Their Atrocities and Ours by Howard Zinn — Read

We have become accustomed to the misuse of language by political and military leaders to deceive the public. I suppose it is a tribute to the humanity of ordinary people that horrible acts must be camouflaged in a thicket of deceptive words in order to justify them. This op-ed piece appeared in the Boston Globe and several other newspapers around the country at the time of the bombing of Yugoslavia. Technically, it was NATO-the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-that was carrying on the bombing, but in reality (another obfuscation) it was the United States.

There was a headline this morning in my home town newspaper, the Boston Globe: PENTAGON DEFENDS AIRSTRIKE ON VILLAGE. U. S. SAYS KOSOVARS WERE HUMAN SHIELDS.