To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia [Paperback]

Michael Parenti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Challenges mainstream media coverage of the war, uncovering hidden agendas behind Western rhetoric.

Drawing on a wide range of unpublished material and observations gathered from his visit to Yugoslavia in 1999, Michael Parenti challenges mainstream media coverage of the war, uncovering hidden agendas behind the Western talk of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and democracy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For 78 days in 1999, the United States and NATO forces responded to the violence in Kosovo by conducting aerial attacks against Yugoslavia. Parenti gives an unabashedly critical assessment of this intervention, based on a solid and passionate rejection of Western leaders' "lies" about events in the Balkans and Western interests in that part of the world. Readers not familiar with his leftist analysis may find Parenti's dismissal of NATO's justification for its 1999 bombing campaign shocking or silly; others may find it thought-provoking. He argues that Western intervention in Yugoslavia was driven not by a humanitarian desire to stop ethnic cleansing, but rather by a self-interested determination to subjugate formerly Communist countries to the forces of free-market globalization. The government-controlled media in the U.S., he claims, was unfairly prejudiced against Slobodan Milosevic, once he was no longer of use to the West. Parenti makes compelling points about biased media coverage of Serbia, but he seems to misunderstand the huge role that the Serbian government played in creating the conditions for violence in Yugoslavia. While other Balkan political and military leaders may also deserve blame, Milosevic does not deserve a defense. Sometimes Parenti's assessments seem paranoid, as in his claim that an elementary school was bombed because it bore the name of a Socialist leader. And his economic and political arguments, as well as his accounts of U.S. involvements in other parts of the world not covered by mainstream media, though they may give one pause, will appeal mostly to readers who share his leftist perspective. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Prominent social critic Parenti pens a fierce, elegantly constructed elegy not just for the lives sacrificed in the Balkan wars, but for concepts of national sovereignty and constitutionality, which appear to be lost to a corporate-sanctioned new world order. Extremely disturbing, but, for the brave, jolting and necessary reading. (Kirkus Reviews )

Thought-provoking ... Parenti makes compelling points about biased media coverage of Serbia. (Publishers Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Verso (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859843662
• ISBN-13: 978-1859843666
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > History > Europe > Serbia

More About the Author

Michael Parenti (Berkeley, CA) is the acclaimed author of more than twenty books, including, most recently, Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader; The Assassination of Julius Caesar; and The Culture Struggle. The New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Nation, and Antioch Review, are among the countless publications that have praised Parenti's work. For further information, visit his Web site: michaelparenti.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, February 18, 2006

By 

C. Buki (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia (Paperback)

Michael Parenti is one of my favorite authors, and he continues his trend of excellent and informative work in this book. The NATO "humanitarian" bombing was widely accepted at the time. There were few who challenged it. The Serbs were simply "the new Nazis" and thats all there was to it. That is why it is so refreshing to see someone make a challenge to those assertions. Whether you agree with it or not, this is an essential book to read if you are studying the NATO intervention and the conflict in general. Some other books and articles I reccomend on the topic are: NATO in the Balkans: Voices of Opposition (Available on Amazon), Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, Nato, and Western Delusions by Diana Johnstone (also available here),Parenti's article "The Demonization of Slobodan Milosevic", but most importantlythe Republika Srpska Bureau for Cooperation with the ICTY's report on Srebanica, based on UN and Red Cross documents, which exposes the whole thing as a fraud, but not suprisingly was suppressed.

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic, muckraking at its finest, February 18, 2005

By 

Thomas Willard "il_duce" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia (Hardcover)

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.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Parenti Raging, January 19, 2005

By 

N. P. Stathoulopoulos "nick9155" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia (Hardcover)

Amidst all of the Kosovo War books that came out immediately following the war, this was notable since it doesn't take any standard line, starting with the title.

To Kill A Nation is a look at what many consider to be a big mistake--NATO's first war, fought against Yugoslavia in 1999. Parenti comes at every angle and rails against an unjust, trumped-up war that was dishonestly reported and then forgotten. It is nevertheless important as it set the stage for further international adventures out of the scope of international law, now a US policy staple.

Parenti is not denying that an ugly civil war was taking place. What he is disgusted with is the 'presentation' of this 'war' as a humanitarian effort, an unprecedented act of altruism by powerful states to save an opporessed people.

Parenti focuses on things like collateral damage, economics of Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, the media and 'their atrocities', bumbling politicians, etc.

Not everything here is so convincing, but there is much merit in the argument against the war, a war now forgotten and brushed over as our committment to this troubled corner of Europe ends.

Recommended for a different take on the Kosovo War.