The U.S. has attacked the nation of Yugoslavia in order to force it to accept its solution to the regional dispute concerning the destiny of the province known as Kosovo. NATO is being used as an international umbrella for U.S. activities in order to make the action appear as if it were being pursued on the basis of the consensus of a large number of nations. In reality, it is U.S. cruise missiles and U.S. aircraft that are carrying out the bombing missions over Yugoslavia. The United States is acting in the role of the "lone super-power", i.e., the U.S. is exercising its considerable military muscle against another nation to force its will on that nation. Initially the air campaign was initiated to force President Milosevic to accept foreign troops in Kosovo. This was intended to lead to the establishment of an independent state in Kosovo. As a result of the initiation of the bombing, Yugoslavian forces attacked the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. They have eliminated the Kosovo Liberation Army and have effectively deported a large segment of Kosovo's Moslem population. Now the rational for U.S. action is to somehow assist the refugees in regaining their former (pre-bombing) status in Kosovo.

The Issue in Kosovo 
The Balkans represent the effective border of Moslem penetration into Europe. As a result of religious differences, the various peoples have struggled for hundreds of years. The present struggle is between the Serbians who are Orthodox Christians and the Kosovo Albanians who are Moslems. Possession of Kosovo has changed from time to time throughout the centuries depending upon who was victorious in war. 

In Kosovo there are two national movements based on religious differences which claim the same land. It is very difficult to tell who is right and who is wrong. In spite of the  vilification of the Serbians by the U.S. administration -- which is parroted by the U.S. media -- the Moslems have their own history of atrocities. Therefore, with nothing but the gauge of human suffering, right or wrong will depend upon who is making the determination. 

Typically, the U.S. would have used the U.N. as the covering umbrella. However, that was impossible in Kosovo because Russia, who has absolute veto power in the Security Council, would not permit U.N. authorization of an attack on their natural allies. Therefore, it was necessary to use NATO as the international umbrella organization even though that necessitated a perversion of the original purpose of NATO. 

The U.S. administration may have any number of objectives in Kosovo but the most obvious is that of demonstrating to the Moslem nations U.S. resolve to protect the rights of Moslems around the world. Moslem nations control a lion's share of the world's oil reserves. A continual flow of that oil to the industrial West is absolutely necessary if the West is to maintain its dynamic industrial production and booming economy. The Moslem nations demonstrated their willingness to interrupt that supply of oil in the aftermath of the "Yom Kippur War" in 1973. Many have questioned why the U.S. intervened in Kosovo when it makes no effort to intervene in other situations across the world, situations which represent greater humanistic crises than the one in Kosovo. The answer is simple. The U.S. will  intervene if Moslems are vulnerable to attack from others. 

The media is delighted to transmit a continuing flow of pictures which portray the great suffering being experienced by the Moslems. They have heart-stirring stories for the evening news. For the most part, the media neither questions the motives of the administration nor the possibility of Moslem atrocities in the past. The laziness of the media renders then an effective instrument of the administration's campaign. 

Future Events in Israel 
An almost identical situation is developing in Israel as that in Kosovo. Sometime later this year, Yasser Arafat will declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. As in Kosovo, the dispute over the land of Israel is based on ancient claims of ownership of the land. The basis of the division is religious. The Palestinians are predominately Moslem, while the Israelis are Jewish. Again, we have two separate national movements claiming the same territory. 

Eventually, the declaration of a Palestinian state will lead to open warfare with Israel. When this happens, it will become a humanitarian nightmare. Almost certainly, the Palestinian Moslems will be on the short end of the stick. They will suffer greatly. The coming conflict may even lead to the expulsion of large numbers of Palestinians from Israel. The U.S. will be compelled to act to protect the Moslems for just the same reasons as it has in Kosovo, i.e., to insure the continued flow of oil. In the case of Israel, the U.S. will act through the U.N. because there will be no threat of a veto by any of the permanent members of the Security Council. Again, the media will pour out miles of video of the human suffering without questioning what is really happening and why it is happening. 

If the competing claims to the land of Israel is seen on the basis of pure humanitarian considerations, it will appear like the parallel claims in Kosovo. The world will not distinguish between the two situations. However, for the Bible believer, there is a great difference. In the case of the Land of Israel there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong. God declared millennia ago that He alone would regather His people to the land of Israel. We have witnessed this fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the 20th century. Therefore, viewed from a Biblical perspective, Israel alone has a legitimate claim to the land. The situation where Israeli people possess the land of Israel is holy by Biblical definition. 

Coming Armageddon 
The situation occurring in Kosovo may serve to embolden those government leaders who now are intervening in Yugoslavia. Republicans are as likely to pursue such a policy as Democrats. The U.S. public is being conditioned to the notion that the U.S. has the right and, indeed, the responsibility to intervene in situations in other sovereign nations wherever necessary to prevent human suffering. Few, if any, are asking where this nation obtained such a right or responsibility. The developing situation sounds alarmingly like that predicted by the Hebrew prophets Joel and Zechariah (Joel 3:1-2; Zechariah 12:1-3). Are we being conditioned for Armageddon? As believers we must be prepared.