NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia evokes analogies from a century ago. The use of machine guns in the Boer War (1899-1902) for the first time in the history of mankind, as well as magazine rifles and smokeless powder, led to changes in the art of war, which predetermined the nature of the battles of the First World War. In the Balkans, the means of armed struggle, which were the prerogative of science fiction only yesterday, were used. They will lead to changes in military affairs that are incomparably deeper than 100 years ago. The wars of the coming century, including the world war, if it breaks out, according to American experts, will be a confrontation of information technology. Its methods are already being honed in regional conflicts.

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Washington. Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek called Kosovo (a military conflict. - Editor's note) a new type of war, In the XXI century, he said, "relations between peoples can no longer be based on sovereignty - they must be based on the principles of human rights," ITAR - TASS.

Chairman of the Commission on Foreign Affairs of the French Parliament, J. Lang acknowledged that " NATO is fighting Yugoslavia not only militarily, but also psychologically." The psychological warfare of NATO against the FRY has become an essential component of military operations and has become an effective means of achieving its goals. It began before the missile and bomb attacks, unfolded both at the strategic level with the involvement of all state resources, and at the operational and tactical level-with military means. The concept of "information warfare" used in the West, along with other aspects, also includes psychological operations. If we take into account that Western military analysts consider them as an integral part of military operations, we can say that this type of confrontation has gone far beyond the borders of the Balkan region and has acquired a global character. In the struggle for the carte blanche of world public opinion for aggression against a small country, the United States simultaneously rushed to a much larger goal: to force the world community to abandon the fundamental principles and values of the existing world order and approve a new one, in which the only unshakable postulate will be the "right of the strongest" - the world gendarme. This battle was launched on the global information field, so there is no country on the planet that it would avoid.

Another global information attack was launched during the anniversary celebrations of the alliance in Washington. The world was presented with a new strategic concept of NATO, which approved the "doctrine of limited sovereignty" and the right of the alliance to intervene militarily without a mandate from the UN Security Council. "Human rights" and Western - style democracy are above state sovereignty-this is NATO's ultimatum to the world community. The bombing of Yugoslavia is a precedent and "visual propaganda" for those who have not yet understood the NATO "hint".

This is not about the Kurds in Turkey, the Basques in Spain, the Irish in the UK, or the Canadian separatists, who are "out of the brackets" of the NATO formula, which gives it a particularly cynical character. Washington declared its right, with the "approval" of 18 other capitals of NATO members, to choose objects of missile and bomb "democratization", to decide the fate of peoples and states with fire and sword, rejecting their rights, sovereignty, and the opinion of the world community as insignificant formalities. And I tried to force the world to accept this ultimatum. Therefore, the importance of the information component of the alliance's aggression has gone far beyond the Balkan tragedy.

The psychological war of NATO against Yugoslavia is both an independent action and the most important component of Operation Resolute Force, which was conducted in the form of psychological operations ( PSOs)-special activities of the United States and NATO, their impact on the views, motivation, behavior of the population of the enemy country and friendly, as well as neutral states to achieve the goals of aggression. The United States was the initiator, coordinator, and lead performer of the events. The President made the decision on PSO personally, the plans were approved by the US National Security Council, and their implementation was supervised by the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs and the interagency Coordination Committee for Public Diplomacy. The United States partially coordinated the PSO plans with its European NATO allies-Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, which is confirmed by the coordination of their propaganda actions.

The fact that it was headed by the leaders of the NATO countries shows how much importance was attached to the information and propaganda support of the military action against Yugoslavia. US President B. Clinton and British Prime Minister T. Blair repeatedly addressed the public in the first hours of aggression. French President Jacques Chirac justified the actions of the North Atlantic Alliance by "protecting peace and human rights" in Kosovo. German Chancellor Georg Schroeder said that " all European and American leaders chose this operation to prevent an even greater tragedy." US Secretary of State Michael Albright did not skimp on statements.

The objects of informational and psychological influence were both the international community, the personnel of the armed forces, the population of Yugoslavia and NATO countries, and the military and political leadership of the FRY. The main efforts of the PsO focused on shaping world public opinion, creating prerequisites for manipulating it in the interests of NATO, justifying the inevitability and expediency of an armed action against a sovereign European state, demonstrating elements of the "new world order", the alliance's determination and rallying the population of NATO countries, weakening the will of the Yugoslav leadership to defend national interests, undermining the morale of the army and population of the FRY.

Significant US psychological warfare forces were deployed to the Yugoslav theater of operations. A detailed plan for the military operation was published in advance, the beginning of the bombing was announced, and official statements were distributed about the continuation and expansion of rocket and bomb attacks. The information was carefully selected and dosed. The information campaign launched in the Western media was generally aimed at neutralizing anti-NATO sentiments and raising the morale of their troops. Paradoxically, they emphasized the "humanistic" nature of the military action, which was supposed to "put an end to the ethnic conflict in Kosovo." By launching air strikes on Yugoslavia, which primarily affected civilians, NATO leaders claimed that they were directed against Milosevic, not the Yugoslav people.

