Kosovo as a Symbol of Anti-Postmodernism
by Srdja Trifkovic
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A nation’s cultural space is marked by its spiritual fruits and not by the frontier posts. It is possible to maintain a cultural space devoid of territory (the Jews). It is also possible to lose that space under the auspices of an ostensibly functioning state—and nominally still a nation-state at that!—as is happening in today’s Western Europe. The Serbs are currently facing an ongoing reduction of their physical space to the point where the reliquiae reliquiarum of their demographically exhausted state will comprise only those lands on which nobody else can establish any kind of claim. They are also facing a simultaneous Western demand to accept and absorb postmodern cultural matrices in order to prove their fitness for the allegedly desirable political and economic integration into “Europe”—which is constantly used as misleading shorthand for the European Union.
The upholders of postmodernia see continued existence of a distinctly Serb cultural space, based on pre-modern assumptions and sensibility, as an unpardonable anachronism and a source of potential future contagion in those lands (Germany, Sweden, or Holland, for instance) where the grand Gleichschaltung has been completed. No defiant village that remembers old songs and myths, that remembers ancestors and celebrates old battles, is allowed to remain in the shadow of Euro-legions.
In the meantime, Europe of the old EU “core” is rapidly morphing into the cultural wasteland in which historical amnesia and esthetic relativism are promoted to the detriment of creativity: there is no French writer worth reading today, no Dutch painter worth sponsoring, no German composer worth hearing. If the process is so far advanced in those countries that used to define “the West” or “Europe,” the promoters of the Frankfurtian Long March rightly hope that Serbia, too, will relent and replace her obsolete and oh-so-dangerous mythical consciousness with a new, global one. They claim that only by discarding the burden of their mythologized history, and the illusion that they are in any way special—except, perhaps, in the magnitude of their crimes— can the Serbs become “normal” and cease to be a danger to their neighbors and to themselves. Only de-Serbianized can they embark on the road to “Euro-Atlantic integrations” and “start living like all other normal people.”
Blissfully unaware of the cultural tectonic shift that has taken place in “the West,” many Serbian political leaders, analysts and institutions in their contacts with the Western elite class keep invoking four sets of arguments in support of their position that Kosovo ought to remain part of Serbia:
1. Historical: Kosovo was the heartland of the Serbian medieval state;
2. Cultural: in Kosovo there are many priceless monuments of Serbian art and architecture that define Serbia’s contribution to the common European heritage;
3. Spiritual: Kosovo is “Serbia’s Jerusalem”;
4. Civilizational: Kosovo should not fall to the insurgent jihad.
The irony of the Serbian predicament is that they still imagine they are talking to the Westerners of another era, the era that had produced Nixon and Reagan, de Gaulle and Mitterand, Adenauer and Schmidt, Rebecca West and Alfred Sherman . . . and others of the generation born between, roughly, in the quarter-century before 1920, with whom such arguments could be reasonably expected to resonate.
The problem is that they are all dead, and have been replaced in the positions of political and cultural influence by the new, post-modern breed of Westerner. He is distinguished from his predecessor exactly by rejecting the value and importance of the historical, cultural, spiritual, and civilizational legacy of our common civilization.
These new ruling elites of Western Europe and North America have nurtured a number of fatal weaknesses in their own societies, including both the primary cause—which is the loss of Christian faith—and a number of secondary ones, including hostility to all forms of solidarity of the ethnically European and traditionally Christian communities based on their common ancestry and culture; the loss of a sense of place and history; rapid demographic decline, probably irreversible and unparalleled in history; rampant Third World immigration, especially from the Islamic world; imposition of “diversity,” “multiculturalism” and “sensitivity” that promotes alien cultures and lifestyles to the detriment of traditional European, Christian models; and last but by no means least, demonization and criminalization of any opposition to the above.
To the postmodern Western mindset, those who argue that they should be entitled to keep a land because they have a centuries-long historical bond to it, because their ancestors had built lovely Christian churches in it, because its heritage underpins their moral code and spirituality based on Christian martyrdom, and because they are defending themselves against an aggressive and resurgent Islam . . . anyone who makes those argument is unconsciously arguing—in the eyes of the new elite—in favor of having that territory taken away. The Serbs’ arguments—especially when presented eloquently and logically—only prove that Kosovo and Metohija must be detached from Serbia permanently as that is the only way to cure Serbia from such unhealthy, “un-European” atavisms. Whatever is said to support the historical, cultural, spiritual and civilizational right of Serbia to Kosovo is received among the Western elite class as yet further proof why Kosovo must be given to the Albanians, who, by virtue of being overwhelmingly Muslim (of the allegedly “moderate” variety) are perceived as perfectly natural allies of the Western elite class.
To explore the self-hate and the related Islamophilia of the Western elite class there is no need to dwell on the hypocrisy and outright criminality of the Western policy in Kosovo, Bosnia, Chechnya, Cyprus, and other hotspots where Islam confronts traditionally Christian communities. Let us look instead at the manifestations of the Western elite class’s pathology in their own countries, or—to be more precise—in the countries over which they rule but to which they no longer feel any natural bond of kinship and obligation.
The present technological, cultural and financial strength of Europe is a façade that conceals an underlying moral and demographic weakness. Its dynamics have the potential to eventually destroy Europe before this century is over. The symptoms of the malaise go hand-in-hand with the expansion of the European Union, a transnational hyper-state that replicates, within Europe, the elite mindset prevalent in the United States.
Europe’s demographic self-annihilation is a phenomenon of world-historical proportions. The collective death wish, epitomized by the Pill, abortion, deviant sexuality, promiscuity, and euthanasia, means that Europe’s population has aged to such a degree that it will continue to shrink even in the unlikely event that birthrates rebound to replacement level. On current form, by the end of this century there will be no “Europeans” as members of ethnic groups that share the same language, culture, history, and ancestors, and inhabit lands associated with their names. The shrinking native populations, in the meantime, are being indoctrinated into believing—or else simply cajoled into accepting—that the demographic shift is actually a blessing that enriches their societies. Europe is losing the ability to define and defend itself, to the benefit of unassimilable multitudes filled with contempt for the host-society. One consequence is that active Jihadist networks now exist in every country west of the former Iron Curtain.
The capital of the European elite class is Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, which has decreed that member countries of the European Union no longer make the law on their immigration policies. The notion of assimilation into the host society was no longer entertained even as a theoretical objective. To understand this malaise it is essential to understand “Brussels.” It is no longer just a city and the capital of a somewhat amorphous West European state without a real national identity, held together by opportunism and corruption. Belgium is the EU in microcosm, and “Brussels” has come to denote the EU as an institution, an outlook and a way of life.
A century ago Europe’s ruling classes shared social commonalities that could be observed in Monte Carlo, Carlsbad, or Paris, depending on the season. Their lingua franca was French. Englishmen, Russians, or Austrians shared the same outlook and sense of propriety, but they nevertheless remained rooted in their national traditions. Today’s “United Europe” is light years away from that a century ago. It does not create social and civilizational commonalities, except on the basis of wholesale denial of old inherited values and “traditional” culture. It creates cultural similarity that has morphed into dreary sameness of anti-discriminationism. In Brussels, decision-makers’ attitudes may differ according to age and bureaucratic rank, but not according to their inherited cultural traits. They read the same books, watch the same movies, eat the same food, think the same thoughts, and write similar memos. They are post-nationalists who subscribe to the view that the duty of the member states is to “facilitate the achievement of the Union’s tasks and refrain from any measure which could jeopardize the attainment of the Union’s objectives.” Their Union is founded on “the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.” These values “are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity, and equality between women and men prevail.”
An ideological commitment to neoliberal globalization has turned multiculturalism and open-ended Muslim immigration into two inviolable Euro-dogmas. They are pursued independently of any electoral test. National elections do not mean much anyway in the EU, where unaccountable bureaucracies commandeer the most important decisions and policies that would not survive the test of popular opinion are simply instituted by administrative fiat. The Euro-elites trust that a deprived mass culture and mass indoctrination in state schools will neutralize any lingering sense of historical and cultural continuity. They will never admit that they played the Russian roulette and lost. The roll-call of European-born Jihadists only confirms the failure.
Both Europe’s multilateralists and Washingtonian neoconservatives share the same distaste for traditional, naturally evolving societies and cultures. Divisions between them refer not to the common goal of advancing a global revolutionary project but only to the ways and means of doing so. The end of the Cold War has cleared the way for the rise of a new global empire, and the realization that new possibilities were on offer to the revolutionaries who wanted to move beyond the Gramscian “long march.”
Even if the Serbs are robbed of Kosovo, Islam will not thank the West. There will be no synthesis, no civilizational cross-fertilization, between Europe and Islam. It’s kto-kogo. As things stand now the outcome appears almost fatally preordained. The tradition of a peasantry ruled by its “betters” has been turned on its head: in Europe most nations want to defend themselves—even the ultra-tolerant Dutch have seen the light after Theo van Gogh’s murder—but cannot do so because they are hamstrung by a ruling class composed of guilt-ridden self-haters and appeasers. Their hold on the political power, the media, and the academe is undemocratic, unnatural, obscene. If Europe is to survive they need to be unmasked for what they are: traitors to their nations and their culture. If Europe is to survive, they must be replaced by people ready and willing to subject the issues of immigration and identity to the test of democracy, unhindered by administrative or judicial fiat.
For those reasons too, Serbia must not give up Kosovo. By giving it up it would encourage the spirit that seeks the death of Europe and its surrender to the global totalitarianism of Muhammad’s successors. Not for the first time, in Kosovo the Serbs are fighting a fight that is not theirs alone.
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1 Comment by G.L.A. on 3 December 2007:
Dr. Trifkovic,
One question that comes to mind is: Where does the current Russian ruling class fit into all of this? Do they understand what the Serbs are trying to defend or are they only interested in frustrating the EU and the Americans?
2 Comment by Trifkovic on 3 December 2007:
A very good question. The tycoons and yuppies don’t understand and don’t care, but the political class & intellectuals do — thanks to the cavalier Western attitude in the 90s and to the current wave of unhinged Putinophobia, rather than anything the Serbs have done or are doing now…
3 Comment by G. Albanian on 3 December 2007:
Mr Srdja Trifkovic,
You mentioned Historical, Spiritual, Cultural and Civilizational Mr Srdja Trifkovic, but you did not mention Actual, so let me help you:
Actual: Kosovo is slightly smaller than the size of Connecticut, and has a population larger than that of West Virginia or New Mexico. There are less Serbs in Kosovo than there are Spanish speaking people in Connecticut Mr. Srdjia Trifkovic! The Albanians in Kosovo speak their language, they have their traditions, they love their neighbors as themselves (not qute like Serbs), they have their own cuisine and make a fantastic spinach pie, and I don’t want to keep going…
It looks to me like they should have some rights to govern themselves too, shouldn’t they? They do have a democratically elected parliament, prime minister and an internationally respected President. Maybe they should have a little more than just “Autonomy” which Serbia is offering to Kosovo Mr. Srdjia Trifkovic! It is time that Kosovo is fully independent from your Co-nationals who showed their love in the last decade’s genocides and keep showing it today by hiding the war criminals like Ratko Mladic. Do you by any chance know that Serbia’s harboring of Mladic, is creating more damage to Serbia’s image and credibility than anything else?
