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To: wideawake
His claim that the US targeted civilian residential buildings for no purpose other than to destroy Communist banners and murals is ridiculous on its face, has absolutely no evidence behind it and proves that the man is a bald-faced liar.

I have/read his book (To Kill a Nation) and I do not recall such statement. Can you give me some reference/page number?

He is one customer review from the Amazon link:

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Dynamic, muckraking at its finest, February 18, 2005 Reviewer: Thomas Willard "il_duce" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

I found this book to be one of the most honest attempts to discern the dynamic forces acting upon and precipitating the spate of late 20th Cent Balkan Wars. This book is certainly written from a left wing perspective. If you think that the IMF and World Bank are great institutions, then you are going to disagree with Parenti. Parenti unearths many important details that alter some of the predjudices that the press constructs in an almost a priori way. The Serbs must always be bad. I visited Serbia in 2001; while they were bitter at America, most were very polite and accomodating. After all, how would you feel about Serbia if they bombed your city for 79 straight days.

Some of the details that Parenti shares:
1. Toward the end of the war, the Croats bombed, with German artillery, in the Krajinia/Knin fleeing Serbian civilians as they were ethnically cleansed. In 2001, while taking the bus through Knin, I sat near a cute Croat girl, maybe 25. "We got rid of the Serbs in this area" she stated with a grin. "They just ran away." Perspective?

2. The marketplace bombing that really brought the conflict to the nightly news, was a bit of a hoax. Forensic experts examined the corpses and found that they had died earlier than the date of the bombing. The press just does not follow up their claims when they are wrong.

3. The role of the IMF and World Bank were huge. The central federal bank in Belgrade was frozen after Milosevich refused to accomodate some of the SAP's that the IMF were insisting upon. Without the transfer of money to the provinces, the people grew angry.

There are many other points he makes, I found these interesting. I think an accurate analysis is needed to create foreign policy on, rather than preconceived notions.

65 posted on 06/27/2006 10:02:20 AM PDT by A. Pole (Russian proverb: "All are not cooks that walk with long knives")
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To: A. Pole

An Amazon review by someone who calls himself "Il Duce" (that's interesting) is supposed to prove what, exactly?


67 posted on 06/27/2006 10:05:45 AM PDT by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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