[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: On the Serb protests

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
On the Serb protests
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1203736248.shtml


   Christopher Hitchens in [1]Slate:

     It is very important to remember that Slobodan Milosevic launched
     his own petty and violent career, as the head of a Serb-Montenegrin
     crime family, precisely by canceling Kosovo's pre-existing autonomy
     in 1990, remaking himself as a nationalist demagogue instead of a
     Communist one, and bringing in the roof of the Yugoslav federation.

     You will by now have read dark remarks made by partisans of the
     Russian and Serb Orthodox viewpoint, to the effect that if one
     "secession" is allowed, then what is to prevent every Gypsy or
     Chechen or Ossetian from proclaiming their own statelet? You
     should, first, ask if the Bosnian Serbs ought not to have thought
     of this first and been better advised by the "realist" or Kissinger
     school that now weeps such hypocritical tears. You should, second,
     ask if you know of any case comparable to the Kosovo one, where a
     national minority was so long imprisoned within an artificial
     state.

     Of course, one ought to acknowledge that this is a calamity for the
     Serbs and indeed an injustice in the sense of an insult to their
     pride and history. But the injustice was self-inflicted.

   Alessio Vinci in CNN [2]"Serb protests echo Milosevic era"

     The melancholic Serb music, the firebrand speeches and the flags
     gave the sense of a nation at odds with the rest of the world, a
     victim of an incredible injustice.

     It was very much a gathering aimed at showing Serb unity, but the
     nationalist element was very much present.

     Tomislav Nikolic, the ultranationalist leader who narrowly lost a
     presidential election a few weeks ago was there. And so was Vojslav
     Kostunica, the Serbian prime minister, who led anti-Milosevic
     demonstrations in 2000 without ever being a big fan of the West.
     "For as long as we live, Kosovo will be in Serbia!" he told the
     crowd. These could have been Milosevic's words of a decade ago.

     The Serbian government organized the rally to show the world Serb
     indignation and anger at Kosovo's unilateral declaration of
     independence. People arrived from all over Serbia also thanks to
     free transport, including trains and buses.

     Serb officials have been consistent in saying that they will
     challenge Kosovo's independence politically and diplomatically, and
     ruled out any use of force.

     But images of the burning U.S. Embassy in Belgrade are making that
     effort, already pretty much a lost cause, much harder. Indeed
     Serbia's pro-West president Boris Tadic reacted saying that
     violence is putting Kosovo further away from Serbia, not closer.

     Yet one cannot ignore the inadequate security that Serb officials
     put in place to protect sensitive sites at a time of high tension
     and passion. On Sunday, hours after Kosovo declared independence,
     Serb riot police fought pitch battles with thugs and violent
     demonstrators outside the U.S. compound as they tried to storm it a
     first time.

     Where were they Thursday night?..

   Alan Sullivan at [3]Fresh Bilge:

     The US Embassy in Belgrade has been sacked by an angry mob. The
     building was unoccupied at the time; our courageous diplomats had
     already fled. Embassies used to be regarded as sovereign territory
     of nations that set them up. The US has shown little interest in
     defending this principle in recent decades, so it gets easier and
     easier for such outrages to occur.

     Of course, the Kosovo border should have been redrawn before the
     independence declaration. Now thereâs no telling what will happen.
     It is well to remember where World War One began.

   Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. - [4]BUSH ADMINISTRATION UNITES WITH AL QAEDA
   IN KOSOVO

     The turmoil in Kosovo began in 1989 when Slovodan Milosevic,
     president of Serbia and the Free Republic of Yugoslavia, set out to
     create a greater Serbia by annexing Kosovo. When the Kosovo
     assembly approved this measure, ethnic Albanians (the sanitized way
     of saying native Muslims) rebelled. In 1990 Milosevic dispatched
     troops into Kosovo to squelch the rebellion and restore order. In
     1992, the ethnic Albanians responded to this military measure by
     establishing their own government in Kosovo - - the Republic of
     Kosovo - - with self proclaimed pacifist Ibrahim Rugova as its
     president.

     With two governments in one tiny country, the situation quickly
     became downright ugly. In 1993 Milosevic ordered the arrest of
     thirty ethnic Albanians for planning an armed uprising. In 1995 a
     Serbian court sentenced sixty-eight members of Rugova's government
     to prison for setting up a parallel police force. ..

     To aid in the struggle for independence, the ethnic Albanians
     turned to Osama bin Laden and the mujahadeen. Muslim warriors from
     Chechnya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia traveled in droves to Kosovo. By
     1995 more than sixty thousand holy warriors, including members of
     al Qaeda, had made their way to the Balkans to prepare for the
     struggle against Milosevic and the Christian Serbs.

   So, if the ethnic Albanians "provoked" the Serbs, then why did the
   Milosevic's JNA and militia forces use their military superiority to
   [5]trash Croatia? And why did the Croatians respond by trashing the
   Serbs, killing 14,000 Serb civilians, looting Serb property, and
   killing and mutilating Serb civilians?

   What would have happened if American and the international community
   had done nothing? How far would the fighting have spread?

   Muslim terrorism/fascism is a threat because theyâre fighting us with
   the equivalent of bearskins and knives, yet they manage to terrify
   millions. Theyâve only gotten as far as they have because so very few
   people want to fight them. This terrorism and fascism is also a threat
   because it may provoke a European reaction. When Europeans decide to
   fight, they tend to vote for groups that, to most American eyes, look
   fairly fascist.

   When Europeans put their minds to it, they have a history of being
   more aggressive than any other culture on earth. When the Euros get
   their game going, more often than not, the Balkans tend to be at the
   epicenter of the worst of it. That may be one reason why we originally
   felt the need to intervene.

   While the majority of American conservatives do not lean towards
   fascism, for some reason that I can't begin to fathom, some previously
   reasonable American conservatives are leaning towards the idea that
   the best way to fight Islamist-fascism is to ally with Eurofascism.

   In the comment's section at AtlasShrugs, a [6]supporter of the Serbian
   point of view said:

     What would you do if someone from another country came to your
     home...tossed you out, placed soldiers in your backyard to keep you
     from your home.........and then gave your home and all your
     belongings to a terrorist group based thousands of mile away? Would
     you merely accept it? Would you consider those who stole your land
     to be friends? "YOU ARE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US!!"

   I responded:

     Yeah cry me a river. This is the old whiny bully routine - hit me
     in face, then cry about how victimized you are. It the old sad song
     that terrorists like the Palestinians and their Islamist supporters
     have been playing so well.

   So who am I WITH or AGAINST? I'm against the whiny bullies.

References

   1. http://www.slate.com/id/2184997/pagenum/all/#page_start
   2. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/22/serbia.demos/
   3. http://www.seablogger.com/?p=10093#more-10093
   4. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/02/exclusive-paul.html
   5. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/yugo-hist4.htm
   6. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/02/exclusive-paul.html#comments