Post by Novus Dis on Jul 20, 2008 3:53:09 GMT -5
The Origins and Causes of the Bosnian Civil War
1992-1995.
Introduction
The collapse of the Cold War world order beginning in 1989 resulted in the disintegration of the Communist federations of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and the other nations in Eastern Europe. The break up of these federations resulted in bloody civil wars both in the former Soviet Union and in the former Yugoslavia. The most destructive and costly in human life was the protracted civil war in the former Communist republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, constituted in 1945 as a constituent republic of Yugoslavia.
The diplomats and the media knew very little about the background to the conflicts and civil wars in the former Soviet Union. They knew even less about the former Yugoslavia, especially about Bosnia-Herzegovina. In US government and media propaganda, Yugoslavia became "the heart of Europe" and "in the center of Europe". Before the massive US "information war", Yugoslavia was regarded as marginal, peripheral, the "backwater of Europe", on the periphery of Europe, not vital to any US interests, not part of the so-called Western civilization and culture, not part of "enlightened Latin Christendom", but backward, Byzantine, alien. Karl Marx termed the Balkan peoples "ethnic trash". His colleague Friedrich Engels dismissed Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks as "robber riff- raff". Otto von Bismarck warned that the Balkans were not worth the life of a single German soldier at the time of the Bosnian Insurrection of 1875-1878. Through American media and government propaganda, however, Bosnia became not only the center of Europe, but during the civil war, the primary focus for the entire world. The lack of fundamental understanding and grasp of the historical background and issues on the part of diplomats, academics, scholars, and the media, contributed to needlessly prolonging and exacerbating the conflict.
The civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was caused and sustained by essentially three major actors: 1) the United States State Department; 2) public relations firms; and, 3) the American media. The precedent for such an alliance was the very successful performance of all three actors in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which the United States with her NATO allies Great Britain and France, waged against former ally and client state Iraq. The paradigm of the Persian Gulf War was transposed upon the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina with disastrous results. All three actors perceived the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as Gulf War II. The paradigm for the Persian Gulf War itself was established in 1898 with the Spanish-American War. William Randolph Hearst told Frederick Remington, "You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war." Hearst was a pioneer in realizing that the nature of war had changed. War was now about information, not weapons and strategies. The Spanish-American War became an infowar where pictures and images were the crucial elements. Hearst was ahead of his time. Most military historians and pundits missed this revolutionary change in the nature and concept of modern warfare. As one of the founders of the mass public newspaper, Hearst understood that propaganda techniques would be much more important in the modern mass media and mass communication era. The US government would apply Hearst’s infowar paradigm in the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, the Krajina conflict between Yugoslavia and Croatia, Haiti, and Kosovo. Indeed, the initial invading force of Somalia consisted of an army of news reporters and camera crew which televised its own landing on the Somalia coast. US policymakers learned from the Vietnam War debacle that military force by itself is not sufficient. Information is crucial in modern war. To defeat an enemy by force alone is to win only half the battle. Thus, there was a re-emergence of the infowar, of propaganda techniques and "information warfare" first developed by Hearst in the 19th century.
The US State Department, the US media, and public relations firms caused and maintained the bloody civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They based their analyses consciously and unconsciously on ignorance, deceit, malice, racism, power politics, Realpolitik, and incorrect assumptions and a faulty understanding of the background to that conflict. Truth is indeed the first casualty in war.
[...]
1992-1995.
Introduction
The collapse of the Cold War world order beginning in 1989 resulted in the disintegration of the Communist federations of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and the other nations in Eastern Europe. The break up of these federations resulted in bloody civil wars both in the former Soviet Union and in the former Yugoslavia. The most destructive and costly in human life was the protracted civil war in the former Communist republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, constituted in 1945 as a constituent republic of Yugoslavia.
The diplomats and the media knew very little about the background to the conflicts and civil wars in the former Soviet Union. They knew even less about the former Yugoslavia, especially about Bosnia-Herzegovina. In US government and media propaganda, Yugoslavia became "the heart of Europe" and "in the center of Europe". Before the massive US "information war", Yugoslavia was regarded as marginal, peripheral, the "backwater of Europe", on the periphery of Europe, not vital to any US interests, not part of the so-called Western civilization and culture, not part of "enlightened Latin Christendom", but backward, Byzantine, alien. Karl Marx termed the Balkan peoples "ethnic trash". His colleague Friedrich Engels dismissed Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks as "robber riff- raff". Otto von Bismarck warned that the Balkans were not worth the life of a single German soldier at the time of the Bosnian Insurrection of 1875-1878. Through American media and government propaganda, however, Bosnia became not only the center of Europe, but during the civil war, the primary focus for the entire world. The lack of fundamental understanding and grasp of the historical background and issues on the part of diplomats, academics, scholars, and the media, contributed to needlessly prolonging and exacerbating the conflict.
The civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was caused and sustained by essentially three major actors: 1) the United States State Department; 2) public relations firms; and, 3) the American media. The precedent for such an alliance was the very successful performance of all three actors in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which the United States with her NATO allies Great Britain and France, waged against former ally and client state Iraq. The paradigm of the Persian Gulf War was transposed upon the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina with disastrous results. All three actors perceived the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as Gulf War II. The paradigm for the Persian Gulf War itself was established in 1898 with the Spanish-American War. William Randolph Hearst told Frederick Remington, "You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war." Hearst was a pioneer in realizing that the nature of war had changed. War was now about information, not weapons and strategies. The Spanish-American War became an infowar where pictures and images were the crucial elements. Hearst was ahead of his time. Most military historians and pundits missed this revolutionary change in the nature and concept of modern warfare. As one of the founders of the mass public newspaper, Hearst understood that propaganda techniques would be much more important in the modern mass media and mass communication era. The US government would apply Hearst’s infowar paradigm in the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, the Krajina conflict between Yugoslavia and Croatia, Haiti, and Kosovo. Indeed, the initial invading force of Somalia consisted of an army of news reporters and camera crew which televised its own landing on the Somalia coast. US policymakers learned from the Vietnam War debacle that military force by itself is not sufficient. Information is crucial in modern war. To defeat an enemy by force alone is to win only half the battle. Thus, there was a re-emergence of the infowar, of propaganda techniques and "information warfare" first developed by Hearst in the 19th century.
The US State Department, the US media, and public relations firms caused and maintained the bloody civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They based their analyses consciously and unconsciously on ignorance, deceit, malice, racism, power politics, Realpolitik, and incorrect assumptions and a faulty understanding of the background to that conflict. Truth is indeed the first casualty in war.
[...]