On this day in 1999, the first NATO airstrikes of Yugoslavia began, initiating a wave of violence that killed 1,500 people, damaging hospitals, schools, cultural monuments, and private businesses alongside military targets. The bombings lasted until June 10th of that year.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) bombing campaign was its first military action taken without the endorsement of the U.N. Security Council. James Byron Bissett, former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia, called the campaign a "war crime", and Noam Chomsky referred to it as an act of "terrorism".

Supporters for the campaign claimed the bombing was necessary to stop a genocide of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and to remove Slobodan Milošević from power, although claims made by the Clinton administration along these lines were later found to be highly exaggerated.

Approximately 500 of the people killed were civilians, and the bombs damaged many civilian structures alongside legitimate military targets. Chomsky has argued that the main objective of the NATO intervention was to integrate Yugoslavia into the Western neoliberal social and economic system.

In 2000, Michael Parenti authored "To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia", which argues that the bombing was predicated on capitalist rather than humanitarian interests.

A Review of NATO’s War over Kosovo - Noam Chomsky :chompsky:

Michael Parenti - To Kill A Nation :parenti-hands:

The Srebrenica Precedent :amerikkka:

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