been successful in inflicting great suffering on the people of Yugoslavia, has not broken the resistance of the people or of the government. Do they need to create a new momentum of
demonization? Yes. As things stand now, the announcement for an escalation into a ground war would be met by considerable opposition.

There is no reason to be overly speculative, but there is every reason to be on guard. At the minimum, we want to share information with anti-war activists as we learn of it here at the International Action Center.

There are reports from Croatian sources of another planned massacre. They report that American and German pilots have been training with Yugoslav-made planes left for the Croatian Air Force after Croatia seceded from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. These planes will reportedly be painted so that they appear to be part of the Yugoslav Air Force and then used to bomb refugees in Albania.

We, of course, have no way to verify that this scenario would actually be enacted. But if there is to be a ground war, we will most certainly be treated to the initiation of a war hysteria around some similar type "atrocity" that can be laid at the doorstep of the Yugoslav government.

Is an expansion of the war into a ground war imminent? Certainly the Clinton Administration is conducting its own internal debate on this subject just as the Kennedy Administration was holding a similar debate about Vietnam in the months before Kennedy's murder.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF A GROUND WAR

The stakes in a U.S./NATO expansion are high. The people in Yugoslavia have a long and proud tradition of resistance to foreign occupation. [...]
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For the complete text and more background see:

The May 18, 1999 Anti-War Bulletin
"At the Crossroads--an urgent message to the anti-war movement"
by By Brian Becker, Co-Director, International Action Center
http://www.citizensoldier.org/iac.html