by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 6, 1999
All Rights Reserved.

roving that we’re a ways off from Hillary’s global village, the Pentagon’s prosecution of Operation Allied Force boasted minimal U.S. and allied casualties. But what about all the casualties on the ground? 'Ethnic cleansing' that went on unabated for nearly 6 weeks? Refugees without adequate life-support, herded like cattle into crowded, unsanitary makeshift camps? Death from the elements, disease and uninhabitable conditions? While it’s true that Clinton saved American lives, what about those shallow mass graves and wretched images on the ground? Was saving American casualties the only priority? How about the innocent human lives barely eking out an existence in this backward part of the world? Don’t their lives also count for something? Blaming the loss of life — and ecological disaster — entirely on Slobodan Milosevic because he refused to sign at Rambouillet is no excuse.

       From the get-go, Clinton’s advisors warned that the American public wouldn’t tolerate graphic casualties — body bags on the nightly news would rapidly torpedo any national support. Accommodating this, the antiseptic air-war began. War at high altitude is one thing, but its long-term effects can’t be ignored. Judging by the slaughterhouse on the ground and the deadly pollution, it’s anyone’s guess what the eventual death toll will wind up due to unremitting toxicity, environmental damage and expected birth defects. Clinton’s 'third way' policy assured a deadly form of modern warfare, harnessing the precision of technology to unleash secondary and tertiary toxic after-effects.

       Harking back to the Gulf War, "Saddam Hussein is following a 'scorched earth' policy," said stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, after the Iraqi’s abrupt retreat from Kuwait, less than 100 hours into Desert Storm’s ground war operation. Going down to defeat, Saddam Hussein dragged Mother nature with him, etching his notorious signature onto the beaches and pristine shoreline of the Persian Gulf. Dumping massive amounts of oil and setting ablaze every well in sight, the fallout from toxic black smoke and soot caused marine life to wash ashore covered in a lethal black slime. Determining the human toll from exposure to this toxic mess remains an enigma to scientists studying the insidious effects of Gulf War Syndrome.

       Hussein wasn’t 'driving under the influence' like the captain of the Exxon Valdez; his environmental legacy was deliberately planned. Not since the explosion and deadly plume at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India has the world witnessed such an ecological nightmare. Eight years later the marine-life still isn’t normal, showing signs of bizarre biological mutations in the coastal habitat once lush with healthy marine life. Hussein’s inadvertent genocide on the local ecology was reviled more than his invasion of Kuwait or documented poison gas attacks on the neighboring Kurds. When over 500 thousand U.S. and allied troops left Iraqi soil, the indicted war criminal was still safe in his bunker.

       Now we have Operation Allied Force, with another ecological disaster promising to eclipse, by leaps and bounds, Saddam Hussein’s calculated destruction of his own backyard. This time it can’t be blamed on the 'genocidal' maniac, Slobodan Milosevic. No, the latest ecological devastation was deliberately planned and executed by the environmentally sensitive U.S. and European partners. When NATO’s 'smart bombs' and Tamahawk Cruise Missiles decimated the petrochemical complex in Pancevo, Yugoslavia on April 18, 1999, a murky fog containing lethal vapor from polyvinyl chroride — the toxic chemical used to make plastic — mercilessly engulfed the atmosphere, like the deadly vapor released when cyanide meets hydrochloric acid in San Quintin’s gas chamber.

       "Our mission is to degrade Milosevic’s ability to make war," said NATO supreme commander Gen. Wesley K. Clarke, responding to reporters’ questions about the extent of bomb damage assessment in Pancevo. Little did anyone know — other than the Pentagon — that targeting the petrochemical complex would, in fact, result in such an irretrievable ecological disaster. Underestimating the gravity of the refugee crisis was one thing, but knowing exactly the precise repercussions of blowing up a petrochemical plant built primarily by the U.S. defies anyone’s imagination. War is dirty business, but targeting laser-guided missiles and bombs to a facility known to have toxic chemicals was striking more than the Serbs. Clinton’s 'third way' war introduced a new dimension to modern ecological warfare. What deaths you can’t claim in a direct hit are more than made up for by poisoning unborn generations.

       Polluting a country’s air and water supply with ammonia, mercury, naphtha, acid, dioxins and other known carcinogens — like polyvinyl chloride — raises serious concerns about the rules of engagement in 'third way' war. It’s one thing to degrade a country’s war machine from 15,000 feet, but it still another to generate so much pollution that you betray posterity from inheriting a life-supporting Earth. Pregnant mothers — and their unborn fetuses and embryos — deserve better. Recommending that pregnant women exposed to this toxic pollution abort their fetuses or avoid fertilization for at least 2 years has gone over-the-top. Do we really want to be a party to this type of military strategy?

       Seeking a world ban on chemical or biological weapons shouldn’t be limited to those substances packed inside warheads or bombs. Knowing the likely contents of petrochemical plants should give us plenty of advance warning before detonating these kinds of targets. Though war is dirty business, picking the right targets is clearly within our reach. Protecting the global environment — even in times of war — still can’t be ignored.

About the Author

John M. Curtis is director of a West Los Angeles think tank specializing in human behavior, health care and political research and media consultation. He’s a seminar trainer, columnist and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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