Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, Nato, and Western Delusions

by Diana Johnstone

Military interventions on supposedly humanitarian grounds have become an established feature of the post-Cold War global order. Since September 11, this form of militarism has taken on new and unpredictable proportions. Diana Johnstone's well-documented study demonstrates that a crucial moment in establishing in the public mindand above all, within the political context of liberalism and the leftthe legitimacy of such interventions was the "humanitarian" bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999.
In the course of the civil wars that led to the break-up of Yugoslavia, a complex history came to be presented as a morality play in which the parts were scripted to meet the moral needs of the capitalist West. The identification of Muslims as defenseless victims and Serbs as genocidal monsters inflamed fears and hatreds within Yugoslavia, and prepared the way for power to be shifted from the people of the region to such international agencies as NATO.
Deceptions and Self-Deceptions tests the popular myths against the reality of Yugoslav history. Johnstone identifies the common geopolitical interests running through such military interventions, and argues persuasively that they create problems rather than solving them. She shows that the "Kosovo war" was in reality the model for future destruction of countries seen as potential threats to the hegemony of an "international community" currently being redefined to exclude or marginalize all but those who conform to the interests of the United States.
A concluding chapter shows how the script prepared for Yugoslavia is being re-enacted in Afghanistan. Whether Milosevic's trial before the International Court at the Hague or the capture of bin Laden will provide an adequate conclusion to this ideological play-making, remains an open question.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, War

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Tamara]

Pre-read review:
This conflict in Ukraine naturally triggered my own memories of the time NATO led a "peace mission" by bombing my own country. There were so many bombs dropped on civilian targets, and so many civilians (or "necessary casualties" as the West would say) dead. But you know, the Western media at the time portrayed all Serbs as monsters, so that was *A-OK*.

The things happening now seem to mirror this to an extent, except it's Russia instead of NATO, so naturally the Western media portrays Putin as the monster now. The thing is, they are all monsters, the leaders of NATO and leaders of Russia, because the civilian victims of any conflict will be the ones to suffer most and none of them fucking care. We are all just cannon fodder to them.

I want to read this book to better understand what happened in 1999. I have my own memories of it, but I was only 10 years old at the time, and the thing I remember best is the trauma of hearing air raid sirens several times a day and the panic attacks I developed in that period.

There is a lot of material in Serbian about the conflict, but I distrust domestic and Western propaganda the same. An American journalist writing something like this and persevering despite the backlash she felt seems like a good place to start.

[David M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The unilateral procedures adopted by NATO for Yugoslavia amounted to asserting a Western monopoly on determining what is a "humanitarian catastrophe" and what should be done about it. A genuine, unquestioned humanitarian emergency could be dealt with legally through the United Nations. In contrast, where real or potential rebel groups are made to understand that Great Powers can arbitrarily decide to intervene on the basis of a "humanitarian catastrophe," the incentive becomes enormous to manufacture just such a catastrophe, or the appearance of such a catastrophe.- pp 261

This seems like the book Nobel laureate Peter Handke would have written if he had any skill at making an argument (as opposed to poetic rambling). In every war there are real atrocities as well as fake or propagandized one. In some wars, it becomes taboo to even try and critically asses the difference. When it came to the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia, the western liberal intelligentsia settled on a simplistic framework in which the Serbs were the villains and Milosevic the new Hitler. Diana Johnstone ably punches holes in this official narrative and show whose interests it served. A rigorous and provocative book which obviously took courage to write.

...
The book paints a highly unflattering portrait of Sloven intellectuals in the lead up to secession. Slovene nationalism was an invisible nationalism in that it spoke the language of "universal" (ie, Western European) values, liberalism, anti-militarism, human rights; however, the real purpose of Slovene independence was to join the rich man's club of the EU and leave their poorer Slav brethren behind. The anti-militarism of Slovene intellectuals was quite selective; it meant rejecting the Yugoslav People's Army but eagerly joining NATO. Moreover, their human rights advocacy involved championing the downtrodden of Kosovo in the theory while also seceding so as not to have the tax burden of developing this poorer part of Yugoslavia.

