Tampa Tribune

In 1888, Nietszche predicted that the 20th century would be distinguished by "catastrophic wars" and disregard for morality, because, as he put it, "God is dead." In 1999, President Clinton speaks of building a bridge into the 21st century.

As we approach Y2K and the new millennium, it might be well to reflect on the past 100 years. Was Nietszche right? What foundation has been laid for the bridge that we, as the world's superpower are building for our nation and the world - and as individuals, for our children? Looking back, what do we see?

During the 20th century the machine revolutionized life on Earth. In the factory it produced unprecedented amounts of goods and improved the quality of life. On the battlefield it tilted the balance of power in favor of brute force. New inventions increased creature comforts, communications and mobility. Women gained the right to vote; a great depression gripped the globe, and the civil rights movement made headway.

In this century, two world wars unleashed untold suffering and devastation on a large part of the world. Stalin's purges and Hitler's holocaust reinterpreted morality to justify murder for politically correct reasons. Weapons of war grew bigger, more powerful and more prolific, and with escalating military might, aggression paid off end violence increased. Throughout this century, inflation and taxes soared.

Institutions, corporations and governments grew bigger-and bigness bred power. Communism gobbled up Eastern Europe and politics dominated like never before.

By the middle of the century, science and technology ushered in the information age. Small, innovative start-ups flourished, and Microsoft became a household word. Assassinations rocked America and serial and mass killers stalked its streets. Communism suddenly capitulated and the Cold War ensued.

During the 20th century, unisex became popular, the line dividing the sexes blurred and homosexuality emerged from the closet. Divorces multiplied and the family unit changed. The stock market soared to staggering heights, along with national and personal debt. Scientists cloned the first animals, researchers made strides in fertility and genetics, and the first octoplets were born. The Cold War thawed into the current "cold peace." Availability of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that fit in a suitcase heightened the danger of terrorism and a nuclear confrontation. And as we exit the century, continuing conflicts and the threat of annihilation hang over civilization like a shroud.

In summary, the 20th century produced more advances in science and technology than any other century in history. At the same time, this century spanned violence on a scale never seen before. More wars were fought and more people died violently in this century than in any other.

But violence was not restricted to the battlefield. It infiltrated American culture and every phase of American life. Abuse infects our homes. Brutality dominates our sports and entertainment. Bombs and guns threaten the security of our schools and workplaces. On modern highways and in the concrete jungles of our cities, road rage and random shootings turn civilized sophisticated citizens into savages.

Even our economy thrives on violence. Weapons of war are big business. Our military might is awesome, our stock market unstoppable. While politicians push for gun control at home, billions of dollars worth of American-made weapons proliferate world-wide. Our arms exports exceed the combined total of the next 14 countries, with Russia coming in a very distant second.

Somewhere on the winding road through the 20th century, something happened to our national and individual souls. While prancing down the path of progress, we veered away from the straight and narrow, the tried and true. The technology that enhanced our lifestyles has diminished our spirits, morals and ethics, and we don't seem to have noticed. We have lost the sense of the sacred. Abortion is used as birth control. Murder has become an alternative to costly divorce settlements or unwanted parental control. We have confused the pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of power, forgetting that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
When Gandhi described the way of peace as the way of truth, and lying as the mother of violence, he must have been talking about us. Our president lies under oath. Cheating is epidemic. The corporate-owned media spread spin instead of substantiated facts. The White House and NATO leaders hire public relations firms to manipulate public opinion.

When Lady Liberty, in New York Harbor, lifted her light and welcomed to these shores my family in the 1920s, and my husband and his family in the late '50s, America was a refuge for the downtrodden and oppressed, the dream home of every refugee, the epitome of opportunity and freedom, the bastion of justice and truth. Where did our country go wrong?

Americans are the most generous, compassionate, caring and tolerant of any people in the world and America, the greatest country. There's nowhere else I'd want to live. Our country was founded on godly principles that included faith in God, individual responsibility, local and limited government, traditional morality and the sacredness and inviolability of life and the family. But somewhere during this past century, our values and priorities got twisted.

Our great country is no longer a force for peace, but one to spread war. America no longer commands respect and admiration, but dread of our power, distrust of our policies and suspicion of our motives. What we represent to other countries now is not freedom and democracy but the almighty dollar. Money drives our foreign policy and might implement it. And because we are Americans, we believe we can do no wrong. We're the good guys, after all, aren't we? Our leaders are doing the right thing, aren't they? The truth is that we're not the good guys and our leaders have done wrong.

