Bleeding Serbia
I have just returned from Serbia, where I presented a paper at a conference on the Kosovo question. I left only a day before the election and had the opportunity to get some idea of public opinion.
For the Serbs, the issue was and is and will be, so long as there are Serbs, Kosovo. At the DSS rally in Trg Republike (Square of the Republic) on May 9th, Prime Minister Kostunica’s supporters were sporting t-shirts declaring “Kosovo je Serbija” (Kosovo is Serbia), but Belgrade is home territory to the Europhile young professionals who would like nothing better than to forget the past, forget their defeat in 1389, forget five centuries of Turkish oppression, forget the genocide inflicted on their people living in Croatia and Bosnia during the first independent state of Croatia during the 1940’s, forget the dirty part played by the US in supporting Slavic Muslims in Bosnia and terrorist Albanian Muslims in Kosovo.
On a brief joint down to Kosovo, my colleagues (Srdja Trifkovic, Doug Bandow, Jim Jatras, Sunil Ram, and Raphael Israeli) and I visited Bishop Artemije at the crudely restored Banjska Monastery (destroyed by the Muslims ages ago). He was leaving for the beautiful monastery of Gracanica and had to have an armed guard provided by UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo). The small detail of “soldiers” included Danes and Turks. “They’re back,” quipped one of the Americans.” The soldiers attempted a few pleasantries, but I could not be polite. In themselves, they may be as innocent as a virtuous guard in Auschwitz, but I cannot help hating everything they represent: A global empire that is willing to sacrifice Christians to the savagery of Muslim Albanian narco-terrorists whom John McCain armed.
When the Democrats accuse John McCain of wanting to continue the failed policies of the Bush administration, they are wide of the mark. George Bush, before taking office, represented himself as a fiscal conservative and a non-interventionist. McCain has always been not only a tax-and-spend leftist but a quick-on-the trigger cowboy looking for any excuse to send Americans into battle. Today Iraq, tomorrow Iran, next week Serbia and Russia. When he is elected, many of his supporters will dream of those golden years of Bush when moderates (by comparison) like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were running our wars.
Raphi Israeli is an Israeli, and he cannot help advising Bishop Artemije to imitate Israel’s example. Why not begin planting colonies of Serbs within the Serb-dominated “northern triangle” of Kosovo and then begin to expand the borders of the Serbian pockets? In fact, as he knows too well, it has been the Albanians who have been expanding. Even on the Serbian side of Mitrovica, on the northern bank of the Ibar River, the Albanians (with international help, naturally) are building housing complexes that will some day surround the Serbs and make it impossible for them to defend themselves. Our tax-dollars at work.
In the days leading up to the election on May 11, observers are predicting a significant win for the Radical Party led by Toma Nikolic. If the Radicals could form a government, they would quickly proceed to reject the offers of the EU and embrace Russia in a close alliance. Many Serbs who watched on television the military display in Moscow on the anniversary of their victory in WWII must have been wondering how and when the Russians could flex some of their restored military muscle on behalf of Kosovo Serbs. In the event, the Radicals’ vote was a disappointing second place to the Westernizing Democratic Party led by Boris Tadic. The Western press reported the election results as a glorious victory for Tadic and a final rejection of Serb nationalism, but it is a little more complicated than that.
Tadic’s Democrats were, indeed, the big winner, gaining 102 seats in parliament, while Nikolic’s Radicals are expected to have only 78. But, since Nikolic campaigned in a quasi-coalition with Kostunica, whose party will hold 30, the “nationalists” will have 108 seats as opposed to Tadic’s 102. The balance of power is held by the Socialists, Milosevic’s old party, whose 20 seats would give either side a victory. The Socialists have grudges against both Kostunica and Tadic, who were in the coalition that ousted Milosevic, but the Radicals have present fewer problems. Their party’s real leader, Vojislav Seselj, joined Milosevic’s government and is being tried at the infamous Hague Tribunal. The Socialists, it is certainly true, have tried to distance themselves from Milosevic’s “nationalism,” but to serve under a party that illegally arrested their leader and sent him to the Hague should be a pill too bitter for men to swallow.
