Yugoslavia,Interrupted:AEu

ropeanSuccessStoryRuined
byNATOInvasion
AFP 2016/ ERIC FEFERBERG

POLITICS

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160223/1035223766/yugoslavi
a-european-success-story-ruined-by-nato-invasion.html
19:22 23.02.2016(updated 21:52 23.02.2016) Get short URL

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If NATO hadnt ruined Yugoslavia, the country would be on

par with major European powers, US political analyst Phil
Butler notes, adding that the dismantling of Yugoslavia was
part of the West's bigger plan to convert potential rivals into
Third World regions.
Post-World War II socialist Yugoslavia was something of a European success
story and it was that prosperity that prompted the Western political
establishment to seek the country's dismantling, US political analyst Phil
Butler emphasizes.
"Can you imagine Europe today with Yugoslavia as a key player
among nations? I can. Yugoslavia was in fact, one of the greatest cultural
and human experiments in history. Formed in the crucible that was the
conflict in between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman
Empire, Yugoslavia melded together people of both cultures, and in ways
not seen since the time of Alexander the Great's assimilation of peoples
after immense conquest," Butler writes in hisarticle for New Eastern
Outlook.
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The political analyst underscores that the state was built on an idea that
Southern Slavs should not remain a weak and divided people.

Butler calls attention to the fact that between 1960 and 1980 Yugoslavia
boasted one of the most vigorous growth rates in the world with its free
medical care and education, a guaranteed right to a job, one-month vacation
with pay, decent standards of living and a literacy rate of over 90 percent.
The Yugoslavia GDP in 1991 positioned the country as 24th among world
nations, the analyst stresses.
Furthermore, Yugoslavia had been struggling for the Non-Aligned Movement's
ideals, summoned by Cuba's Fidel Castro as:
"The national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security
of non-aligned countries [in their] struggle against imperialism, colonialism,
neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation,
domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and
bloc politics."
It was that economic prosperity and ideological independence that caused
Western powers to seek to curtail the rapid growth of the European
competitor.
"The county could not be allowed to compete with Germany, France, and
especially Britain, and the London and Luxembourg bankers could not
extract their billions in a socialistic system. Yugoslavia had to die, and the
Reagans, the Bush family, and Clintons helped make it happen," Butler
narrates, citing Michael Parenti, Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Policy
Studies in Washington DC.

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Parenti elaborated that Washington's ultimate goal was to transform

Yugoslavia into a Third World region. The plan envisaged splitting the nation
up, opening its economy to Western corporatocracy and bankers, and
dismantling Yugoslavia's industrial sector so that the nation would not be
able to compete with Western manufacturers. In this context the Yugoslav
population would become a cheap labor pool.

"Does this strategy sound familiar? Remember the Rand Corporation plan
for Syria. Were Ukraine, Donbass, and Crimea understood before the
Euromaidan? What is the plan for Russia? This is where the metal meets the
meat my friends," Butler emphasizes.
The analyst points out a surprising similarity between the propaganda
campaign kicked of by NATO members before launching their deadly strikes
against Yugoslavia and their narrative on the eve of the invasion of Iraq or
Libya.

AFP 2016/ ANDREJ ISAKOVIC

A man walks past a poster with the reading Ten years of NATO occupation of
Serbia, and displaying images from 1999 NATO air campaign against Serbia
and Montenegro, in Belgrade on March 23, 2009.

The Clinton administration's bombing campaign aimed at carving Kosovo

out from Serbia was later dubbed "the most important precedent, supporting
the legitimacy of unilateral humanitarian intervention" by Fernando R. Teson,
an Argentine-American legal academic, known for his contribution to the law
of humanitarian interventions.
So, has NATO's plan really worked? Yes, indeed.
Butler emphasizes that Bosnia and Herzegovina now ranks 112th
economically, and conditions are worsening; Croatia is currently 76th,
but Bloomberg names the country one of the ten worst on Earth;
Macedonia ranks 130th; Montenegro is 149th among world nations;
Serbia is ranked 87th in GDP; Slovenia ranks 81st in GDP.

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As for the Kosovo region, carved out from Serbia, it has lately beenlabeled
as a "mafia state."
"With an unemployment rate of 35 percent, Kosovo is wracked by persistent
outbreaks of terrorism, crime, and political violence," US writer Jonathan
Marshall notes in hisarticle for Consortiumnews.com.
By no means can former Yugoslavian parts be considered competitors
to major EU states.

Furthermore, NATO is swallowing the states one by one. Montenegro

began accession talks with NATO on February 15.
On February 12 Serbian lawmakers ratified a diplomatic immunity
agreement and logistical support for NATO representatives. Several days
later Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic signed a confirmation of the
country's cooperation plan with the alliance. The move prompted Serbian
patriotic activists to hold peaceful demonstrations in Belgrade against the
country's cooperation with NATO.
"And as I type these final letters, I think about what the courageous and
strong people of Yugoslavia might have won had their destinies not been
interrupted by outsiders," Butler concludes.