Nothing more clearly demonstrates this for me than the recent U.S. led NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia. From more and more quarters, the truth leaks out - but not in our headlines. "Human Rights in Kosovo," a report recently published by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE], exposes the facts. Prior to bombing Yugoslavia, the conflict in Kosovo was local and casualties limited. NATO's military intervention caused the humanitarian catastrophe our leaders said it would prevent. The White House and NATO not only exaggerated but outright lied. The Rambouillet Accord was a fraud. Far from being a peace agreement, it authorized the theft by greedy western companies of Yugoslavia's state-owned industries, including the most valuable piece real estate in the Balkans, the Trepca mineral mines, described in a 1988 NY Times article as worth at least $5 billion. The document also blueprinted a virtual NATO dictatorship in the the rest of Yugoslavia. Independent investigators in Kosovo found no mass graves and no evidence of ethnic cleansing. NATO created clever computer images as well as many of the accusations, When the Serbs didn't sign the outrageous ultimatum,, they got bombed.

Former Nuremberg War Crimes Prosecutor Walter J. Rockler describes NATO's attack on Yugoslavia as 'the most brazen international aggression since the Nazis attacked Poland to prevent 'Polish atrocities' against the Germans." He adds, "The U.S. has discarded pretensions to international legality and decency and embarked on a course of raw imperialism run amok. Our alleged concern with human rights borders on the ludicrous... the Kosovar Albanians would still be in their homes if Clinton had not intervened. Yugoslavia would be intact."

NATO's actions in Yugoslavia have made the world a much more dangerous place. China, India and Russia are openly hostile. Global re-armament is in full swing. Anti-American sentiment has surged to an all-time high. Our closest allies wonder who will be next and under what pretext. The world won't soon forget how we treated a friendly country and a loyal ally in two world wars, a country that had never attacked a neighbor, a country whose great sin was unwillingness to install a free market economy. And we wonder why terrorists target Americans.

"We, every single one of us, are as guilty as any NATO butcher sitting in Belgium. We're guilty because, wallowing in affluence with a soaring stock market to keep us smug and contented, we are allowing this nation to be transformed into a war crimes factor by the madman in the White House and the confederacy of dunces surrounding him.

"What I wish is that Americans would wake up from their television trance and realize that our government -- the people we elect -- have been acting like crypto-fascists in recent years. Bombing and starving people in small countries simply because the politicians are frustrated or need a headline to distract attention from their personal failures. We are meddling in other people's countries, bullying them, killing them, breaking international laws right and left, acting the hypocrite and being an all around jerk of a nation. The fault lies with the civilian leadership, not with the military and ultimately with us because we elect the civilian leadership.
For a self-governing people, we haven't done such a hot job in recent years."

So was Nietszche right? Yes and No. The 20th century has indeed been characterized by "catastrophic wars" and a breakdown in morality. Is God dead? Definitely no! What happened is that we've turned from the living God to worship our accomplishments - money, materialism and success, gods that can't make us a better nation or people. These gods are idols. These gods are dead.

So what kind of bridge are we building into the 21st century? Some see Kosovo as the litmus test for the New World Order in which "humanitarian intervention" means "making the world safe for the Fortune 500." If this is true and this policy prevails, we'll be building that bridge over the bodies of innocent victims and a river of blood. That's the bad news. The good news is that our stock market will soar. Which do you prefer? Which will you fight for? Even now the parade of pitiful faces of refugees on your TV screen is programming you for the next "humanitarian intervention."

Someone has said that normal people don't take madmen seriously enough. It's time we held our elected officials accountable. For starters, we could demand the truth. Amends can begin with rebuilding what we have destroyed. In Yugoslavia, for example, 10 million citizens of 27 ethnic backgrounds are suffering through a brutal winter with inadequate supplies of fuel, electricity, water, food or medicines for the sick and dying. Our president refuses to help and hampers European efforts to do so. So much for humanitarianism.

It is the hard-earned tax money of American citizens that financed the destruction of that country. Those depleted-uranium missiles and cluster bombs bore our names. Weren't our elected officials supposed to represent us the American people and not the corporate interests that finance them? If that's changed, then ours is no longer a government "of the people, by the people and for the people." President Clinton bypassed Congress and the United Nations, yet only a handful of bipartisan Congressmen protested, suing him in Federal Court for violating both the U.S. Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Resolution. Where were the headlines?
The $59 million a day spent to finance the destruction of Yugoslavia could have fed 77 million people. That campaign lasted 78 days. Calculate the total. That money could have been used to build up the poor country of Albania, thus reversing the flow of Albanians into Kosovo, which strained Yugoslavia's resources and added to Kosovar discontent. Our money could have provided modern roads, hospitals, schools, condos, even tourist resorts on the Adriatic Sea. Kosovo could have remained intact and multi-ethnic, whereas it now needs rebuilding and virtually all non-Albanians have fled. It's the heartland of their culture ad civilization, dotted by the hundreds of ancient Serb Orthodox Churches and monasteries.

Imagine what such positive humanitarian intervention could do for the world and for America's image. Think what a power for peace our great country could be. Consider the difference our money could make when used to build up instead of tear down. Now, that's the kind of humanitarian intervention I can support. That would be a "giant step for mankind." That's the kind of bridge I'd like to see us build into the 21st century. Wouldn't you?

Editor's note: Ann V. is a Sebring resident. She is a freelance writer working on her next book.