We shall see. In conversations with former members of Milosevic’s government, I could detect little affection for Kostunica and scant respect for Nikolic. On the other hand, they were dead set against capitulation to the US, which is what a Tadic government, whatever lies they might tell the voters, will represent. In fact, not all the Serbs who voted for Tadic believed they were casting a vote for surrender. Several younger Belgraders I spoke with believe Tadic when he insists he will never give up Serbia’s claim to Kosovo—though it is hard to believe he will do anything to assert such a claim—and many of them found the Radicals’ nationalist rhetoric far too extreme. In a meeting with Radical leaders I had a year or so ago, they seemed quite charming. Though it might have made sense for them to moderate the virulence of their anti-Catholic rhetoric in the presence of two Catholic journalists, I found their candor, as they say, refreshing. Tadic is already claiming that as president he will prevent any attempt to include that Radicals. This is not only a threat but a clearly illegal threat at that.
The students I spoke with also said they were disappointed in Kostunica’s leadership. When I suggested that a Nikolic-Kostunica coalition would provide both a strong executive and judicious moderation, they agreed. They probably still voted for Tadic, but the cleavage is not so clear-cut as the media is claiming.
George Soros and George Bush would both like us to believe that the future of Kosovo as an Albanian state is absolutely certain. By some mystic and irreversible law, US satellites are a fixed star in the political galaxy and, in the decades to come, the US will expand its sphere of influence first over the globe and then over the entire universe. As any student of history knows, this rhetoric of universal empire is only the usual self-serving myth put forward by failing empires. No human institution is immortal and in the history of nations, there are no certainties.
Serbs today should not make the mistake of thinking that American politicians and the media represent the entire county. The United States is not a unified nation with a common will. In addition to the usual distinctions of race, region, and religion, we are divided by ideology between an anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Western elite class that panders to racial minorities and uses multi-culturalism as a weapon to destroy our heritage, and a naïve and patriotic majority that would gladly support the Serbs in their struggle with Islamic neighbors, if only they were properly informed. They are willing to hold their nose and vote for John McCain, a decidedly modest attainments and integrity, because of his war record and his lip-service support for the so-called “War against Terrorism,” a “war” that includes support for Islamic terrorists in Bosnia and Kosovo, as long as their friends in America come up with the cash.
The unfortunate truth is that in the Balkans, the two sides of the divided America come together. The anti-American left hates the Serbs as a patriotic people who cling to their traditions and cherish the memory of their defeat in 1389. The simple equation is that Serbs equal Confederate Southerners who equal Nazis. Every manufactured report about so-called “mass graves” is a reflection of this propaganda. On the other hand, patriotic Americans, once they have been indoctrinated into the idea that Serbs are the enemy of the US, are even more eager to go to war to punish the enemies of their country. Since American education has made sure that not one American in 20 knows that Belgrade is the capital of Serbia, much less that Kosovo is part of the Serbian heartland, one can hardly blame such ignorant people for believing the lies concocted in the media.
This brings us to the central in Serbia’s relations with the United States. While patriotic Christians in the US might some day wake up to realize they have been backing the wrong side in the Balkans, the multi-culturalist left will always hate any Serb who refuses to hate himself and his country. In other words, the agenda of the “Open Society” Foundation and other multi-culturalist groups in Serbia is a program for suicide. As difficult as the task may seem, Serbian leaders must attempt to arrive at a common understanding with Americans who fear Islamic Jihad and can be made to understand that the Serbs are, once again, a bulwark against the Islamic hordes who threaten our civilization.
I presented these remarks as part of a paper given in Belgrade, and they will be incorporated into my next Perspective in Chronicles. By then, we shall know if the Serbs have made the right choice.
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"Serbs aren’t the only ones facing similar problems."
Should read as: Serbs aren't alone when it comes to being misrepresented in a good portion of American mass media, academia and body politic.
Kosovo is a SERBIAN GHETTO, created and designed for Serbs there and wider, in order to teach them an expensive lesson not to rebel and defy the US creepy and moronic politicians. As well as pro nazi European idiots.
Anyone who ever stepped on the Kosovo's soil will immediately notice a military presence of an unimaginable proprotion, EVERYTHING DIRECTED TOWARD THE SERBS, and the soldiers who have been preserving and promoting mafia like style of an Albanian ruling ELITE, ALBANIAN TERRORIST WHO HAVE BEEN SMUGGLING HUMAN ORGANS OF SERBS FOR YEARS IN FRONT OF THE WEARY UN CREEPS, church and other historical monuments arsonist, SCUMBAGS OF THE WORST KIND OF A HUMANS WHOM ONE NEVER CAN EXPECT TO LIVE AND ABIDE BY THE LAWS OF A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES.
