Operation Noble Anvil

24 years ago, on this day, bombing of my country started. I wrote about it last year as well, but I will probably write about it every year, as it was something that would impact our lives forever, and no one here will ever forget it. Yugoslavia was bombarded by NATO, and it lasted for 78 days (2 months, 2 weeks, 3 days). Around 2500 souls lost, among them, around 89 were children. Material damage was huge, but it is nothing compared to lost lives, and also permanent damage that will affect everyone here for ages. In 2015, Serbia was first in Europe in terms of mortality from malignant tumors. The increase in deaths and diseased happened after bombing, and it was most likely caused by 15 tons of depleted uranium that NATO threw at us. Real consequences and all the damage will probably never be known.

The operation was officially called "Operation Allied Force", but in SAD army it was also known as "Operation Noble Anvil", here it was mostly called "Merciful Angel". "Bombs for peace" and "Bringing Serbs to hell - A massive bombing attack opens the door to peace" is probably how they tried to justify illegal bombing, because it started without the approval of the UN Security Council. And as you can see, it was pretty much us against the world.

"conflicted sides" - source: Wikipedia - https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%90%D0%A2%D0%9E_%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%9A%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D0%A0%D0%88

Although I was little, and didn't understand many things at the time, I do remember some things, and I was told many stories about it. What I will never forget, for sure, is the sound of sirens that warn everyone about attacks. I can't even imagine how was it living here in those days, in constant fear for your life and the lives of your family and friends. There were even some bombs thrown relatively near my house, because my home is near the place that they were aiming for. They wanted to destroy economics and infrastructure, and they made approximately 100 billions dollars damage. General stuff building in Belgrade was destroyed, and it stayed that way to this day, as a reminder of what happened.

With this article I want to make awareness, that there were other wars, and there still are other wars after World War II, many people don't live in peace that we all deserve. It is heartbreaking that in the 21st century, this is still the way that people solve conflicts. So if you pray for peace, pray for peace for everyone and everywhere. There are no winners in the war. Everyone only loses.

Thank you for making time to read my article. Appreciate it.

**Image includes in this article is screenshot of statistics from Wikipedia (source link available). Lead image in this article is taken from Unslpash.com