4 Comment by Hegel on 3 December 2007:
What you say is true expect for one country.
There is one country “entitled to keep a land because they have a centuries-long historical bond to it, because their ancestors had built lovely Christian churches in it, because its heritage underpins their moral code and spirituality based on Christian martyrdom, and because they are defending themselves against an aggressive and resurgent Islam.”
Except the churches are temples and martyrdom is the right of return.
5 Comment by Culturist on 3 December 2007:
Culturism is defined as a philosophy which holds that majority cultures have a right to define, protect and promote themselves. Whether you want them to or not, Islam and China employ this as common sense. The only culture that needs to ask itself if it has a right to define itself or not is the Western culture.
You are absolutely right to put postmodernism and the death of historical awareness at the center. As your art criticism indicates, you cannot have any standards if you do not engage in your tradition. When you say no art worth looking at or listening to, you are implicitly refering back to Michaelangelo, Shakespeare and Beethoven. If you do not have standards, you cannot know if you are progressing or excellent. On the political realm, if you do not stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
You are also quite right to put multiculturalism at the center of the Western disease. Culturism is an antidote for multiculturalism. Multiculturalism asserts that Europe has no core culture. To believe that is necessarily to have disengaged from history. Europe is not the world. The European narrative from Greece on is distinct. You can tell it is distinct by comparing it to others. But if you do not know that, for example, the founding fathers and everyone around them shared a common European heritage, you don’t even know enough history to compare yourself too. Western culturism is based on the idea that we do have a distinct Western heritage.
The Muslims are very culturist and have more culturist sensibility than we do. That needs to stop. One thing they realize is that culture is not metaphysical. Those who speak of human rights, think all countries are committed to Western values and they exist regardless of implementation. Culture exists in minds which need land for subsistence. Everytime a muslim family moves in, everytime a no-go zone is established, Western values hold sway on less of the planet. They are closer and closer to being extinct. If we too do not realize that our values are not universal, but in competition, we will surely die. We need to go from a human rights based, multiculturalist outlook to a culturist one fast.
http://www.culturism.us
6 Comment by DJGB Popadich on 3 December 2007:
KOLUBARA – 1914
In some fifty tongues the two generations’ old book says: “We know from experience that it is a thousand-time easier to reconstruct the facts of an era than its spiritual atmosphere”. … All done, all said. An iota asked, perhaps?
The folk tune afresh:
“We don’t want to fight, But by jingo if we do, We got the men, We got the ships, We got the money too.” The tune, as it was, rings in our days at ease. Soul’s dream, else’s a nightmare, have they ever got hand in hand?
* * * * *
The Opera spiked the Brits’ line. it went on a jump in overtime: by blue this, or tint that, it misses the Drina’s single tread. The river bent, curled and crept, straight into the dreams and nightmare. How to halt it, how to hook it? Flip over by the swipe?
CVH’s the Polyglot Army: made of A, G, H, P, Cz, Cr, … motley of a known book … Tzar’s Corporal – Marshal of the “Y” – strayed into the Drina’s backwoods: pastures, streams, hamlets dressed in white.
Flatly beaten at Drina, they took another try. They had chosen a lesser river, Kolubara, win the battle: stride, sing, … or die?
On the march Polyglot Army stripped the land of all alive. Reiss the Swiss had a plenty to see, tell and print. At that he stood firm in spite of voices from the side – to make up, to resign.
The work of a genius, or by the force of providence, or by the virtue of both the lot had glowed. Weaken as they were the Serbs held the ground. Hill by hill, the battle line shrank, forces fused: the swift counterattack broke the soft grass, the immense sky.
Polyglot Army chased by the wind, gloried to an eternal crown: they would come with Bismark’s Grenadiers, next time, … next time?
/PDJGBP – 2006/(86 – CVH: Conrad von Hotzendorf)
7 Comment by tim on 4 December 2007:
Kosovo is Serbian. That is it. All the excuses given to take this land away have been shown to be false. Look it up, it is not hard to find the info on that. I don’t have to spoon feed you on this.
I haven’t been to Serbia for ten years, if being there counts as passing through by train, but I recall seeing signs in Cyrallic and Latin script, something wich was not found in Croatia. So, if the Serbs were so intolerant of all things not Serb, why would they tolerate Latin script? Further, not all Albanians live in Albania or Kosovo etc. some live in Serbia. If things are as the world press says they are, why is it we don’t hear of the same persecution of Albanians in Serbia proper? BECAUSE MINORITIES IN SERBIA ARE NOT PERSECUTED YOU MORON!
8 Comment by DJGB Popadich on 4 December 2007:
REISS – 1914
A man Reiss was a Swiss. Swiss national it is – and a Serb by his heart and soul’s take. To say most of the Swiss are Reiss alike would be … a bit much. Yet, in life and in deeds he tests all at fault.
Reiss came to Serbia in the thick of war: he replied the king’s call. He sees the Polyglot Army’ feat – evil as it was: made the due report to the world, and to the king.
Small country burns. Her folk is on the rope. Fabled force, supreme culture, … this and that, they fix the bloody toll. A loner in the field observes a great malaise, and a sharp rupture.
At a foot of the hill a meadow sits; tiny spring of water, a pristine church; the duke’s dormitory under the galactic tree, in stark tranquillity. A sole man’s grave sets a mark. Swiss, German, and the Serb: Reiss, rest in peace at that place since nineteen-twenty-nine.
PDJGBP – 2006 /… 93 /
9 Comment by TrlaBabaLan on 4 December 2007:
Mr. Trifkovic,
One may not necessarily share your thoughts, but they’ll likely admit to themselves that you’re an extraordinary writer. It is hard to find in Western superficial ‘columnism’ a text that parallels yours in depth and focus. I do agree with the core of your views. I also regret that today’s Serbia has yet to give birth to a politician that could shrewdly weigh in the level of Serbian submissiveness to the “international community” demands and balance the adoption of good European traits with a preservation of unique national values.
10 Comment by jack bailey on 4 December 2007:
The reasons why the Serbs cannot make a deal with the West are many and your explanation Dr. Trifkovic is as good as any. One thing about the Western elites, when contrasted with the Serbian elites is that the Western elites for the most part have a history and are not criminalized in the traditional sense of the word, while the Serb elites have been so for at least half a century. The Western elites are produced in their own societies through peaceful means and through a selective process that is not a product of some vast criminal behaviour such as it has been the case in Serbia. In Serbia they had the “New Class” take power in 1945 through dishonest and criminal means. Then the “New Class” had been able to enjoy itself for almost 50 years after which they produced Milosevic who topped and surpassed all criminalities of the “New Class” with his own rapacious and naked criminal enterprise . After the 2000, with Milosevic gone, the war profiteers, created by that state, were able to keep their criminal profits and strenghten their grip on the country, thus producing yet another criminal elite, although the Serbs were promised otherwise. Now I am not saying that in Serbia there are no good men, and Dr. Kostunica may well be such a person, but he does not seem to be the one that is calling all the shots. The criminalized elite is the power behind the scenes and behind their ideology of real or fake nationalism their money feels safe. They are in control, and that is why there is so little effort to confront the injustices of the past and as that would hurt their position. That is why anyone that brings this up is eventually branded as a traitor by them. Now some of them may very well be traitors, working for America or the West but the critics’ point is still valid; Why should an average Serb still care or trust this current new elite, about Kosovo or anything else, remembering that his private house or land was confiscated by the Tito regime in 1945, that during Milosevic he got bankrupted by the pernicious and deliberate superinflation, when his $2000 pension or salary check became worth $5 within the span of a year when he was forced to in fact starve. And now after the year 2000, his position has not changed that much, other than that it is now safer to walk the streets again. His ancestral land or house confiscated by Tito in 1945 is still not getting returned by Kostunica and his children will still be forced to emigrate or else live off of charity, while the war profiteers who are now legal businessman billionaires enjoy their monopolies. One of them, a few years ago, in a burst of philantropism, named his own private university after himself. I don’t think it would ever cross Bill Gates’s mind to do such a thing. But this is in essence the difference between the Western elites and the Serbian elites. Serb elites have no sense of propriety or understand the need for transaprency fairness and competition. In fact, I do not think that the West hates the Serbs at all. It is more the case of Western elites hating the Serb elites to the point where they really want to distroy them, because to the Western mind such elites should not be allowed to exist. They just have not figured out how to destroy them yet. And therein lies the biggest paradox as well. If the Serbs loose Kosovo then the Serb elite wins against the Western elites as they will be in a position to consolidate their power and silence the very few critics! But the Western elites will not allow themselves to loose and they will get even more determined that the Serb elites have got to go. There will be more trouble in the Balkans and unfortunately it may all very well end with the NATO occupation of Serbia at some future date.
11 Comment by Michael on 4 December 2007:
Srdja, you wrote an excellent article. The postmodernism era does not care about history. Way should care? Lets start everything from beginning, lol.
It looks like that even traditional Jews are not immune on post-modern approach. The Kosovo crisis opens another serious question. This is first time after WW II that Jews supported ethnic cleansing of the Serbs from Kosovo by being overwhelmingly in favour of Serbia bombardment. I can’t believe that holocaust denial comes from the descendants of the holocaust victims. This is crazy world, lol.
12 Comment by Grumpy Old Man on 4 December 2007:
Through the prayers of St. Nikolai Velimirovic, God save Serbia!
13 Comment by Alex on 4 December 2007:
This erudite and eloquent commentary on the symbolic significance of the Serbian predicament, should be required reading for anyone who doubts the extraordinary influence of the “postmodern turn” in the educated elites of the Western world.
Srdja Trifkovic’s insight is particularly sharp when he refers to the Serbian arguments (for remaining in Kosovo) as being “unEuropean atavisms”. The Serbs undesirable attachment to their culture, history, and religion shows, in our topsy-turvey postmodern world, that they fully deserve their pariah status within the European “community of diversity”.
14 Comment by Sean Scallon on 4 December 2007:
Since we’re talking about Brussels we should mention the political crisis in Belgium within the context of Dr. Trifkovic’s very insightful article about Kosovo. A split between Flanders and Wallonia would put Brussels inside Flanders and yet no one thinks of Brussels as a Flemish city. Indeed the break-up of Belgium would have the affect of isolating Brussels inside hostile territory. Flanders potential secession from Belgium, unlike Kosovo potential secession from Serbia, are two different circumstances and shows why all secessions are not equal. Flanders is trying to assert its local idenity, something that Dr. Trifkovic has said that Brussels and the EU has been trying to supress. Kosovo has an identity and it is Serbian. Unfortunately Brussels is trying to destroy that identity to feed the crocodile known as Jihadism and make its peace with it even thought the crocodile will always remain hungry. The destruction of Belgium and preventing of any kind of fig-leaf of legitimacy of Kosovo’s secession with Serbian and Russian aquiecense would be first of series of blows of what fellow Serb Nebojsa Malic calls “the empire” the Euro and American globalist elites that could lead to future blows. If adderting identity becomes popular and hurts the EU, then others may assert themselves as well.