For myself, I have to say reading this made me wonder if I can still respect Slavoj Zizek. Slovene secession pushed the rest of Yugoslavia into the abyss. Zizek supported it and then proceeded to blame everything on the Serbs, like a good European bourgeois.

[Christina Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is quite spot on with many of the issues in the Balkans, she still it slightly incorrect about some of the facts. But that is to be expected as most of the facts are hard to get and fully understand unless you are fluent in Serbian and know where to look. All in all, a great read.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fully sourced and accurate account of US aggression against the former FRY. Necessary.

[Rob Prince · Rating 5 out of 5]

So... you think you know what happened as Yugoslavia imploded in the 1990s?

If you got your information and insights from the mainstream media which portrayed the Serbs as something akin to Nazis and Milosevic as akin to Hitler, and has treated the Bosnian Muslims and Croatians as poor undeserving victims ... then you swallowed the cool aid.

I know I did or a good part of it. But there were always these nagging bits of information... like

- the Bosnian Muslims recruited Al Qaeda types fresh from Afghanistan - not exactly freedom fighters for a multi-cultural Bosnia - but fascist thugs who since have been shipped far and wide - Chechniya, Iraq, Syria, Libya and the Xighur regions of China. Maybe the Bosnian Muslims weren't so inncoent nor so progressive"

- that from the very beginning the Croats, Tudman and co. had their own brand of extreme bigoted ethnic nationalism, reviving the war crimes of the Ustasi elements who made up a large portion of their base. How come we never heard about Croatian war crimes - or hardly, back in those days?

- Never could quite believe that the likes of Bill Clinton and Madelaine Albright - who were bombing the heck out of Iraq at the time, imposing those sanctions that killed half a million Iraqi children that Albright defended - couldn't believe that that Administration would support a legitimate war of liberation.

- Over the years I have come to conclude it was all a kind of demented experiment for what the U.S. would do in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan - or try to - to pulverize and partition states that for one reason or another it opposed either for geo-strategic reasons, or because Israel didn't like them.

The dismemberment of Yugoslavia was the dry run for what followed in the Middle East, what Clinton would have liked to have done to Russia - tried and failed - and what's in Washington's sick playbook for China, Iran - if they could get away with it.

Think the dismemberment and partition of Yugoslavia a quarter century ago is irrelevant? You're wrong.

And no one - and I mean no one - writes about it better, documents what happened more carefully and understands analytically what happened than Diana Johnstone in this little powerhouse of a volume - Fool's Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions. Available in paperback.

Get it read it and if you'r really daring, discuss it with friends. Wanna understand what is happening today in Syria, Libya... here's a solid framework for you. You've been fooled, lied to... not too late to get at the truth, which as the saying goes... will make you free. Don't know if it will free you, but it will clean out a bit of that cool aid that has addled the brains of so many.

[Alan Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Everyone who wants to understand the US modus operandi, as it seeks global dominance, should read this book. Johnstone is one of the best - if not the best - commentators on current affairs.

Never assume that, because you have done "nothing wrong", the US will leave you alone. It's your potential to impede the US advance that concerns the arrogant leaders of the "exceptional" nation. So any country that pursues an independent foreign policy, which implicitly challenges US hegemony, is likely to be targeted for dismemberment and/or "regime change".

In other words, what was done to Yugoslavia is what the US would like to do to Russia and China. (The US-engineered fascist coup in Ukraine should be seen, in this context, as the opening shot.)

[Cathy Sultan]

If you really want to know what our foreign policy
is about please read this book. Diane Johnstone is
an excellent investigative reporter. She refuses
to comply with main stream media "rules" and instead insists
on truthful reporting.

[Afonso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent research about NATO's methods in using media coverage, lies, and political power to breakdown a country and its people.

Unfortunately, most of people who ends up reading this book already know about the real truth behind Yugoslavian war and NATO's objectives. This is an excellent researched book, with quotes and references, about the facts around Yugoslavia, where all the lies told in the media are broken-down piece by piece by the author.

This is the type of book where you want to highlight all the sentences because they are eye-opening and just make a lot of sense.

