By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 11, 2023
“Putting aside all the fancy words and academic doubletalk, the basic reason for having a military is to do two jobs — to kill people and to destroy.” — Thomas S. Power
The photo above was taken yesterday. The flowers are in bloom in the mountain pastures of Sinjajevina. And the U.S. military is on its way to trample them and practice destroying things. What did these beautiful sheep-herding families in this European mountain paradise do to the Pentagon?
Not a damn thing. In fact, they followed all the proper rules. They spoke in public fora, educated their fellow citizens, produced scientific research, listened carefully to the most ludicrous contrary opinions, lobbied, campaigned, voted, and elected officials who promised not to destroy their mountain homes for the U.S. military and a new NATO training ground too large for the Montenegrin military to know what to do with. They lived within the rules based order, and they’ve simply been lied to when not ignored. Not a single U.S. media outlet has deigned to even mention their existence, even as they’ve risked their lives as human shields to protect their way of life and all the creatures of the mountain ecosystem.
Now 500 U.S. troops, according to the Montenegrin Ministry of “Defense,” will be practicing organized murder and destruction from May 22 to June 2, 2023. And the people plan to nonviolently resist and protest. No doubt the United States will involve some token troops from some NATO sidekicks and call it an “international” defense of “democracy” “operation.” But has anyone involved asked themselves what democracy is? If democracy is the right of the U.S. military to destroy people’s homes wherever it sees fit, as a reward for signing onto NATO, buying weapons, and swearing subservience, then those who scorn democracy can hardly be faulted, can they?
The people of Sinjajevina can be helped in a number of ways:
- by printing out a “Save Sinjajevina” sign and taking it to rallies and sending photos of it and you, anywhere on Earth, to info AT worldbeyondwar.org;
- by donating to pay for organizing expenses including a trip to Brussels and a possible trip to the United States (if a visa can ever get approved);
- signing the petition in support;
- sharing information to #SaveSinjajevina online everywhere.
All of these things can be done at https://worldbeyondwar.org/sinjajevina
Thank you for helping!