15 Comment by Nebojsa Malic on 4 December 2007:
Kudos, Dr. Trifkovic; I intend to quote this piece a lot.
It is ironic that the problems which are invoked in Serbia as reasons for “Euro-Atlantic integrations” are precisely things imported from the West.
I do have a minor quibble, though. Please don’t call them “elites.” We don’t call an exceptionally talented murderer, pillager or rapist an “elite” murderer, pillager, or rapist. Why should we do so with politicians – especially if they are such moral pygmies.
16 Comment by robert m. peters on 4 December 2007:
Dr. Trifkovic,
First, could you enlighten me as to the advent of an Albanian majority in Kosovo. I am personally not enamoured with numerical majorities, but I would like to know have such a current majority of Albanians came to be in Kosovo.
Secondly, you might correct any error in my thoughts that the Albanian majority came primarily as a result of the works of that pathfinder to post-modernism, namely Marxism in whatever guises it plagued the Balkans and/or at the hands of that other culture-leveling force, Islam.
I would harken back to the Westphalian Order and ask within the framework of that Order what legal right would the power(s) of Europe have to dismember Serbia since that Order i establishes and is based on the understanding that states are sovereign and equal regardless of size and population and that their borders are inviolable and cannot be changed save in the context of a treaty of which that state is the party. Of course, the Westphalian Order has been stretched to its limits even by its proponet but has been most fatally broken by the ideological movements spawned by the French Revolution and left-wing Hegelianism, namely Marxism in all of its forms, fascism and social democracy, with social democracy being the current engine of post-moderism and its cultural banality.
Your response would be appreciated.
17 Pingback by OrthodoxNet.com Blog » Blog Archive » Kosovo as a Symbol of Anti-Postmodernism on 4 December 2007:
[...] as a Symbol of Anti-Postmodernism Chronicles Magazine | Srdja Trifkovic | Dec. 4, [...]
18 Comment by Jeff Springer on 4 December 2007:
Totalitarian press (which even brainwashes successfully the elites) = bogus diversity (a dismantling of western europe)
An actually diverse press/media with many different perspectives constantly illuminated = actual indigenous diversity in europe
same equation applies to america.
we’re all conceptual creatures and so it’s very simple – unless the media is diverse then we’re doomed.
In the meantime once the media itself is used as a totalitarian weapon he who has the media wins. Because we’re all coneptual creatures a totalitarian media inevitably sets the agenda. It even brainwashes the elites, who especially don’t want to admit it.
It all starts with an outlawing of any kind of monopoly on a nation’s airwaves. If that’s not possible any longer due to the totalitarians – then they must be taken back, no choice, if that’s possible.
anyway when a press has become totalitarian in the name of ‘freedom’ then to the same degree the nation is dismantled in the name of ‘diversity’.
conversely when a press is in Fact diverse and thus Acutally enjoying a freedom of the press, then so too is the nation rich in its own native diversity.
we’re all conceptual creatures and thus if through travesty the press has become monolithic it simply boils down to he who has the press, wins.
i notice most people balk at accepting this because they tend to ‘fancy’ themselves as above or beyond their own reality as a conceptual creature ‘as if’ some other kind of false or free agent.
paradoxically that’s when they lose what freedom/s they ‘did’ have.
once the press/media has gone totalitarian (monolithic), he who has the media, wins. some things Are simple. this is one of them.
________________
19 Comment by sajkaca on 4 December 2007:
“svaka cast” for bringing so many good thoughts on such a difficult theme, and still keeping an optimistic attitude.
I’m concerned about that western attitude – to judge on people who want to preserve old traditions (your words: as an unpardonable anachronism) and the need to be tolerant with all that modern strange things from post-modern world and to accept it (your words: the loss of a sense of place and history)
Forever: Kosovo je Srbija!
20 Comment by Pappy on 4 December 2007:
The time for talk is over, the time to continue taking abuse from the US and EU is over, it is time to stand up once again to both, Serbia has done it before, standing up to tyranny is nothing knew for Serbs, dying for Serbia is something Serbs do and know very well. Choose the moment and place for the new battle of Kosovo, perhaps God will side with Serbs this time, Serbs have paid for this win dearly. I think it is time for Serbians to become insurgents in their own land and take back what is rightfully Serbian. Under no circumstance should Serbia join EU or NATO, in fact Serbia should sue US, EU and NATO for war reparations. In defiance Serbia should embrace Russia and allow Russia to install interceptor missiles in Serbia to counter installations in Czech Republic and Poland. Serbia should do everything in its power to counter EU and NATO, stop all diplomatic relations with US, and especially Germany and the rest of the countries that are for unilateral independent Kosovo, support/fuel all secessionist movements across the Western Europe, let the EU and reap the fruit of its anemic foreign and wayward policy. Albanians already have a country it is called Albania; let the US, EU and the rest world that allegedly cares so much for Albanians rebuild Albania and give them democracy, if that was the initial intent for getting involved in Kosovo. Somehow I find it that NATO, EU and US only want Kosovo do to its location, knowing fully well Serbia would not let US build basis in Kosovo, definitely not because of Albanians or Albanian plight.
The moment Europeans and others start dying in Kosovo the conflict would be over, can’t fight for something that is not yours. Make Western Europe pay for their involvement in Kosovo. The fearless German army ran from Serbians in two World Wars, this conflict won’t be any different, well accept that the Albanians will leading Germans all the way to Albania. As for Americans they are overextended and pretty busy with Afghanistan, Iraq and perhaps in Iran, a perfect opportunity for Serbia to rid itself from Imperialistic impositions, not only in Kosovo but in Bosnia as well. I know one thing, when Serbs are cornered with no where to go they will stand up and fight, they will once again stand up to tyrannical forces, regardless that they may lose.
21 Comment by Trifkovic on 4 December 2007:
To Mr. Peters No. 16: This is a thorny issue, and I’ll try to give a value-neutral response. Until the aftermath of Prince Eugene of Savoy’s ill-fated Drang nach Constantinople the Serbs were overwhelmingly in the majority. When Louis XIV stabbed Austria in the back on the Rhine Eugene had to withdraw and some 140,000 Serbs fearful for their lives left Kosovo in 1699 under their Patriarch and settled, mainly, in today’s Vojvodina.
Until as late as the Greek-Turkish War of 1897 today’s province of Kosovo had a simple Serb majority. Turkish and German/Austrian sources estimate that some 400.000 Serbs were expelled from the Vilayet of Kosovo between 1876 and 1901, and especially in the aftermath of the War of 1897. According to Kippert, J. Hahn and Austrian Consul K. Sachs, in 1899 there were 182.650 Albanians (47,88 %), 166.700 Serbs (43,70 %) and cca 9% Turks, Roma etc.
In 1921 of 439.010 inhabitants, 280.440 (64,1 %) were Albanian, which was the first time they achieved a simple majority.
During World War II about 100,000 Serbs were forced out, and banned from returning by Tito(!)
In 1971: a total of 1.243,693 people. 916,168 Albanians (73,7%) 228.264 Serbs (18,4 %); 31.555 Montenegrins (2,5 %); 26.000 Serbian-speaking Muslims (2,1 %); 14.593 Roma (1,2 %); 12.244 Turks (1%); 8.000 Croats (0,7%); etc.
By 1981 of 1.584,558 people 1.226,736 were Albanian (77,42%) 209.498 Serbs (13,2%) 27.028 Montenegrins (1,7%) etc.
At the moment it is estimated that there are cca 1.75 million Albanians (88%), 7% Serbs (140.000); and 5% others.
22 Comment by Jeff Springer on 4 December 2007:
I would fight with Serbia actually go there and fight, if possible, based on what Pappy points out. I’m not afraid to die for something I believe in, then maybe Serbian ground would become a home. The rest of it is crap. I would no sooner go attack the people of Iraq for george bush, than i would go attack him. So i would do NEITHER.
23 Comment by robert m. peters on 4 December 2007:
Dr. Trifkovic,
Thank you.
24 Comment by Riggs on 4 December 2007:
When you blow the fire at least make sure it is weak enough to have some strength and carry those missiles in your own pocket Pappy. I have not seen a single sign of weakness by this administration and I think you will only burn yourself. Wait a second what happens when you cannot use those missiles you keep in your pocket they might go off, you are still to close to this fire that is burning way to far from your blow. Well, I met with a Russian once and he was wearing a shirt with an emblem, which he was so proud about. He said that it signified power (and the emblem was the eagle with two heads, and the Russian an old man, we laughed together afterwards). Do you understand now Pappy? I believe you will be able to end this non-sense de-Albanian episode before someone else gives you a different name from which even I will be ashamed of you wearing it. Instead, I will encourage you to open your books and find out how did Europe convert to Christianity from its Pagan state. Maybe than, you will have a little more respect for the people you speak so imprudently against to. As for Kosovo being the heartland of the Serbian medieval state that might be true because Austria pushed Serbs toward south Balkans. Albanians have fed your people when they were hungry and this is how you reward them for the dignity of their hospitality (this is our #1 tradition dear author). You dear author speak of art and present day France, Germany, Holland, is this best your art teacher showed you. Well the art comes from people who appreciate it and do not abuse it by feeding it to the fire.
25 Comment by Claire W Solt, PhD on 4 December 2007:
Wilsonian self determination has gone too far when it leads to states that have no real ability to protect themselves. When the West leaves, Serbia will overrun Kosovo, again.
26 Comment by nikopiko on 5 December 2007:
Dr. Trifkovic,
I have been waiting for eight years for this article to be written. Some have come close but nothing like this. This article is truly a masterpiece.
I personally have contemplated exactly what you have written here as I know many others have as well. But it truly takes something special(that you possess) to compose such an article for public discourse.
For the few years I lived in the Netherlands, at the turn of the millenium, much of the population there could see the turbulent future that lie ahead for them because of their imigration policies. Yet, these same people would continue to support and follow these policies. It is still quite amusing to continue to watch these lemings in Europe heading straight for the cliff.
The peasant mentality is still strong with in the Serbian culture( that is to resist what does not seem right). We in Serbia(not all but enough) have refused to follow these lemings on their journey. Those who play the pipes have been able to punish us for this action. This has played out before with in the past century and again it will be the same. Let us only hope that the resisters can keep the lemings from all falling from the cliff. For those still unaware, that is the roll of the Serbian nation today. Most of us on this forum understand this and you can just look at the responses from the article above.
I am happy to be in your company. Thank you.
27 Comment by Witch-king of Angmar on 5 December 2007:
I had the pleasure of listening Dr. Trifković give this lecture at Mašinski fakultet in Belgrade a week ago. It’s great to have it here as well.
28 Comment by Pappy on 5 December 2007:
Fjordman: Why We Should Oppose an Independent Kosovo
The Euroessayist Fjordman explains why an independent Kosovo will help no one except the global jihadists. Hans Rustad runs Document.no, the largest independent weblog in my country. A recent post there contained criticism of me, and I have already answered some of it. However, Mr. Rustad also claimed that I support a revisionist view of the Balkan wars of the 1990s which is “just as factually wrong, immoral and politically dangerous as David Irving’s Holocaust revisionism.” I consider that statement to be too awful to ignore, and decided to write a reply in English.