MODERN SERBIA should strive to build and promote the closest possible ties with one country ONLY: I S R A E L!!! The rest, such as European Union, Russia should be put on a backburner for the time being, since the preserving and enhancing one's national identity becomes a priority numero UNO for every (un)civilized society.
Why Israel? What good has it done to anybody?
Re#55
Just try to take a piece of a land from Israel , LIKE KOSOVO FROM SERBIA, and in no time you would feel ferocity and decisevness of their, Israeli, Army. THEY WOULD SQUASH THEM AND PUMMEL THEM TO EXHUASTION, SO NO ONE WOULD DARE TO DREAM OF GREAT ALBANIA and independent Kosovo. Furthermore, there wouldn't be place for Bin Laden pupils and scavengers who freely roam on a Kosovo plain, teaching and terrorizing and exciting islamic fundamentalists and stirring up medivial hatred and evil. They would have been ALL gone in a matter of a day.
Finally, Serbian generals would most likely benefit the most from Israeli counterparts and that is: You fight and defend and if necessary give your life for your patria.
@56Zika
The global jewish community helped the KLA get establish in Kosovo. They used there immense power in media, government and political contributions to get the US to invade Iraq so they could easily have lobbied the president not to recognize Kosovo. Zionist politicians like Tom Lantos, Richard Holbrooke and international financier Zionist George Soros fully promoted and backed the KLA and there independent state.
"If you desire your clash of 'civilizations' against the Muslims, please leave Serbs out if it as we are not racists."
Someone should explain to the half-baked retard who posted #47 that "Muslim" is not a race.
G.S.
You are a bit harsh.
A smart fellow like you should be able to easily substitute ''we are not racists' with 'we don't discriminate' and get the poster's intended meaning.
What is it you find disagreeable with that statement?
I've been bested, I admit it.
The one-two punch of
1) Suggesting that conflating race with religion is a minor mistake
and
2) Suggesting that it is not the writer's obligation to think about the words he uses but rather the reader's obligation to decipher them
has left me paralyzed with astonishment.
The "retard" that I am I can still help other well meaning retards with definitions of basic terms, if that can be of any help to them to grasp simple things.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination:
the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
G S
THe subsequent post proves your point, it seems
Perhaps Dr. Fleming is correct in that 'plants' are trying yet again to disrupt a good discussion. Speaking as a Serbian-American who frequents this site, knows Tom Fleming personally, and who also has read his aforementioned Belgrade presentation in full, allow me to assure Dr. Fleming that largely every Serb familiar with his work (going back to his many articles as well as his book 'Montenegro') is well aware of his deep knowledge of our culture, his sound and balanced advice given over the years, and his deep friendship with individual Serbs and sympathy for Serbia overall. It astounds me that anyone would attack him as if he were the leader of some marxist NGO rather than a longtime friend of our people at home and in the diaspora. Dr. Fleming, thank you once again for your ongoing efforts to help our people in what are difficult times for Serbia.
Sirivanhoe98,
Yes... and no worries, perhaps you're right, I should be more charitable.
It's extremely difficult at times though, as you can see.
"race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin ..."
Religion! Religion! Islam is a religion, you brainless twit!
Sorry.
Mr. Jokic I'm somehow not surprised you know the United Nations definition of "racism".I confess I don't know it nor give a damn to know it. I don't know the EU or Nato's definition,either,except it apparently doesn't include racism against Serbs.The vast majority of Serbs do not despise themselves or hate themselves as pitiful you do.I know a visa to the U.S. is more valuable to you than Kosovo.Fine.But don't play the race card against my fellow American Tom Fleming.If that's what you think being a real American is,get lost,go back to Serbia and find a real identity.
This is trully an outstanding article. Thank you Dr. Flemming!!!
Furthermore, all of you who visited and witnessed and saw a Serbian ghetto IN THE HEART OF EUROPE, that is an 'independent' land of Kosovo, should be given the HIGHEST HONORS and MEDALS FOR BRAVERY by the Serbian Parliament!!! You are de facto, more effectively, spreading the words of an injustice, suffering and terrorizing done onto Serbs there than any TOP ELECTED SERBIAN POLITICIAN !!!