The analysis allows us to identify a number of areas of PSO:

1. Intervention in international television news services, including satellite, Internet, regional state and commercial media in a number of countries. The leading position of the United States and other NATO countries in the field of television and radio communications, a huge staff of correspondents allowed them to cover events in the right way for the alliance.

2. Carrying out measures to mislead the public by providing selective, distorted and false information.

3. Exerting powerful psychological pressure on the military-political leadership, the personnel of the armed forces and the population of the FRY in order to INSPIRE!) the idea of futility of resistance to the NATO military machine, which was supported by a demonstration of the alliance's military - technical superiority. Thus, the destruction of key electric power facilities of the FRY, which led to disasters of the population, was presented as a powerful "psychological blow".

4. Carrying out a set of organizational measures, for example, increasing the number of correspondents accredited to the NATO headquarters in Brussels, for whom workplaces were equipped, cell phones were issued, etc.

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"In war, when propaganda is a weapon, manipulating pictures is a chronic problem. Some are discarded, while others are made public... In fact, the information services seem to say: here is a certain image. Decide for yourself what it means."

The New York Times

"The first victim of war is the truth,"said Stig Arne Nurstedt, a Swedish media expert and lecturer at the University of Örebro, in the Avisen newspaper. "When the United States gets involved in a conflict, it acts like a dictatorial regime. Openness is drastically reduced, and everything that is said is subordinated to the interests of waging war."

ITAR-TASS

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Here are just a few examples of how silencing the truth, distorting facts and outright lies became the aggressor's weapon. The Western media and the speeches of senior NATO officials distorted the course and results of the talks in Rambouillet (France), the situation of Albanians in Kosovo, and the actions of the Serbs. The bloc's military spokesman, Commodore D. Wilby, for example, said that the majority of Serbs "will be happy" to see alliance troops in Kosovo, because they will supposedly ensure security and respect for human rights. Even more blatant duplicity and cynicism is the direct support of the United States, with the tacit consent of Western states, for the formation of the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army", which has taken the path of separating this province from Yugoslavia. Under loud statements about human rights, the United States became the "godmother" and nurtured a powerful, armed terrorist Muslim organization, which grew stronger at the expense of funds from the mafia, criminal business, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, prostitution in a number of countries, including members of the alliance, which is fraught with dangerous consequences for Europe.

The NATO propaganda machine, blaming Milosevic for all the troubles, cleverly concealed that the roots of the humanitarian catastrophe that broke out with the beginning of the aggression were in the brutality of the alliance's bombing, which deliberately focused on vital civilian objects. At the same time, the chairman of the military committee of the North Atlantic bloc, German General K. Naumann, said that it was impossible to stop bombing, because it was "too inhumane in relation to the Kosovars." Drawing public attention to refugee camps in neighboring countries, NATO propagandists tightly closed access to information that at the same time more than a thousand refugees, including Albanians, arrived daily in Belgrade alone, which indicates the absurdity of accusing the Serbian side of ethnic cleansing.

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BELGRADE. It is difficult to find an explanation and understand the logic of the actions of NATO strategists, if there is one at all. From the first days of aggression, the two autonomous regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina have been hit with the most severe blows. The raids on the former were explained by the need to protect Albanian refugees and destroy the "repressive apparatus" of the Belgrade regime-the army and police. Vojvodina is located in the opposite, northern part of Serbia and Yugoslavia, and so far has been a perfect example of the peaceful coexistence of 26 nationalities, as noted by Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who visited there.

ITAR-TASS

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NATO's "humanists" have ruthlessly destroyed cities, cultural monuments, and the economy of the FRY - the very basis of life for the people for whose rights they allegedly fought. The victims of the bombing were civilians of various nationalities. And the alliance's propaganda claimed that "pinpoint" strikes were carried out exclusively on military targets, infrastructure facilities, and military-industrial enterprises in order to avoid casualties among the population. The death of civilians in cities, passengers of the Belgrade - Thessaloniki train, and refugee convoys near the village of Diakovica or in the village of Korisha was declared by NATO as "collateral damage", the inevitable costs of military operations. The head of the propaganda apparatus of the North Atlantic Alliance, J. R. R. Tolkien. Shea went so far as to say: "The NATO pilots who fired the deadly missiles were guided by considerations of humanity."

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"NATO bombing is breaking the backbone of the economy... The economy, already shaken by eight years of international sanctions, is falling apart. Yugoslav officials say the damage caused by NATO bombs is estimated at $ 100 billion. stamps. The bombing set Yugoslavia back 10 or even 20 years."

The Washington Post

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Since the first airstrikes, telecommunications facilities and communications infrastructure in Yugoslavia have been hit. NATO has issued an ultimatum to the FRY: if Western news channels are not allowed to broadcast at least 3 hours a day, all TV and radio stations will be destroyed. The threat was fulfilled. The goal is clear - to deprive the official authorities of the FRY of the opportunity to influence their citizens, and to fill the information vacuum with their own funds. NATO had the capacity to do so.