I have said repeatedly that I believe the Balkan wars were far more complex than we are led to believe by the political establishment, and I fear that we out of ideological blindness have come to support some pretty dangerous Muslim forces. I respect Mr. Rustad for exposing the bias against Israelis in the mainstream media, and I am sad to see that he accepts uncritically a similar bias against the Serbs. My point is that you cannot understand recent history in the Balkans without taking the previous seven centuries of Islamic oppression into account.
…
Author William Dorich states that “The Serbs lost 52% of their adult male population fighting in the First World War as American allies. Twenty-four years later the Serbs were the only people in the Balkans to declare war on Nazi Germany. Hitler bombed the ‘open city’ of Belgrade on Palm Sunday in 1942, killing 17,000 Serbs in one day. Surrender followed ten days later as the Nazis invaded. The Serbs lost another one-third of their population in the Holocaust again fighting as American allies, especially against their own Croat, Bosnian Muslim and Albanian Nazis.”
Serge Trifkovic, author of the books The Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad, documents how Yasser Arafat’s uncle Mohammad Amin al-Husayni cooperated closely with Nazi Germany in recruiting Bosnian and Albanian Muslims for Waffen SS units. Serbs had to wear blue armbands, Jews yellow armbands. For Muslims, this was a Jihad against disobedient dhimmis, and thus a continuation of the genocide against Armenians a few years earlier, which was one of the inspirations for the Holocaust. More than a quarter of a million Serbs, Jews and Romani people (Gypsies) were killed by Muslim troops in Nazi service.
Trifkovic cites James Jatras as claiming that Washington’s irrational Balkan policy is to a significant extent the product of the ignorant and misguided notion that the U.S. can curry favor in the Islamic world by sacrificing Kosovo’s Christians to the violent Jihad-terror elements that dominate Kosovo’s Albanian leadership: “Such an unfounded notion shows a breathtaking incomprehension of the worldwide jihadist threat. International opposition and the Bush Administration’s failing domestic credibility put a weight on the policy, however, which can be dealt a fatal blow if enough Americans raise their voices against it.”
Miroljub Jevtic, professor at the Belgrade University and author of a number of books on the topic of Islam and politics, believes the Western world is in favor of detaching Kosovo from Christian Serbia by fiat and making it into an independent (Muslim) state. The main argument of those supporting this scenario, notably in the United States, is to improve their image in the eyes of the Islamic world and “co-opt the influence of Islamic ‘extremists.’”
However, Jevtic notes that “the fact that since the arrival of NATO to Kosovo over 150 Christian churches have been destroyed and some 400 mosques have been built, or are under construction, is for the Muslims a proof that if there is a faith which is supported by true God — it is Islam! Because, why would the Christian God, why would Jesus, permit the destruction of churches, where He, Jesus, is glorified? Why would He, at the same time, permit the construction of mosques, where His existence as God is denied? Why would He permit it, moreover, in the presence of men who bear arms and who claim to be Christians?”
Miroljub Jevtic warns that the European Union support for Albanian Muslim demands could backfire badly: “Granting the independence to Kosovo will be taken as proof of Europe’s own wish to cease to exist, as it not only allows the expansion of Islam but is actively promoting it by aiding those who are destroying churches, raping nuns, spitting on crosses and daubing with excrement holy images of Christ.”
…
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/019030.php
—–
“Twenty-four years later the Serbs were the only people in the Balkans to declare war on Nazi Germany. Hitler bombed the ‘open city’ of Belgrade on Palm Sunday in 1942, killing 17,000 Serbs in one day.”
The above fact is one reason that Germany is so adamant about dismembering first Yugoslavia (SFRJ, FRY) and now Serbia, destroy Germany’s negative image from the past at all cost, the true history of their Nazi past and their crimes against humanity, divert collective guilt on Serbia the new Nazi’s of Europe as was proclaimed by Western so-called Free-Press, revise history to portray Germany, and the collaborating countries in a positive light.
Question here to ask is how many other countries in Europe lost 17,000 thousand innocent citizens in one day in any war? None, they didn’t they were all collaborators of Nazi Germany, almost identical to today’s Europe, most European countries are followers of Germanys, UK and US policies.
29 Comment by Michael Kenny on 5 December 2007:
Serbia’s tragedy is that it is not a member of the EU. On the one hand, it is exposed to US bullying but without the rampart of protection which the EU provides. Contrast with, say, Estonia. Nobody dares to say boo to Estonia becaues to do so would lead to a confrontation with the EU.
Equally, it is well known that about a third of the EU Member States openly support Serbia and there are no doubt others who simply don’t want to get into a fight. When push comes to shove, the Member States will rally to each other. Remember the Falklands War? Few saw the point of fighting for those islands, but it was Britain’s decision and the other Member States rallied around. If Serbia was one of there own, the EU would rally to Serbia.
From Serbia’s point of view, a settlement that brought Serbia into the EU with its present borders intact would be perfect. Once inside, those borders would be inviolable without Serbia’s consent. (Example: Cyprus!) For that very reason, no doubt, the Kosovo Albanians want independence first and EU membership later. In other words, Serbia’s interest is to prolong the status quo!
30 Comment by Pappy on 5 December 2007:
Serbia’s tragedy is that the Serbia King didn’t listen to Serbia intellectuals of that era, at the end of WWI, and should have never allowed Croatia and Slovenia to join the Kingdom of Serbs Slovene and Croats or what later would be know as Yugoslavia. Serbia would have had more territory then today most of Adriatic coast or Dalmacia and all ethnic Serbs would be living in a single very powerful state.
Part of Croatia and all of Slovenia would have been part of Austria or Italy, Major part of today’s Croatia would have been part of Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia would have been also part of Serbia, Albania would not exist as we know it today, since its territory was offered to Greece and Serbia as a reward for fighting with the allies (both Greece and Serbia refused to take any part of that territory, now they are seeing a blow back from that indecision).
The other tragedy is that Serbs who were majority if Yugoslavia failed to remove Tito from power, when it was obvious that Tito was anti-Serbian and protect Serbia from Tito’s destructive policy of weak Serbia is good for a strong Yugoslavia. It also failed close ranks among Serbian political leadership, prepare for Tito’s eventual death, organize the military and arm properly prior to the collapse of the USSR. All other ethnic groups including ethnic Albanians had a plan for secession from Yugoslavia after Tito’s death, most of these plans were know to Serbs in 1976, but the leadership at the time failed to do something about those plans, if not publicly then secretly. Thus the Serbian saga continues…
31 Comment by garasanin on 5 December 2007:
An interesting article from a muslim perspective on the Sudanese ‘Teddy Bear’ saga:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/sudanese-teddy-saga-lays-bare-islamic-inferiority-complex/2007/12/05/1196812821147.html
32 Comment by MMK on 5 December 2007:
Problem w Serbian politic is that they did accepted the game to blame Albanians.
Albanians are just the best tool that West/Freemasons are using to continue to control Balkan acct Serbian land on Balkan.
Serbia was never free,neither any of those convert Serbian/new “countrys”/ on the land of ex-yu.
Former president Tito was a freemason who got a Job to be a President in faked’happy’yugoslavia and in reverse/he would live like a King,and he did/ he had to:
cut in the smallest possible pieces Serbian land,discover ‘new nations’,bring over the Albanian border as many as possible Albaninas,be a God Father to evry Albanian familly as long as they had minimum 10 childer and UP!,let them live on yugo/Serbian social security,move Serbian ppl away from Kosovo,…In former Yu evrybody could be anything But NOOOO Serbian!
Titos photo was in evry public place and we had to:adore him,sing songs to him about him,call him imortal,…we were brain washed!
Evry Serbian intelectual was sent to prison,kept dead-alive in house,killed by accident,…
Before he died he made sure that there was Not a Single ‘Smart’person,like he was,in the country of 22 million population.
SEVEN ppl had to replace him!!!
He has gone and left on a tray for other Freemasons to continue sadistic experiments, on human population just like they do on evry continent,for many centurys.
It is always the same scenario but different actors..just like in evry cowboy film:
-the photo of The Most Wanted to be captured
-and great,money,reward !?
They care about Albanian ppl as much as they do about last year snow!
It is just another perfect crime!
Wars are The Best Business!
God has the last word!
33 Comment by Michael Warning on 6 December 2007:
Mr Robert M. Peters you wrote:
“I would harken back to the Westphalian Order”
How could you? The Serbs killed it. June 28th 1914. Remember?
Ujedinjenje ili Smrt
34 Pingback by News | Serbian Unity Congress » Serbia is More American Than the US!, SerbBlog on 7 December 2007:
[...] will defend what is ours We shall never surrender” Kosovo is Serbia! Unfortunately, as Srdija Trifkovic so eloquently pointed out , this will probably fall on deaf ears with Europe and America’s political leadership because [...]
35 Comment by michael warning on 7 December 2007:
Serbian Nationalism started World War I, in case most of you forgot. Which of course gave rise to the present day New World Order. The Serbs have yet to be punished for the horrible crime committed on June 28th 1914. So if some you mis-guided souls want to revive Serbian Nationalism start here with a few of these articles from the Serbian Nationalist Black Hand.
The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt –
Unification or Death
I. Purpose and Name
Article 1. For the purpose of realising the national ideals – the
Unification of Serbdom – an organization is hereby created, whose
members may be any Serbian irrespective of sex, religion, place or
birth, as well as anybody else who will sincerely serve this idea.
Article 2. The organisation gives priority to the revolutionary struggle
rather than relies on cultural striving, therefore its institution is an
absolutely secret one for wider circles.
Article 3. The organization bears the name: “Ujedinjenje ili Smrt”.
Article 4. In order to carry into effect its task the organization will
do the following things:
(1) Following the character of its raison d etre it will exercise its
influence over all the official factors in Serbia – which is the Piemont
of Serbdom – as also over all the strata of the State and over the
entire social life in it:
(2) It will carry out a revolutionary organisation in all the
territories where Serbians are living:
(3) Beyond the frontiers, it will fight with all means against all
enemies of this idea:
(4) It will maintain friendly relations with all the States, nations,
organisations, and individual persons who sympathise with Serbia
and the Serbian race:
(5) It will give every assistance to those nations and organisations
who are fighting for their own national liberation and unification.
Truly pathetic that most fall for such an evil as Serbian Nationalism
36 Comment by Pappy on 7 December 2007:
michael warning,
I think you are confused with this ethnic group and this organization…
The Ustaše (also known as Ustashas or Ustashi) was a Croatian nationalist far-right movement. It engaged in terrorist activity before World War II and ruled, under Nazi protection, in a part of Yugoslavia after that country was occupied by the Axis powers. After German forces withdrew from Yugoslavia in 1945, the Ustaše was defeated and expelled by the communist Yugoslav partisans.
When it was founded in 1929, the Ustaše was a nationalist organization that sought to create an independent Croatian state. When the Ustaše came to power during World War II, its military became the Ustaše Army (Ustaška Vojnica). They claimed that this army had 76,000 troops at its peak in 1944.[citation needed] In the 1990s, during the Yugoslav wars, there was a resurgence of support for the Ustaše. Croatian law currently forbids Ustaše symbols and associated references. As a rule, the enthusiasts of Neo-Nazism in Croatia refer to the Ustaše as their role models.