Thank you Dr. Fleming!!!
This is an outstanding article. What I am worried about is the possible McCain victory in the US election. However, I don't quite understand why should he militarily engage Serbia again?
I am of the firmest possible opinion that Serbia MUST take an immediate legal action before the ICJ and prove that the Kosovo independence is illegal in international law. Such a decision by the World Court would be the protector of Serbia against onsloughts of any kind.
Tadic did not want to bring actions against states which illegally recognized the illegal declaration of independece/secession of Kosovo, although he promised to do so in the presidential election. Had he sued, he would not have the problems he is facing now because the support for him would go up enabling him to form a Government. He was not wise to realize that, but then again, his defense of Kosovo seems to be a pure rethoric.
So, I belive the LEGAL ACTION NOW campaign is the key. Serbia must have the ICJ judgment in her favour.
Goran
>>>However, I don’t quite understand why should he militarily engage Serbia again?
Because he can.
Because war is an integral tool of US foreign policy.
Because almost every president since end of WW2 has been at war somehere during his term in office. He will be no different.
I hold higher hopes of Osama, but even he might get rolled by the military machine within Pentagon.
As an aside, US declared war on Spain in 1898 because according to one congressman "America needs a war". Luckily for both sides, Spain sued for peace after about a week of fighting, but only after its fleet was decimated off the coast of Florida.
It appears a congressman's mindset has not eveloved much since 1898.
We received information on the three-party coalition being formed by Kostunica's DSS, the Radicals, and the Socialists. Information is available on the DSS website, both in Serbian and English: http://www.dss.org.yu/
Just wanted to voice my support for Dr. Fleming, and to note that the 'serbs' bashing him are undoubtedly DS voters. That's really all you need to know about them.
As I feared. Obama's approach to foreign policy might turn out to be the same as McCain's.
This is an excerpt from a pamphlet published in 1996, Into the Bosnian Quagmire: The Case Against U.S. Intervention in the Balkans. We republish it now, in successive installments, because the rise of Barack Obama as the putative Democratic presidential candidate augurs the rise of a new liberal internationalism – the very same sort of policy that led us to bomb Belgrade, one of the oldest cities in Europe, and paved the way for the establishment of the gangster state known as Kosovo.
The great historian Charles Austin Beard aptly summed up American foreign policy since World War II as "perpetual war for perpetual peace." It is a policy, upheld by both parties and by the elites, that has reached its tragic climax in the U.S./NATO occupation of Bosnia.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12874
One more vote for Dr. Fleming
, belatedly, though. However (to my fellow Serbs), I wouldn't be so light-heartedly categorical in dismissing Peter RV's observations whatsoever. I do find his accusations against Dr. Fleming misdirected and there's no argue about that. But RV's anger toward the annoying hypocrisy (and sheer sadism, one might add!) of the Western official agenda toward Serbs is jut a logical and natural expression of a feeling that every self-respecting Serbian shares with him during this two-decade period of a relentless Serb-bashing in western media and by the western policies, unseen since the Nazi occupation of Serbia and Serbs in the Balkans an general. Plus, the current Western attitude toward Serbia ad serbian element in the Balkans, seem to resemble too frighteningly to the Nazi policies of "punishing the Serbs". Even the maps of increasingly de-Serbicized Balkans look EXACTLY as the Nazi ones from the early 1940's. One doesn't have to be a Serbian nationalist to see that, it's all just too obvious.
I thank Boyan K for his remarks and agree entirely with his rejection of Western hypocrisy. What troubled me about RV and one other Serb who wrote in to this website (and others) was not that they attacked me on false grounds but that the absurdity of their allegations tended to make Serbs look like complete idiots. For the record, I find Njegos very hard going in Serbian, but I have blundered my way through "The Mountain Wreath" as well as some of the works of his predecessor, Saint Petar.
Thanks, Dr. Fleming! As far as your Serbian is concerned, I'm glad for an opportunity to testify its excellence as a first-hand witness, having had a pleasure of attending a conference in Serbia, a couple of years back, where you have held the WHOLE your lecture in flawless Serbian. As for Njegos, yes, apart from the archaic form of his verses, the classics, apparently, share the same status within the most of modern languages. We seem to be living in the times when only the experts are willing to dedicate their time and understanding not only to Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Puskin, Njegos... but to most of the contemporaries as well.