In Kosovo, wrote a mainstream American columnist, the United States and its allies "intervened without UN authorization, in violation of Serbian sovereignty and probably of international law". But this was nothing to be "hung up" about, since "Sometimes the only way to stop bad men from doing bad things is with force. Lawyers won't get the job done." The scenario is straight out of a classic Western movie: "bad men" must be stopped from doing "bad things", presumably by "good men" - and women, of course. A "new era in world of politics"? Or the same old story?

[C.R. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 for the depth of research and analysis. The only drawback is that the interpretation is limited in scope. Johnstone unpacks the military/geostrategic aspects expertly and provides much needed (and missing elsewhere) historical background. I'd read quite a bit about this topic already, yet learned a lot here. This is a good complement to Michael Parenti's book, which, as I recall, gets into more of the economic drivers and consequences of these interventions. Both books do a great job of showing how powerful entities and their partners in the corporate media attempt and often succeed in shaping public perceptions about seminal events.

[Allan Sørensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my try to understand what happened leading up to NATOs bombing of Serbia in 1999 i came across thus well documented piece of a book.

It is very comprehensive and informative and Diana Johnstone does an amazing job compiling such a long and complex history of the Balkans and in the end Western "Humanitarian" intervention.

It is a must read for everyone who want to understand US foreign policy, NATO, EU and how they use propaganda, private organisations such as NED and HRW... The steam rolling of Serbia was evidently a pretext on how go about it in the future (Libya, Syria, Ukraine)

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

After having went off to study this topic for some years, I then came back to this book.

This book is incredibly spot on and well written. It is in my opinion better than Michael Parenti's book on the topic and others out there. Johnstone is definitely an unsung leading academic author.

[Ruza Minić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Изузетна!!!
Прва њена књига коју сам прочитала! Тражећи да је овде додам, нашла сам врло изазовне наслове!
Књига разјашњава све око бомбардовања 1999. године...ко је спреман на главобољу ток читања не��а узме да чита...

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a dissent from the mainstream reporting and analysis of the collapse and dissolution of Yugoslavia, "Fool's Crusade" borders on a polemic in defense of Serbian nationalism (which Johnstone says barely existed in 1999) and of Slobodan Milošević who she characterizes as a confused and somewhat opportunistic politician, something like a big city mayor in the United States but without the ability to finesse his enemies in the manner of, for example, Richard J. Daley of Chicago.

The accepted view of Milošević as a heartless butcher of Muslims and a modern day Hitler needs revision or at least revisiting since it is so unanimously held by those one the left and center left. Johnstone sees the NATO air war over Bosnia as a manifestation of liberal imperialism run by the center-left (Blair, Clinton, etc.) that paved the way for western intervention in Afghanistan--the Second Iraq war hadn't begun when the book went to press.

[Geoffrey Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, carefully documented, and balanced review of the atrocities committed by all sides - not just the Serbian side - in the wars that resulted in the breakup of Yugoslavia. By far the worst war crimes, including international aggression, were committed by the United States in 1999.

[Dejan Basic · Rating 5 out of 5]

The paragon of journalism - the inextinguishable fire of the human spirit. In a league of its own

[Rhuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first serious critiques of the 1990s' fad of "humanitarian intervention," and the bloody mess this illusion brought to "war-torn" Yugoslavia. (Has there ever been a country in war that was *not* "torn"?) As a longtime anti-war activist, Johnstone spotlighted the bitter irony of the nation that brought apocalypse to Southeast Asia and subsidized the slaughterhouse of Central America in the 80's, now turned Crusader for Good, stopping mass murder to bring light and tolerance, justice and formerness, to Yugoslavia.

Of course, it's not really such a stretch: like the Kosovo Liberation Army, the CIA's old cutouts the Contras were also "freedom-fighters" against an Oppressive Regime; the inspiration to Do Good for Democracy prevailed in Cambodia as much as Iraq. And the present war for the soul of Ukraine against the New Hitler (Putin) is but a grander rerun for the soul of Bosnia against the New Hitler (Milosevic). Just as the Minsk Accords led to the current abattoir on the Black Sea, so did Rambouillet prefigure NATO expansion through the guts of the Balkans. Except, this time, direct provocation of a nuclear power is too dangerous for the personal infliction of American virtue.