The Ustaše aimed at an ethnically “pure” Croatia, and saw the Serbs that lived in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as the their biggest obstacle. Thus, Ustaše ministers Mile Budak, Mirko Puk, and Milovan Žanić declared in May 1941 that the goal of the new Ustaše policy was an enhnically clean Croatia. They also publicly announced the strategy to achieve their goal:
1. One third of the Serbs (in the Independent State of Croatia) were to be forcibly converted to Catholicism.
2. One third of the Serbs were to be expelled (ethnically cleansed).
3. One third of the Serbs were to be killed.
The Ustaše persecuted the Serbs who were mostly Orthodox Christians yet they rationalized that the Bosnian Muslims were actually Muslim Croats merely because those Croats were Muslim and so did not persecute them. Some of these Muslim Bosnians joined in the Nazi and Ustaše forces as part of Waffen-SS divisions 13th SS Mountain Division Handschar in Bosnia (led by Amin al-Husayni) and 23rd SS Grenadier Division Kama advised by Edmund Glaise von Horstenau (the representative of the German military in Croatia) and led by Colonel Ivan Markulj, who was later replaced by Colonel Viktor Pavicic. Lt-Col. Marko Mesic commanded the artillery section. The state even converted a former museum in Zagreb for use as a mosque. The Ustaše were against industrialization and democracy. The basic principles of the movement were laid out by Pavelić in his 1929 pamphlet “Principles of the Ustaše Movement”.
A problem with the Nazi ideology was that the Croats are Slavs and were considered inferior by Nazi standards. Ustaša ideologues thus created a theory about a pseudo-Gothic origin of the Croats in order to raise their standing on the Aryan ladder.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e
37 Comment by Mary on 7 December 2007:
RE: an excerpt:
“The irony of the Serbian predicament is that they still imagine they are talking to the Westerners of another era, the era that had produced Nixon and Reagan, de Gaulle and Mitterand, Adenauer and Schmidt, Rebecca West and Alfred Sherman . . . and others of the generation born between, roughly, in the quarter-century before 1920, with whom such arguments could be reasonably expected to resonate. The problem is that they are all dead, and have been replaced in the positions of political and cultural influence by the new, post-modern breed of Westerner. He is distinguished from his predecessor exactly by rejecting the value and importance of the historical, cultural, spiritual, and civilizational legacy of our common civilization.”
I would think the imagination of the Serbian people should have been thoroughly shaken on Pascha, March 29, 1999. Photos later circulated in newspapers everywhere of smiling American bomber crewmen loading their bays with “Happy Easter” scrawled across the bombs they were preparing to deliver to Kosovo in the first morning light. These poor American flyboys, under Clinton’s order, of course had no sense of history or memory of the Serbian people saving more than 600 American fliers during WWII. To this day, the “Halyard Operation” remains the largest one-time rescue of Americans from behind enemy lines in American history.
38 Comment by michael warning on 7 December 2007:
Pappy:
No, Serbs. The black hand was secret society of nationalistic Serbian officers who assassinated the Archduke Franz on June 28th 1914.
From British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914
“With reference to my telegram of yesterday (Assassination of Archduke Franz).(l) I was told subsequently at Government House that there are probably several accomplices. Local paper speaks of Anarchist crime, but act was more likely that of Servian irredentists, preconcerted long ago.”
(29078) No. 13.
Consul Jones to Sir Edward Grey.
Serajevo, June 29, 1914.
D. 8:30 A.M.
R. 11 A.M.
Tel. Urgent.
“From what has hitherto come to light regarding this atrocious crime it is conjectured that the murdered pair were probably the victims of a carefully prepared plot. The Archduke, it is true, is known to have been a sympathiser with the aspirations of the subject nationalities of the Emperor, in so far as these can be regarded as reasonable and capable of realisation without peril to the unity of the Dual Monarchy. He had been given therefore, according to all accounts, an enthusiastic reception at every stage of his journey through Dalmatia, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Even the opposition Press had accorded him a welcome, with the exception of the “Narod,” a Servian irredentist organ, which made no allusion to the Archduke’s visit, but published instead, on a sheet bearing the Servian colours, a glowing article in commemoration of the battle of Kossovo, which marked the downfall of the Servian Empire before the Turkish onslaught in the 14th century. A telegram from Agram appears this morning in the official “Fremdenblatt,” to the effect that since the intention of the Heir Apparent to attend the Bosnian manoeuvres became known a violent Pan-Servian agitation has been raging in the Serbo-Croatian capital. The Archduke is said tohave been warned in vain against undertaking his projected journey,and to have himself endeavoured to dissuade the Duchess from meeting him in Bosnia. Her Highness was however determined to share the danger with her husband. The Agram telegram proceeds to state that since 1908 (the year of the annexation) the revolutionary Servian organisation has displayed an ever increasing activity; that Cabrilovitch and Prinzip, the first of whom threw the bomb and the second fired the pistol, are said to be members of the terrorist Great Servian organisation; and that in Agram no one doubts that a carefully prepared plot had been set on foot against the Archduke.”
(29794) No. 21.
Sir M. de Bunsen to Sir Edward Grey. (Received July 2.)
(No. 129.)
Vienna, June 29, 1914.
Do the Serbs hate the memory of the Austrian Hungarian Empire? How do the Serbs remember June 28th 1914? With shame? Or do the Serbs celebrate this day June 28th as a day of Independence and liberation from the Austrian Hungarian Empire?
I have no sympathy for a people who started World War I with such a horrible act. The old Westphalian Order was been completely destroyed with this act. Now Serbia suffers for it, so does the rest of the world. You can thank the Serbs for putting into motion the New World Order.
39 Comment by Chris on 7 December 2007:
>I have no sympathy for a people who started World War I with
>such a horrible act. The old Westphalian Order was been
>completely destroyed with this act. Now Serbia suffers for it, so
>does the rest of the world. You can thank the Serbs for putting into
>motion the New World Order.
You are a complete **idiot**.
If an Iraqi assassinated an important American official in Iraq and US retaliation eventually resulted in WWIII, would the Iraqi be deemed to be responsible for the conflagration???
Get your head checked!
40 Comment by michael warning on 7 December 2007:
Mr Chris you wrote:
“If an Iraqi assassinated an important American official in Iraq and US retaliation eventually resulted in WWIII, would the Iraqi be deemed to be responsible for the conflagration???”
Would he be a Serbian trained assassin?
41 Comment by Eagle on 7 December 2007:
To Michael Warning:
I believe that Dr. Trifkovic himself has written about the tragedy that was WWI. He, as well as others, have characterized it as the single worst moment in modern human history.
As to your claim about Serbian nationalism and its responsibility for bringing down the entirety of the Westphalian order, here are a few points to be made by way of questions:
1. Do you realize why it is that Serbs celebrate on June 28? Do you think they honor an assassination or assassins? Do you realize that it is the feast day of St. Vitus – the day on which the Serbian leader Lazar was martyred as he defended the Serbs (and Europe) from the invading hordes of Islamic Turks? That it had been and continues to be the most honored specifically Serbian holiday long before the heir to the Hapsburg throne evered showed up in the Balkans?
2. Do you believe that it was wise of the Austrian officials, knowing full well the history outlined in point #1, to flaunt their power by sending the archduke to the region when so many different aspirations regarding sovereignty were brewing? Or would there have been a more civil and more subtle manner by which to signal political goals and realities to one’s neighbors and one’s subjects?
3. Do you realize that, contrary to a minority of “nationalists” then and now, that Prinzip and groups associated with the assassination were/are regarded as criminals? That they were/are little honored? That no connection was made to the Serbian throne? That Prinzip’s co-conspirators were sentenced to death by Serbian authorities, while Prinzip himself, under the legal age allowed for the death penalty, was condemned to a rather unpleasant prison stay that ended in death by tuberculosis?
4. Did you realize that sympathetic to Prinzip and the Black Hand were other slavic nationalities who were ruled by the Hapsburgs but had their own aspirations for increased autonomy or independence? That, in fact, the band of killers actually represented the modern ideal of “nation building”? Yugoslavism? To take your argument one step further, they not only unleashed the New World Order; they represented it. Quote Prinzip:
“I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria.”
Now, do you believe true Serbian patriots then or today were “Yugoslav nationalists”? Do you believe that the Serbian king would endorse regicide?
5. Setting aside points 1 through 4, do you believe that the act of a handful of bandits could precipitate an insane, continent-wide war of cultural and physical self-annihilation or were other forces at work? If Serbian sovereignty was the central issue at hand, did Serbs have some clout back then that they seem to lack today that would bring the might of the United Kingdom and the United States onto “their side” in the fighting or were other issues driving the war all the while using the Serbian issue as a pretext? If you believe that Serbian nationalism was the driving force that launched all of Europe into war in 1914, then perhaps you will also believe Lincoln fought to free the slaves and Bonaparte was trully a benevolent European liberator.
Serbs have made their share of mistakes. No peoples and no man that has ever walked the earth has been immune from sin, but to lay the blame for destroying the Westphalian order and, by extension, “throne and altar” European culture, at the feet of the Serbs is more than a stretch. In fact, it wreaks of poorly designed propoganda attempting to influence the more literate elements of American society that may at least remember reading about Westphalia in history class. But, take note, Chronicles readers are astute enough to see right through this contortion of logic.
42 Comment by Trifkovic on 7 December 2007:
Franz Ferdinand’s folly on 28 June 1914 was the exact equivalent of Bertie the Prince of Wales parading in full regalia through Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day in 1899…
43 Comment by Srdjan on 7 December 2007:
Black Hand and Mlada Bosna were both Slavic Movements, not greater serbian movements. Gavrilo Princip intended on forming Yugoslavia, not Greater Serbia. Everyone knows that today, except you michael.
44 Comment by michael warning on 7 December 2007:
Mr. Eagle you wrote: “But, take note, Chronicles readers are astute enough to see right through this contortion of logic.”
Astute enough to realize that the Westphalian order was created by the Holy Roman Emperor and that without the leadership of the Holy Roman Emperor the Westphalian order is non-existent?
The Black Hand was anti-imperialistic secret society made up of Serbs set upon destroying the continuance of the Office of The Holy Roman Emperor. It succeeded in its goal. The world is now run by USA, EU, UN, Russia, China and so on. No more Holy Roman Emperor to rule and govern. No more Westphalian order. If Chronicles readers are astute as you say they are, then maybe they should bring about a change for the better by helping to re-establish the Office of The Holy Roman Emperor, instead of pandering to Serb Nationalists. The Serbs are not going to bring about the Westphalian order. Neither are Chronicles readers at this rate.
So much for astuteness
45 Comment by Boyan K. on 7 December 2007:
Michael Warning wrote:
“The Black Hand was anti-imperialistic secret society made up of Serbs set upon destroying the continuance of the Office of The Holy Roman Emperor. It succeeded in its goal. The world is now run by USA, EU, UN, Russia, China and so on.”
