Thread by @KanekoaTheGreat

🧵THREAD: On March 24, 1999, NATO began illegally bombing Yugoslavia for 78 days without the approval of the United Nations, dropping more than 28,000 bombs, including depleted uranium and cluster munitions, killing over 2000 civilians and displacing more than 250,000 people.

#2 By June, NATO destroyed:

-25,000 residential buildings
-595 kilometers railroads
-470 kilometers roads
-44 bridges
-14 airports
-19 hospitals
-69 schools
-18 kindergartens
-176 cultural monuments

#3 Senator Joe Biden supported aggressive military action against Yugoslavia, advocating for the bombing of Belgrade and the destruction of bridges on the Drina River.

He criticized NATO's actions as not ruthless enough and suggested a "Japanese/German-style occupation."

#4 NATO intentionally targeted civilian infrastructure such as power plants, factories, hospitals, and bridges, setting back the country's economic progress by several decades.

#5 The NATO strikes were intended to inflict immense suffering on the people of Yugoslavia.

The strikes targeted critical infrastructure, resulting in significant economic disruptions, power outages, and water shortages that inflicted a cost of over $120 billion on Yugoslavia.

#6 In 2000, a Yugoslav court sentenced President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, and other Western leaders to prison for war crimes:

-Crimes against humanity
-Initiating an aggressive war
-Using illegal weapons

#7 The United States and NATO ruthlessly bombed a sovereign nation that posed no threat, deliberately targeting civilians with cluster bombs and depleted uranium, all without the approval of the United Nations, while dubiously labeling it a "humanitarian intervention."

#8 “It was Yugoslavia’s resistance to the broader trends of political and economic reform — not the plight of Kosovar Albanians — that best explains NATO’s war,” wrote John Norris, the assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott at the time of the war.

#9 Ron Paul's speech on the United States and NATO bombing Serbia:

"U.S. military forces are now bombing a foreign nation halfway around the world. This cannot be a proud moment for America. The reason given for doing so is that Serbian leaders have not done what we have told… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

#10 There are a few corrections to make regarding this tweet thread.

Firstly, the first picture in the thread is actually from the bombing of Iraq, not Yugoslavia. Secondly, Serbia and Montenegro was known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or Yugoslavia until 2003.

#11 It's also important to clarify that nobody supports any atrocities in Kosovo.

The focus of this tweet thread is to highlight that NATO is not solely a defensive alliance, as demonstrated by its actions in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and Libya.