Reading this a quarter-century hence makes one realize how little things and people have changed, and I mean that literally: Biden, Clinton, and all the rest from the '90s have marched in an undeviating line all this time. I will add one caveat to Johnstone's otherwise excellent overview: in taking the US media and political establishment to task, she has at times erred on the side of cynicism. Fikret Alic *was* in a Serbian prison camp, *was* behind real barbed wire in his famous photo, and not all the atrocities committed on the Serb side were overblown propaganda. The myth of multi-culturalism is a Western delusion of convenience, but Serb leaders were as full of their own illusory myths as Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.

Aside from these fuzzy spots, Johnstone's portrait is photographically correct: Yugoslavia - and Kosovo in particular - *were* necessary to set NATO on its Manifest Destiny to absorb all of Europe and the EU up to the gates of Moscow. What began at Rambouillet has ended in Kiev. So ironic it is to read the two-faced moral vaporings of these same people in their present-time despicability. If Radovan Karadzic was the Netanyahu of Bosnia, then Milosevic was the enabling Biden of Yugoslavia. And if those former Yugoslavs deserved war crimes indictments, so do their counterparts as of this writing.

Making the world safe for Democracy is such a thankless task, isn't it? Fortunately, the bucks are big and quick and easily passed. "But the story is not over, and there is more truth to tell." (p. 269.)

Exceptional Nations are their own law. Just ask them.

[Zeljana · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a deeply troubling exercise in genocide denial wrapped in the language of anti-imperialism. Johnstone doesn't just offer a "different perspective" on the Yugoslav War - she actively works to minimise and deny the Srebrenica genocide, one of the most well-documented atrocities in modern European history.

The author bends over backwards to excuse Serbian war crimes while portraying Western intervention as the real villain. Her sympathetic treatment of Milošević and Karadžić's leadership is nauseating, and her dismissal of the systematic massacres, rape camps, and ethnic cleansing campaigns as Western propaganda is both factually wrong and morally reprehensible.

The international courts, thousands of pages of testimony, mass graves, and forensic evidence all contradict Johnstone's narrative. She handwaves it all away as NATO lies. This isn't brave truth-telling; it's denialism that dishonours the victims and their families.

While the book has found a niche audience among certain anti-interventionist circles who mistake contrarianism for critical thinking, it's been thoroughly rejected by serious historians and legal experts for good reason.

If you want to understand the region and its wars, read actual scholarship. This book is propaganda that aids those who committed atrocities by muddying the historical record.

[Yiğit Güler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kesinlikle okuduğum en ezber bozan araştırma/tarih kitaplarından biri. Özellikle devamlı kulaktan dolma bilgiler ile ön yargılı baktığım Sırplar’a bakış açımın büyük ölçüde değiştiğini söylemeliyim.

Yugoslavya’nın dağılış süreci, NATO, AB, ABD ve BM’nin süreci ne şekilde etkilediği, kaynaksız hiç bir bilgi verilmeden mantık çerçevesinde, tüm Yugoslavya ülkelerinin gözünden kronolojik olarak aktarılmış.

Özellikle Sırp’ların şeytanlaştırılma süreci ve bunun arkasında yatan çıkar ilişkileri kitabın özünü oluşturuyor.

Kitap Yugoslavya’nın hem dağılış hem de kuruluş sürecine olan ilgimi daha da arttırdı.

Öte yandan azınlıklarla ilgili meselelere ABD, AB gibi “Büyük Güçler”in , hangi motivasyonlarla baktığını da genel olarak güzel özetliyor.

Kesinlikle tavsiye ediyorum.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agree with (almost) everything that has been said in the other 4/5 star reviews.
This book is a must-read, and if there's one thing to learn from it, just one, that lesson would be to always question the official, universally accepted, mass media pushed narrative.

[AH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can be a bit heavy at times, there is a year, a name or an abbreviation of some association or party in every single paragraph. Other than that it gives some insight into the history and especially end of Yugoslavia.

Ptr. 128-30

[Hiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly eye-opening.

[Pavle Mihalic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think goodreads complicates the matter far too far = I just want to buy a book (or e-book) but I just spent an hour of fucking around your chaotic site.

[ben jamen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actively engages in genocide denial and defends those who perpetrated said genocide.