Is it just me, or our Majestic Buster Of The Serbian Global Conspiracy is just about to bring up some David Ickean wisdom
? Yeah, those evil bastards concocted the whole mess of the UN, they’re behind the Philadelphia Experiment and, with no possible doubts, they know who killed Laura Palmer. Heck, they’re behind it, those anti-Westphal barbarians.
Now, before this topic goes completely X Files, I would like to add just one more name here. Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf (see link above). The guy was the Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army, which would put him, hm… very high within the Empire’s structure. Anyway, the moustached fellow said “let’s do the preemptive strike on Serbia” so many times that it would make Mad Albright and both Bill & Hitlery look like some pitiful wannabes. And it started long before Gavrilo Princip reached the 8th grade of the local school in his hometown of Bosansko Grahovo.
Anyway, as General von Hötzendorf said in one of his letters to Gen. Oskar Potiorek (long before the assassination): “I would risk the existence of the Monarchy itself, for the very opportunity to wage the war against Serbs”.
As for the assassination; Michael conveniently forgets to mention that the very event was preceded by the military manoeuvres at the very border with Serbia, observed by the Archduke and organized by Potiorek (at the time, the Austrian governor of newly-annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina). The whole thing was openly set to provoke the Serbs (already ruthlessly downtrodden/routinely humiliated and denied of their basic rights in Bosnia where they formed a majority of population), reaching its peak at the fateful St. Vitus Day parade. And the ignorance of the claim that “the assassination started the WW1″ is just outrageously hopeless. Europe was at the brink of the all-out war at least a decade before Sarajevo. Just go to the nearest library and take some book on the early 20th century in European diplomacy and politics and the lack of balance between the major Euro powers (preferably, with no global conspiracy-based looney stuff in it) , and try to read it back to back. You’ll find the most inconvenient but simple fact: AUSTRIA was the one to constantly add insult to injury to the European order. Heck, they were condemned even by Germany for grabbing Bosnia, which nearly led to the war in 1908.
Anyhow, I’m inclined to see both Franz Ferdinand and Gavrilo Prinzip as the symbols of tragedy and heroism of their time. But, what Ferdinand saw as his dynastic duty, Prinzip felt as the tyranny of a foreign power. And those two hardly mix together. Americans, of all nations, should know that,or they would still be genuflecting to the Queen of Britain.
Ferdinand was, most probably, the last Habsburg who tried to rebuild the idea of his forefathers’ monarchy, however outlived the very concept was. The only problem was that the Habsburg Monarchy had been irreversibly disfigured into a tiresome dinosaur, held in contempt by practically all of its freedom-seeking nations, including the second constitutional element, Hungary.
While Prinzip, for all the infantile follies of contemporary anarchist fascinations of him and his friends, was a boy who had witnessed too many sufferings and humiliations borne onto his people, during his young life. Plus, the bullet that killed Sophie, was meant for Potiorek who had been driving in the same car with Ferdinand and Sophie on that fateful day. Which Gavrilo had never forgiven to himself, burdened by guilt of inadvertantly killing a woman and missing a man who brought a savage genocide to his people just a few months after,both due to his lack of a basic knowledge to handle the revolver properly. So much of the Great Conspiracy
that Michael dreams about – the act was executed by the young man who could have hardly carried a weapon.
46 Comment by Pappy on 8 December 2007:
Michael Warning,
First you need to learn the European as well as Balkan history; I recommend non-revised addition of history 101. Second the assassination archduke Ferdinand was just an excuse used to start WWI, Germany advised/recommended to Austria-Hungry to give Serbia an Ultimatum that was the July Ultimatum, that Serbs would refuse, needles to say the Serbs refused and the rest is history. It absolutely did not have anything to do with Serbian nationalism, or their right to self determination, it had everything to do with, control of all Europe then as well as today, economically as well as militarily by almost the same forces. It is naïve for you to blame the Serbs for WWI; the assassin was a Bosnian Serb tired of being occupied by the then benevolent Austrian-Hungarian Empire, he was not a Serb from Serbia, and definitely not fighting for Greater Serbia, as was insinuated by Germany, not only then but today as well. It appears that Germany is afraid of having Serbs leaving in one single state.
Third Serbia fought against the Central Powers, led by the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Ottoman Empires; those Empires were defeated and buried in the Balkans. The Entente Powers, led by France, Russia, the British Empire, and later Italy (from 1915) and the United States (from 1917) defeated the Central Powers and this led to the creation of Yugoslavia (The Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes) and The League of Nations. Then WWII was started by almost the same forces, the Axis powers led by Germany against the Allies led by UK, US, and Russia defeated the Axis powers, once again Serbia fought on the side of the allies, and once again Serbia sacrificed its youth. This conflict led to the creation of the United Nation, and upgrade to the League of Nations. The UN has a Charter by which the modern civilization would rule and prevent future wars, unfortunately this same Charter is being abused by the so-called super powers, especially the US, which has hand picked almost all the Secretary Generals to subvert the UN Charter in order to pursue self interests. After WWII the cold war was started, it was a division of east and west, and it pitted USSR and mostly Eastern European countries against the Western European countries. This led to the creation of NATO a Western European defense organization and Warsaw Pact an Eastern European defensive organization. Note, that Serbia was not part of either of these organizations; it actually started a alternative organization called the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in order to diffuse super power influence in the third world. The Western Europe also created an economic organization called the EU, an attempt to create a super state, similar to what the Nazi Germany wanted to create in WWII. After the collapse of the USSR in 1980 Warsaw Pact sized to exist, while NATO, and EU continued to expend (I believe this will lead to a greater conflict in future), eastward towards Russia the successor state to USSR. NATO has since been used as an offensive organization, led by the US to subvert, conquer and impose its will on smaller insignificant countries of the third world; Yugoslavia was the first victim of the new morphed NATO in 1990/91, and 1999.
Forth the US took advantage of USSR collapse and wanted to fill the void left by the collapse of the USSR. The US got itself involved in the sphere of influence wherever USSR was involved, the Balkans was one such area, so not to be outdone by Germany of the past, the US decided to give the Serbs an Ultimatum at the end of 20 century as well, it was called the Rambouillet Agreement, it was created for Albanians to except and Serbs to never except it, which would guarantee attack on Serbia by NATO (a defensive organization). This led to illegal bombing of the then Yugoslavia (FRY), and occupation of Kosovo. Serbia did not unconditionally surrender, it defended its territory, and UN SCR 1244 was created, guarantying Serbia that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia.
The issue here is Serbs are tired of being occupied, dictated to, divided in to many smaller insignificant states, and denied the right to live in one big state, as say Germans in Germany, Italians in Italy, etc. There is a pattern of abuse here, historically the Balkans has been used by many powers to flex their muscles, Serbs historically always stood up to those powers, today will not be any different. It clearly appears that the outside powers have not learned anything from the past, but also shows that Serbs have not learned anything from the past either since they keep sacrificing their youth, first in WWI, then in WWII, all for not. The latest conflicts were western induced to undo what was done in those two Great Wars, the topology of Europe now looks almost exactly as it did before WWI. These events seem to be getting out of control just like prior to WWI, the US is involved with NATO in redrawing of Borders in the Balkans and now Middle East as well. It s just a matter of time before a third World War is started, since once again we have many defensive treaties amongst many smaller nation and super powers. China military is on the rise, so is Russia’s and India’s; they have all ready created an Asian defensive organization to counter NATO’s meddling in Asia, the clock is ticking.
47 Comment by Michael Warning on 8 December 2007:
“Vitus with his tutor and nurse fled to Lucania and then to Rome, where he exorcised Emperor Diocletian’s son of an evil spirit. Vitus would not sacrifice to the gods, and his cure was attributed to sorcery. Arrested again, this time with the household he had brought with him. Tortured. Freed from prison during a storm in which temples were destroyed; an angel led them back to Lucania.”
Please… the Serbs are going to use St Vitus to justify the act of regicide? Honestly. Did St Vitus assassinate the Roman Emperor Diocletian? No. St Vitus was a faithful obedient citizen of the Roman Empire. St Vitus did not rebel against the authority of the Roman Emperor. St Vitus did not try to overthrow the Roman Empire. But the Serbs did. The Serbs killed Archduke Ferdinand it was a horrible act of regicide by the Serbs. The Serbs did not want to be under the sweet yolk of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. The Serbs hated the house of Hapsburg and rebelled against it. The behavior of the Serbian Nation in nothing close to St Vitus and his Piety and love of Authority of the Roman Emperor.
Honestly, St Vitus was no fomenter of rebellion. How dare Serbs invoke St Vitus.
St Vitus is one of the fourteen Holy Helpers not destroyers. Look elsewhere Serbs if you want to invoke spirits that promote rebellion and regicide.
48 Comment by G.S. on 8 December 2007:
I get the impression that Mr. Warning is sympathetic to the ideals exemplified by Chronicles/paleoconservativism, so I’m less inclined to join in the pile-on.
Certainly I share his sympathy & respect for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which Evelyn Waugh described through one of his characters as “a true league of nations”.
All that being said, I’m a little reluctant to point to any era or regime of the past and attempt to lionize them as Edenic — the implication being that the only reason X ever fell was because it was infiltrated by evil outsiders.
The evil, mes amis, is inside.
It’s analogous to Republicans claiming that the only problems in America are the result of liberals infiltrating our society. Prior to the 60’s, why, we were on the way to building Heaven-on-Earth.
Or how many of my fellow-Catholics, for example, sometimes speak as if the Middle Ages in the West were an utterly pristine and perfect period that was only ruined by a few Protestants & Enlightenment thinkers.
With regards to that sentiment, as well as the implication that the pre-WWI European order was somehow self-sustaining and could have lasted forever had not for the villain Princip entered the picture, I would point out that the tragedies and farces of the present are usually the outcome of sins of the past.
That is, the aristocrats and establishment leaders of Europe were very often the ones who played about with the ideas and ideologies that were to destroy their order — modernism, industrialism, centralized progressive nationalism, etc.
Or to put it in the words of Robert Penn Warren:
“What you mean is that it was a fine, beautiful time back then, but I
mean that if it was such a God-damned fine, beautiful time, why did it
turn into this time which is not so damned fine and beautiful if there
wasn’t something in that time which wasn’t fine and beautiful?”
I don’t think “the Serbs” is an adequate answer to the question.
49 Comment by Chance Gardner on 8 December 2007:
all of this over-discussion above reminds me of the old adage the fights in academia are so fierce because the stakes are so low.
(i.e. ain’t much there.)
but i hear You – because corresponsingly – if you have a little it’s a lot to lose. no?
these things bore me since, say – me and the pope could solve them overnight -
but we’re not ‘allowed’ to. how many divisions has the pope, said stalin.
none. the swiss guard.
50 Comment by Boyan K. on 8 December 2007:
Mr. Warning, I’m terribly sorry, but you still fail to produce a decent counter-argument on my suggestion that the war had been invoked (by Austria)for quite a long period before the whole Princip/Ferdinand-thing took place. You’re ranting on the Serbian “misuse of the St. Vitus symbolism” instead, which doesn’t help your point by a long shot. There is hardly ANY Christian nation without at least one of the Christian saints taken as its “guardian”. And your logic here implies that, say, the Irish have no right to celebrate St. Patrick because at least one of them, throughout their history, must have done something against some other nation’s member on that day.
