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!
25 Responses
I stand with You. I have signed the petition!
Love ❤️
Trine from Norway
Isn’t there another way without destroying an area?
Another way to practice destroying areas?
A bit unnecessary David
I COMMUNICATE DAILY, NIGHTLY BECAUSE OF LIFE THREATENING CRIMES , CRIMINAL VOYEURS TOWARDS ME, BASICALLY USED TO INCREASE USA MILITARY COMPLEX, INCREASED YEARLY SINCE 9/11/91.
REAL ESTATES CRIMES, 9/11/01 CONTROLLED DEMOLITIONS, USED TO TAKE OUT MIDDLE EASTERN NATIONS WITH OIL ON THEIR LANDS,
NIGHTLY LIFE THREATENING CRIMES , MOVING NOT SOLUTION
EXAMPLES CRIMES TOWARDS “ME”, 1961-68 TIME PERIOD,
DAILY SINCE NWO COUP BEGAN 9/11/91,
STANLEY WASSERMAN, LLC , LANDLORD, USING MY LIFE FOR CRIMINAL VOYEURS, WAR MAKING AND I BELIEVE RELATED TO ISRAEL,
WORLD WAR II AND HOLOCAUST
WWII FUNDED BY FORD MOTOR CORPORATION
( DESERT STORM WAR, FIRST CASUALTY OF NWO COUP, 9/11/01
FUNDED BY STOLEN MONEYS, SILVERATTI BANK IN TEXAS)
IBM AND SHELL OIL.
REGARDING FORE PLANNED ( 2018) 2020 PANDEMIC;
ON AUGUST 31, 2020 I WAS TOLD BY RELIABLE SOURCES
( CONFIRMED)
THAT WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE
20 BANKS ARE USING MY NAME AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER FOR DRUG TRADING and DRUG TRAFFICKING.
Armed forces from any nation should NOT be abusing areas of other nations in the pretext of communal support! Do NOT allow the desecration of Montenegro!
STOP DESTROYING OUR PLANET
Daily communications since 9/11/91 because of life threatening situations in my life,
Criminal voyeurs my life used to increase USA military complex .
First action I took when crimes towards me began after 9/11/91 NWO coup began
Was communications with Ralph Nader
Coup invested in religious groups violating biblical laws ,meetings with profit seeking corporations, big money seekers , USA military,
Ralph Nader shared real estate and corporate conglomerate media
( Clinton. 1996 deregulated media regulations;
1999 he deregulated GLASS Steagall banking laws which after Great Depression brought America 50 years prosperity;
RALPH NADER AND RAMSEY CLARK AFTER FORE PLANNED 9/11/01 CATASTROPHES
JOINED LEGALLY AGAINST
ILLEGAL USA CREATED AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ WARS,
LATER FOLLOWED MORE USA ILLEGAL ENDLESS WARS.
Daily communications since 1989, 9/11/91 relatd.
Stop the WAR Practice. We, and Mother Earth, have had enough wars over time. We should be preserving, not destroying.
Close bases; the US military has far too many all over the world.
Stop the madness!
The Military Industrial Complex (Namely the Pentagon) has been out of control for as long as I can remember. It works alongside the weapons manufacturers to insure that war is a constant and that American hegemony remains intact. It creates war were none previously existed all under the pretext of “saving democracy”. There currently exist over 700 U.S. Military bases around the globe so there will always be armed conflict somewhere. There has been armed conflict for as long as I have lived and the reasons given are always specious. The vast majority of Americans are pre-occupied with sports or television or some other form of distraction to be concerned about the welfare of the planet What does this have to say about the state of humanity??
Believe me, I live in the United States and we aren’t preoccupied with sports and tv. We hate this as much as everyone and stand with everyone all over the world to stop this. We are not the military industrial complex, we are humans that hate war and violence just as much as everyone else. We do not benefit from this. Our economy and country are a mess and work to have money taken away from the Pentagon and put where it is needed.
Today’s America is a nation obsessed with guns and violence to the point where it is now an everyday occurrence and violent images are everywhere. Could there be any wonder WHY the world today is in such a violent state when violence has come to permeate every aspect of life. The television is instructional in how to commit violent acts, and parents use television as a babysitter rather that be responsible. Guns in America are easier to obtain than a driver’s license and now number in the million, much to our detriment.
Pease, give heed to the call of the Natives and of Mother Earth for, truly, militarism, conflict and war are the negation of sustainability.
mountain pastures are far more important than military exercises
If you didn’t catch it, early in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Montenegro joined with other Eastern European nations in supporting the Ukraine defense effort. They went so far as to take part in stopping Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov from visiting Russia’s ally Serbia by flying over their airspaces.
