An atrocity is defined as “An act of cruelty and violence inflicted by an
enemy-armed force upon civilians or prisoners.” Some believe this war in Kosovo
is about politics. However, upon examination of the specifics of this conflict
it is apparent that this is about religion. People must then decide whom, if
anyone is committing these atrocities. Should the United States be involved in
the dispute, and is it truly in the best interest of the American people? In the
area once covered by the country of Yugoslavia, there has been a series of
struggles for independence during the 1990's. These confrontations started in
1990 in Slovenia, 1991 in Croatia, and 1992 in Bosnia Herzegovina. Each of these
conflicts has often been described as an ethnic conflict. In reality, the Serbs,
Croats, Slovenes and Muslims in those countries share a common Slavic ethnic
origin. They view themselves today as distinct peoples, largely because of their
distinct religious heritages. In contrast, people in North America consider
religion mainly as part of their personal/family identity. Because of the U.S.
Constitution's first amendment, and the separation of church and state,
Americans don't have a single faith group associated with their national
feelings. Unlike the former Yugoslavia, the Kosovo conflict has both ethnic and
religious components. The Kosovo conflict is fueled by ethnic and religious
differences. Ethnicity is the cause between the Serbs, of Slavic origin, and
ethnic Albanians. Religion has also been a conflict between Serbs, who are
almost entirely followers of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and non-Serbs, who are
overwhelmingly followers of Islam and Roman Catholicism.
From the beginning NATO stated that this conflict would accelerate if NATO
did not step in to help the Kosovo’s in their rebellion. If this conflict is
like all of the rest why did America not step into other conflicts when there
was a military force committing a larger genocide? These small civil conflicts
are just like our civil war. Why did Britain not step in to help one side or the
other? The British were intelligent, they knew that if American had a small army
then they could come and take what they believed was theirs. The United States
has nothing to gain by going into this conflict. Like all of the conflicts
American has not gotten involved unless there was some type of gain. The gain is
not something that we can see or touch, but more of respect from an organization
to which the United States does not belong. When NATO was established, the
United States was one of the original groups that started the organization;
however the president at the time did not believe that we would need to belong
to an organization that created peace instead of war. Over the years the United
States has become one of the largest peace organization built. So now whenever
NATO ask the United States to intervene in a conflict America must accept,
otherwise suffer the consequence of looking bad in the eyes of the world and
NATO. The issue is should the United States get involved? To the American
people, this is another civil conflict that will waste American tax dollars. How
can President Clinton explain to the American citizens that this war is anything
but a political gain to his presidency? When President Clinton said that
American soldiers would be going to Kosovo, people thought that they would be
going to stop the killing of innocent civilians. All that we have seen in this
conflict is the killing of civilians. So when will all of the killing stop?
People have been asking this question for a very long time.
The only answer that we continue to get from NATO is that there is no killing
of civilians going on in Kosovo or Yugoslavian. Media correspondents and human
rights investigators who are mainly located near the borders of Kosovo have
collected massive amounts of data. They show that the “Geneva Conventions”
concerning civilians are being ignored and that the Militaries are carrying out
extremely serious war crimes on both sides of the sword. A war is being
conducted in Kosovo and the rest of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The main
players are the government, army and militias of Yugoslavia, NATO, and the
Kosovo Liberation Army. The main victims are the people of Kosovo, and the
civilians of Yugoslavian. At its core, the conflict is largely a religious one.
As the majority of the United States sees this conflict unravel on their
television screen, they are thinking that the United States has two options. The
Soldiers can either stay and keep killing innocent individuals; or, the American
people can demand that the soldiers get out while they still look good. If you
were to ask the opinion of most Americans they would say these serviceman need
to get out while they can still hold their heads above water.
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