If I were up to punching below the belt, I could easily remind that the complete political identity of the most brutal Nazi slaughterhouse during the WW2, called “Independent State of Croatia”, was built on the strong Christian (Roman Catholic) symbolism. And, yes, some friars took part in the mass murders of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the concentration camps, some nuns ran the concentration camps for children, and many other horrors took place. And that would make it a little worse than a bloke killing a (foreign) prince visiting his (occupied) country and observing the sinisterly warlike manoeuvres of the (foreign) army which had been the utmost symbol of the occupation at the first place.
So, following your logic, I should:
a. hate ALL Croats and Catholics on this planet for something that some of them did;
b. renounce my own Christian faith (because some criminals
used the names and symbols of the Holy Trinity and various saints as an excuse of killing my people).
Anyway,this is hardly a manner of having a relevant discussion… Nevertheless, you are entitled t like or dislike whomever you want, but you should not elevate your own opinion at some pedestal of truth, despite the facts that prove you wrong.
51 Comment by Boyan K. on 8 December 2007:
Mr. S.,
as always, an insightful comment. Believe it or not, I can completely understand your sympathies and respect toward the Habsburg Monarchy. Or, in general, the sympathies from the perspective of a Western traditionalist toward such an important European house and its legacy. I will not burden this topic with the history of the long and complicated relation between the Habsburgs and the Serbs (which often appeared to be quite more than just an “enmity”), but I think I can say with some confidence that they happened to be strikingly intertwined throughout the history of that restless part of Europe.
Anyway, the Habsburgs, at their peak, were indeed one of the strongest pillars that the Old Europe relied on. But, it couldn’t have lasted forever, that’s for sure. Having a state from Venice to Poland, manoeuvring around with the rest of the great powers of Europe (France, Russia, England, Prussia/Germany, even the Ottomans for the some part), constantly simmering down the separate identities and interests of nations included… It took both great diplomacy and the tough army… But, it was unrealistic to expect that all those Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Poles, Rumanians, Croats, Jews, Italians, Serbs… would eventually fall in love with the foreign yoke & renounce their own identities in order of serving a German dynasty happily ever after. Not to mention the mutual complexities between some of those nations, apart from their relations with the Habsburgs… Plus, the only recognized non-German constituent state within the monarchy, Hungary, spent the great part of its history attempting to split ways with Vienna. Pretty big mess, I would say, in the midst of great changes within Europe’s social, national and cultural structures of the XIX century. So the fall was imminent, one way or another. In case you’ve read A.J.P. Taylor’s
“The Habsburg Monarchy 1809–1918″, you’ve got a pretty precise hint on the Austrian situation throughout the century that happened to be the eve of its demise.
Anyhow, Austria and the Habsburg would require a different topic.
52 Comment by Trifkovic on 8 December 2007:
FELIX AUSTRIA, eminently worthy of respect before Napoleon, disgraced herself with Schwarzenberg’s wanton ungratitude to Russia, which — unwisely — saved the Monarchy by intervening against Kossuth in 1849. In the run-up to the Crimean War, and every step of the way until the end more than 60 yrs later, Vienna followed a policy of unremitting hostility to Russia. The near-universal hatred against the house of Habsburg east of the Leitha had blurred this important fact. Schwarzenberg’s folly was a sin and — worse still — a mistake. The price was paid in an uninterrupted string of subsequent defeats and losses (Lombardy, Venice, Koenigratz/Sadowa, Kolubara…) Towards the end, the Dual, i.e. Kaiserlich und Koeniglich, K-u-K Monarchy was aptly known by her own subjects as KaKania, FaecesLand.
53 Comment by Pappy on 9 December 2007:
Michael Warning,
Former president of the United States of America Woodrow Wilson disagrees with you as well about Serbs, Serbia and Austria-Hungry.
When the Serbian Flag Flew Over the White House
Woodrow Wilson, President of the USA
On July 28, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson gave the following message to the American people. It was read in churches throughout the country and published in virtually all major newspapers. Serbian flag was raised over the White House and all public buildings in this nation’s capital. The message read:
To the People of the United States:
On Sunday, 28th of this present month, will occur the fourth anniversary of the day when the gallant people of Serbia, rather than submit to the studied and ignoble exactions of a prearranged foe, were called upon by the war declaration of Austria-Hungry to defend their territory and their homes against an enemy bent on their destruction. Nobly did they respond. (On June 28th, 1914 Gavrilo Princip Bosnian Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand during his visit to Sarajevo)
So valiantly and courageously did they oppose the forces of a country ten times greater in population and resources that it was only after they had thrice driven the Austrians back and Germany and Bulgaria had come to the aid of Austria that they were compelled to retreat over the Albania. While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken. Though overwhelmed by superior forces, their love of freedom remains unabated. Brutal force has left unaffected their firm determination to sacrifice everything for liberty and independence.
It is fitting that the people of the United States, dedicated to the self-evident truth that is the right of the people of all nations, small as well as great, to live their own lives and choose their own Government, and remembering that the principles for which Serbia has so nobly fought and suffered are those for which the United States is fighting, should on the occasion of this anniversary manifest in an appropriate manner their war sympathy with this oppressed people who have so heroically resisted the aims of the Germanic nations to master the world. At the same time, we should not forget the kindred people of the Great Slavic race–the Poles, the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs, who, now dominated and oppressed by alien races yearn for independence and national unity.
This can be done in a manner no more appropriate than in our churches. I, therefore, appeal to the people of the United States of all faiths and creeds to assemble in their several places of worship on Sunday July 28, for the purpose of giving expression to their sympathy with this subjugated people and their oppressed and dominated kindred in other lands, and to invoke the blessings of Almighty God upon them and upon the cause to which they are pledged.
Woodrow Wilson, President,
The White House, July, 1918.
[b][h2][/h2>
54 Comment by Michael Warning on 9 December 2007:
Serbia will fall to the insurgent jihad and will be ruled under the heavy yoke of Sharia law. A just punishment for the Serbs who refused to be ruled by the just laws of the Austrian Emperor based on the Justinian codex. Do Serbs now want to be governed by the postmodernia laws of the UN and the EU? No, so you throw off that yoke as well. You Serbs do not see what is coming, how fitting.
To remind you Serbs who also reject the sweet yoke of the Papacy the following was written just shortly after the regicide of June 28Th 1914. This pertains to your rebellious nation who in your insolence refused the Just Laws of the Emperor and the Just Laws of the Pope.
AD BEATISSIMI APOSTOLORUM
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE BENEDICT XV
APPEALING FOR PEACE
November 1, 1914
The second cause of the general unrest we declare to be the absence of respect for the authority of those who exercise ruling powers…..The unrestrained striving after independence, together with over-weening pride, has little by little found its way everywhere….Hence come contempt for laws, insubordination of the masses, wanton criticism of orders issued, hence innumerable ways of undermining authority; hence, too, the terrible crimes of men who, claiming to be bound by no laws, do not hesitate to attack the property or the lives of their fellow men.
In presence of such perversity of thought and of action, subversive of the very constitution of human society, it would not be right for Us, to whom is divinely committed the teaching of the truth, to keep silence: and We remind the peoples of the earth of that doctrine, which no human opinions can change: “There is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God” (Rom. xiii 1). Whatever power then is exercised amongst men, whether that of the King or that of an inferior authority, it has its origin from God. Hence St. Paul lays down the obligation of obeying the commands of those in authority, not in any kind of way, but religiously, that is conscientiously – unless their commands are against the laws of God: “Wherefore be not subject of necessity, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake” (Rom. xiii. 5). In harmony with the words of St. Paul are the words of the Prince of the Apostles himself: “Be ye subject of every human creature for God’s sake: whether it be the King as excelling, or to governors as sent by him” (I Peter ii. 13-14). From which principle the Apostle of the Gentiles infers that he who contumaciously resists the legitimate exercise of human authority, resists God and is preparing for himself eternal punishment: “Therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation” (Rom. xiii. 2).
55 Comment by Trifkovic on 9 December 2007:
Mr. Warner: The fact that you are obsessively insane and rather offensive is neither here nor there; but the fact that you are tedious is unforgivable. Unless you learn to be informative, or interesting, or witty, we’ll have no choice but to cut you out from this forum. ST
56 Comment by Pappy on 9 December 2007:
Michael Warning,
Serbia will fall to the insurgent jihad and will be ruled under the heavy yoke of Sharia law. A just punishment for the Serbs who refused to be ruled by the just laws of the Austrian Emperor based on the Justinian codex. Do Serbs now want to be governed by the postmodernia laws of the UN and the EU? No, so you throw off that yoke as well. You Serbs do not see what is coming, how fitting.
Obviously former president Woodrow Wilson of the US does not agree with you about the Serbs being ruled by the just laws of the Austrian Emperor based on the Justinian codex. Serbs will rule them selves, they will choose their leader, and they will choose a system, not outside forces, that is what you failed to understand.
But even if Serbia falls under some kind of outside rule, or insurgent jihad which would rule by heavy yoke of Sharia law, so will the rest of Europe. But I think that is just your wishful thinking, you are reaching, you are a Serbophobe. Your lack of understanding of Serbian history is preventing you from understanding that even if the above scenario plays out as you suggest, sooner or later Serbs will rise against those occupiers, just like they did in past, five hundred years occupation was not enough to destroy Serbian culture and religion. It did have a negative effect and that was seen in Bosnian civil war where Serbian Muslim converts fought against their Serbian Orthodox brothers on queue from their outside master, just like in WWI and WWII.
Once again what you failed to realize, even after it has been repeated to you over and over again, from past and present history of Serbia, is that Serbs will rule Serbia, it will be their choice and no one else’s choice, the future of Serbia is in Serbian hands and we can definitely dismiss your wishful thinking as nonsense and diversion of a great written article by Dr. Srdja Trifkovic.
57 Comment by Michael Warning on 9 December 2007:
Thanks Pappy you helped me very much with you posting of the Wilsonian letter:
The Serbs and the USA are fighting for the same ideal: One World Order. Rejecting the Office of the Holy Roman Emperor and rejecting the One True Faith: Roman Catholicism.
“It is fitting that the people of the United States, dedicated to the self-evident truth that is the right of the people of all nations, small as well as great, to live their own lives and choose their own Government, and remembering that the principles for which Serbia has so nobly fought and suffered are those for which the United States is fighting,” Yes fighting against the Divinely Ordained Holy Roman Empire. Which now is in a 100 year abeyance because of the regicide of June 28th 1914.
And because of this folly of the last 100years of Wilsonian intrigues the world will no longer be governed by a Holy Roman Emperor. You will instead be made in a very few short months to bend your knee to the Cosmsocrator Hilary Clinton. The universal ruler. Just deserts.
58 Pingback by Attacking genuine evil in the blogosphere — 1389 Blog - Antijihadist Tech on 9 December 2007:
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60 Comment by 1389 on 9 December 2007:
All of this is true..
Sadly, it seems that one of the blogs that many of us thought was a mainstay of the counterjihad, namely Little Green Footballs, has gone over to the dark side.