This solicitation is written from the standpoint of farmers and rural dwellers in Montenegro. President Abazovic (sp?) of Montenegro at least encouraged the US and its allies to believe that Montenegro would make (at that time unnamed) sacrifices for the Ukraine defense effort. I do not know the precise way that Montenegro consented to allow these military “exercises,” but the first thing that any initiative must accomplish is getting the Montenegro government to explicitly state its grounds for allowing the mountain-warfare exercises, and what further concessions of land use for warfare exercises it is considering or intends.
If the US is so hellbent for leather that it needs to do mountain wargames, there are a lot more mountains in the US to do them in, including far more variation of mountainous terrain than Montenegro can ever provide. It needs to perform these wargames here.
Personally I believe that Russia, and Putin, must be stopped. Ukraine snd Ukrainians are fighting for their very existence, physically, culturally and politically; I reject the “proxy war” argument that at least a portion of antiwar comrades stick to. There is no argument that can be made to validate the old=style-conqueror actions of the Russian President. He is a lying, cheating, robbing dictator and capo di tutti capi of the Russian mafia. None of those who one day will fight among each other to be his successor have the cachet he has– KGB, Mafia, and presidency. He and his oligarchs have hollowed out the Russian economy. Russia, like Wagner Group boss Prighozin, is now recruiting from prisons. They are headed for losing the war they started, and Russian casualties are of no consequence to them.
It does not make sense to destroy a significant part of the environmental and demographic structure of Montenegro, a country roughly the size of Connecticut just for practice. However, it must be conceded that Montenegro’s government has encouraged, or enabled, ours.
My prayers– and tears– are for all human beings.
Bill Homans, aka Watermelon Slim
World Without War should improve its comments section such that commenters’ spacing/paragraphizing is not destroyed. What I wrote above contained paragraphs. Of course, the entirety of it is likely to be rejected anyway because I do not adhere to the “proxy-war” interpretations of Ukraine and other nations’ self-defense.
I have practically stopped making public comments on issues, because I have encountered so much censorship pver the nearly 15 months of Putin’s war. It’s almost always cast as “moderation,” or “your comment is being reviewed,” pr “your comment violates ‘community guidelines.'” I have owned a computer for 26 years, and I have watched the gradual tightening of avenues of public expression and comment. The pace of that phenomenon has been increasing exponentially over the last decade.
Who is World Without War? Just a (very small) joke. It’s been obvious for many years that that’s the name we should have chosen and that capitalization of BEYOND won’t make it otherwise.
The military needs to be held accountable under strict laws to protect nature. The military, world wide, is a massive consumer of resources and energy and as a consequence create massive amounts of nuclear, toxic chemical and Co2 pollution, as well as holding large scale destructive military exercises in sensitive natural environments. The military is generally not required by law to conform to laws for environmental protection. This is a major problem. If the military was legally required to adhere to strong environmental laws, they may not remain a greater threat to their peoples survival than the perceived enemy.
And so, as I predicted, my previous comment has been rejected. There were no attacks or bullying of others; there were no profane words or sexual references; there was no attempt to defraud other people for money or anything else. The only possible reason that my comment could have been rejected is that I am in political disagreement with a variety of antiwar points of view. It’s sad…….
Watermelon Slim
And now it’s printed, after disappearing. For the record, I am a 52-year Life Member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a member of OSS (Old School Sappers). I pray for world peace daily, though I know some, like Ukraine, must fight dictators and war criminals for their existence– and we must help them.
We DON’T need Montenegro’s mountains to train on. They should be left to the shepherds and their flocks!
But the Russian Federation must be defeated, and capitulate. And no matter how many Russians die in Ukraine, we can’t realistically expect another Russian Revolution for truth, justice and mercy.
Putin’s running scared now– he’s moved his billions, some of them, to Africa, with the help of Prighozin, with whom he has a public love-hate relationship. But the overwhelming majority of Russians are utterly brainwashed. They will not overthrow him.
God bless us all, every one.
William, referring to your comment above can I ask you do you realistically expect an American Revolution for truth, justice and mercy?
I don’t understand why you say you are experiencing censorship re your views on the Ukrainian war: from reading your comments it appears to me that your views echo what the Western mainstream media are saying
I stand with You. I have signed the petition. STOP THE WAR AND NATO.
Love from Argentina 💚
Save Montenegro! Save our Mother Earth and put an end to the destruction caused by war and its supporters who profit from it!! Who profits`? Certainly not you and me!!!