Western radio stations have increased the volume of broadcasting in Serbian, Albanian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian. Voice of America and Free Europe organized round-the-clock broadcasting to Yugoslavia in the VHF band using transmitters located in border states. On April 3, the anti-Serbian TV station "United Voice of NATO" was broadcast. The British Foreign Office provided transmitters to the opposition radio station B-92, which was closed by the Yugoslav authorities.

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Athens. Greek journalistic organizations expressed outrage at the NATO strike on the Serbian state television building. During a press conference held by the Association of Editors of Daily Athens Newspapers, they stressed that " the hypocrites of the West will not be able to silence people who are doing their duty." Orestis Farakos, chairman of the United Organization for Insurance and Treatment of Journalists in Greece, called the shelling of the Serbian television building a gangster attack, pointing out that NATO had delivered a terrorist attack on Golos svoboda. "This is an attempt to shut us up," Farakos said.

Hundreds of demonstrators held a demonstration against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in front of the building where the Voice of America radio station is located in the city of Xanthi in northwestern Greece. Voice of America has been using Xanthi as a hub station for decades, broadcasting from there in dozens of languages. Members of the Committee for peace of the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace protested against the fact that the radio station transmits messages in the spirit of war and conducts propaganda directed against Yugoslavia and the President of the FRY Slobodan Milosevic.

ITAR-TASS

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In the conflict area, the US Air Force's EC-130 Commando Solo aircraft were used for broadcasting radio and television programs in Serbian, as well as relaying Western news agencies to the FRY. Leaflets in Serbian and English were distributed from the planes.

The NATO leadership launched a struggle for public opinion in connection with the prolongation of the conflict. The main thesis: the alliance is not waging a war, but rather forceful pressure on Milosevic, the FRY army in order to stop operations against Kosovars. Through targeted measures, NATO sought to neutralize the media in Belgrade. Reports of the strikes focused on their "high" effectiveness, the lack of human casualties, and the "weakness" of the Yugoslav air defense system. For this purpose, a film crew of an American television company was allowed on board the B-52 bomber. Exaggerating the topic of refugees was intended to justify the bombing, to show the" cruelty " of the Serbs. Information about the loss of the population of Yugoslavia, protests of the world community was excluded.

Along with this, an anti-Russian public opinion was formed, and the role of Russia was belittled. It was groundlessly emphasized that the measures of the Russian Federation are allegedly "demonstrative" in nature. The White House advised Russia to take into account its economic situation and not to take action against NATO. The West was concerned about the growing anti-NATO sentiment in our country. Therefore, the leaders of the NATO states, rejecting Russian peace proposals, did not forget to repeat that the mediation of the Russian Federation is necessary to resolve the conflict, that the West will not abandon Russia to its fate, and is ready to provide financial assistance.

The unity of the NATO countries was demonstrated in every possible way, contradictions were hushed up, and European countries were given the role of hostages to the American policy of" forcing peace " with the help of weapons.

It should be noted that NATO managed to influence the formation of public opinion in the West in its favor, and to establish a negative image of the Yugoslav authorities in the public consciousness.

PSO activities were characterized by high intensity and massive scale, lack of templates and direct analogies with operations against Iraq. At the same time, NATO overestimated the experience of conducting information warfare events in Bosnia, when through propaganda, blackmail and demonstrations of force, they formed public opinion and obtained concessions from the Serbs. In the conflict with Yugoslavia, the results of the PSO were not so impressive.

In the NATO countries, only the official authorities unconditionally supported the military action against Yugoslavia. Many political and public organizations expressed regret over the termination of the peace talks. At the same time, the overwhelming majority agreed that this complex problem cannot be solved by force. According to one of the many surveys of American public opinion, in the United States, 46% of citizens approved of aggression against Yugoslavia, and 43% opposed it. In the UK, 73% of respondents were opposed to this action. Protest demonstrations were held in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and other countries.

The US-led alliance failed to win over the international community. The world is divided into supporters and opponents of aggression. In addition to the NATO countries, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Azerbaijan and Georgia expressed their consent to the operation. All of them expressed their readiness to send their combat and rear units to the combat area.

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MOSCOW, April 19. (ITAR - TASS)... Bill Clinton, the Russian President noted, hopes that the President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic "will capitulate, give all of Yugoslavia under the protectorate of the United States." We will not allow this. The Balkans are a strategic place, very responsible, " the Russian President said.

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In addition to Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Namibia and Libya condemned NATO aggression. Among the CIS countries, the same opinion was expressed by Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia.

The NATO aggression against Yugoslavia was a natural continuation of the American policy in the Balkans, declared a " zone of vital interests of the United States." "Nonviolent" methods of information warfare have become no less odious instruments of aggression than military power itself. The goals of US and NATO psychological operations are not limited to achieving victory in the conflict with Yugoslavia. The Balkans are only an intermediate stage in their struggle for a "new world order" with all countries subordinated to the world gendarme. For this purpose, a psychological war was launched, which became global and global in nature.