Among other things, they are attacking and libeling everyone who is taking any effective action against the global jihad, particularly in Europe, and they are spreading the same old blood libels about the Serbs.
Charles Johnson posts a lot of terrorism news stories on LGF, but that seems to have been nothing more than a ploy to gain page views for ads, and to get would-be activists to waste their time and energy on a site that is going nowhere. As soon as anybody attempts to get people to take effective action (such as enforcing existing laws) – even if they discuss it on another forum – they are banned from LGF. This has a chilling effect across the board.
Whatever good that site may have done initially by making people aware of terrorist activities is far outweighed by the harm that LGF has done recently. They must be, and are being, discredited with such finality that no follower of theirs will ever again be able to harm our cause.
61 Comment by 1389 on 9 December 2007:
Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, if I recall, was particularly interested in making a name for himself in the war against Serbia.
His motive? To impress a married woman he fancied himself to be in love with.
The wages of sin is death…
62 Comment by 1389 on 9 December 2007:
Michael Warning shows exactly the type of anti-Serb, pro-Roman Catholic bigotry that has plagued Europe for nearly a thousand years.
I claim that it is the Catholics, not the Orthodox, who alone decided to separate themselves from the Orthodox Church, and that the “Holy Roman Empire” was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, but merely a temporary political configuration of the Western barbarian elite. And barbarians they still are, making common cause with the savage jihadists!
Austria-Hungary was hopelessly corrupt. It taxed its subjects brutally. Early on, it brought in the Serbs to defend itself against the Turks, then ill-used them inexcusably. During the First World War, Austria-Hungary attempted to exterminate the entire Serbian people.
Only one good thing that can be said about Austria-Hungary: it was not the Ottoman Empire.
Only one good thing that can be said about the Ottoman Empire: it no longer exists.
I am not ashamed of being a Serb nationalist, nor should anyone ever be!
1. I claim that the Serbian people has a right to exist.
2. I claim that those of us who are of Serbian ancestry have the right to be known and identified as Serbs (or as Serbian-Americans, Serbian-Canadians, Serbian-Australians, as the case may be), without anyone else thinking that this gives them the right to attack us.
3. I claim that Orthodox Christian Serbs have the right to continue practicing our religion, wherever in the world we may happen to be.
4. I claim that we as Serbs have the same right to defend ourselves against attack that anyone else has – and that this includes the right to cooperate among ourselves for mutual protection.
I further claim that anyone who disagrees with me in this regard is nothing more than a bigot, and can expect the harshest and most thorough takedown imaginable.
63 Comment by G.S. on 9 December 2007:
Heeeere we go… the downward spiral….
64 Comment by G.S. on 9 December 2007:
So we may assume Mr. Warning regards the Distributivist and pro-Serb G.K. Chesterton as a heretic against Divinely-Ordained Imperialism?
If I were cynical, I might wonder if Mr. Warning is less concerned with being a loyal Catholic and more concerned — much like Michael Novak — with nursing his fixation on a particular, this-worldly political arrangement. Woo-boy, time to immanentize that eschaton.
“….the Divinely Ordained Holy Roman Empire…”
But — girls, young man. What about girls?
Really, you should get out more.
65 Comment by G.S. on 9 December 2007:
“Unless you learn to be informative, or interesting, or witty….”
How about by proxy?
WHO CAN NAME THE FAMOUS MOVIE CHARACTER WHOSE MELODRAMATIC (AND, IN CERTAIN CONTEXTS, POMPOUS) MODE-OF-EXPRESSION MR. WARNING HAS ADOPTED AS HIS OWN?
66 Comment by Michaelkin Warnwalker on 9 December 2007:
- [rasp, rasp] I’ve been waiting for you, Srd-Ja. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now *I* am the master… of papal encyclicals. [rasp, rasp]
- [rasp, rasp] No, Pappy… *I* am your father. [rasp, rasp]
- [rasp, rasp] There is no escape, Serbs. Don’t make me destroy you (in accordance with the just laws of the Austrian Emperor based on the Justinian codex)…. [rasp, rasp]
- [rasp, rasp] Join me, Slavs, and we will rule the Balkans together — as father and sons. [rasp, rasp] I’m a believer in big families, you see. [rasp, rasp]
- [rasp, rasp] The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the Divinely-Ordained Holy Roman Empire. [rasp, rasp]
- [rasp, rasp] I find your insolent-refusal-of-the-Just-Laws-of-the-Emperor-and-the-Just-Laws-of-the-Pope… disturbing.
67 Comment by Michaelkin Warnwalker on 9 December 2007:
[rasp, rasp]
(Man, I feel lightheaded. I wonder how much oxygen is actually making it through this thing?)
[rasp, rasp]
68 Comment by S. on 9 December 2007:
Dr. Trifkovic, you are one of the finest writers – congratulation on this excellent analysis!
To Serbs, Kosovo has been a symbol of many things: statehood, bravery, spirituality, unity, struggle and survival.
Term “kosovozation” should be used to describe destruction of a sovereign country by force , humanitarian bombing, as well as islamisation of historically Christian lands.
69 Comment by 1389 on 10 December 2007:
This article has been submitted to StumbleUpon.
If you’re a member, please give it a thumbs-up!
70 Comment by michael warning on 10 December 2007:
“Independence of Kosovo-Metohija utterly unacceptable for Serbia”
“Belgrade/Brussels, Dec 10, 2007 – Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic said today in Brussels that negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija should be continued, and stressed that the province’s independence, coordinated or otherwise, is utterly unacceptable for Serbia”
“Serbia would not recognise unilateral independence of Kosovo and would declare it illegal and illegitimate act, as well as possible decisions of some states that would follow, the Minister said.”
71 Comment by Michael Warning on 10 December 2007:
“The fact that you are obsessively insane…..”. ST
Please don’t send me here:
Specialised Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Kovin
72 Comment by Michael Warning on 10 December 2007:
Miss 1389 you wrote:
“Among other things, they are attacking and libeling everyone who is taking any effective action against the global jihad, particularly in Europe, and they are spreading the same old blood libels about the Serbs.”
How many Serbs troops are fighting “against the global jihad” in Iraq right now?
I know these nations sent troops to Iraq:
South Korea 3,200;
Italy 2,900;
Poland 1,500.
But I do not know how many Serbs were sent. Do you?
73 Comment by Boba on 11 December 2007:
Re: # 74 Michael Warning
8 million Serbs in Serbia (including Kosovo-Metohija) and some two million Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina have fought global jihad for over six centuries and the current one (supported and abated by the USA in Bosnia and Kosovo-Metohija in particular) for over fifteen years.
Tom Lantos (D-Ca.) –“Let me just raise a few items, Mr. Secretary. The first one: just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led governments in this world that here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments, such as Indonesia, and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States’ principles are universal, and in this instance, the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe.”
74 Comment by G.K. Chesterton on 11 December 2007:
“If they are fierce it is because no courage short of sheer fanaticism could have kept the frontiers of Christendom against such locust-clouds of foes, while we were electing our first Parliaments and building our first cathedrals…
But the Serbian has an issue with the Austrian which is the more sinister for being spiritual.
For the Serb the Austrian is a Christian–like Judas Iscariot. He is a Christian who has stabbed him in the back while he was still fighting with his face to the infidel.
And his just anger is full of the fury of five centuries, and dark with the trappings of that day of mourning when the blood of his saints and heroes was given on the field of blackbirds in vain.”
75 Comment by Pappy on 11 December 2007:
Unilateral Declaration of Independence to be Annulled by the UN
Beta news agency reports that Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Russia’s representative in the Contact Group Troika, said on Dec. 10 that any decision by the Kosovo Albanian separatists to proclaim the province’s independence unilaterally, bypassing the U.N. Security Council, would be illegal.
A unilateral proclamation of independence would violate Resolution 1244 of the U.N. Security Council. If this should happen, Russia will demand the revoking of such a decision, its annulment, Botsan-Kharchenko told the Russian RIA Novosti.
On few previous occasions when Kosovo Albanian separatists have declared independence of the Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija, the United Nation’s officials have annulled the declarations — there is no reason why they would not do the same this time around, since such a move is as illegal and unlawful today as it was a year or three years ago.
Troika’s Report Suggests Continuation of Negotiations
The Russian representative said a discussion on the status of Kosovo was in progress, including an informal one, though the matter would be considered by the Security Council on Dec. 19.
The debates will rely on the troika’s report. The report contains much information which speaks to the benefit of continuing the negotiating process. We will work toward having it continue, Botsan-Kharchenko said.
According to the Associated Press, the report submitted by the trio of EU, US and Russian negotiators to the UN Secretary General on December 7, said that Serbian authorities offered a high degree of autonomy for the Albanian minority in Serbia’s southern province of Kosovo-Metohija, while insisting that the province remains part of Serbia. The ethnic Albanian separatists from the province refused to budge on their demand for full independence, the report said.
Moscow Remains Firm
AP also cited Russian United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who said it was regrettable Kosovo Albanian separatists failed to show flexibility, but added that “we believe that certainly the talks revealed that a solution is possible.”
Yesterday Russian Foreign Ministry representative Botsan-Kharchenko said that Russia was aware that its Western partners did not wish the talks to continue, but that Moscow had a principled position it intends to defend.
Cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic (Austria)
76 Comment by michael warning on 11 December 2007:
Thanks Pappy for posting the above.
Is Serbia preparing for war with Kosovo? The next step is to take Kosovo with force of arms. Russia is on the side of Serbia.
SUTANOVAC: ARMY READY TO REACT IN KEEPING WITH STATE DECISIONS
BELGRADE, Dec 3 (Tanjug) – Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac said on Monday that the Serbian Army was ready to react in keeping with the decisions of authorised state bodies, as defined by the Constitution and corresponding laws. Asked whether the Defence Ministry had prepared an action plan in keeping with the Serbian government decision ahead of the resolution of Kosovo status, Sutanovac told reporters that the “Ministry was operating in keeping with the action plan under all conditions.” Sutanovac told the press that in all countries, the ministries of defence were prepared to react even in the worst of situations.
77 Comment by michael warning on 11 December 2007:
Question: Today is the 10th and there are fears that Kosovo may unilaterally declare its independence. What will Russia’s reaction be? In case our partners recognize this independence, how will our relations be developing with them?
Foreign Minister Lavrov: If our partners unilaterally recognize the independence of the province, they will most grossly violate international law. We have said so, and this position remains valid. But I also wish to stress that a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence and its illegal recognition, of course, will not be left without consequences, because a chain reaction will follow, both in the Balkans and in other regions. And those nurturing such plans ought to be fully aware of their responsibility for these consequences.
78 Comment by michael warning on 12 December 2007:
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
“But the fact of the matter is Kosovo and Serbia are never going to be one again, and that’s the reality,” Rice was quoted as saying in USA Today.
“And if you don’t deal with that reality, you’re only going to sow the seeds of considerable discontent and considerable instability,” Rice said.
Why do Serbs think that Washington will come to their aid?
79 Comment by Boba on 12 December 2007:
HONOR KILLING IN TORONTO
This is what awaits Kosvo if American administration gets its way in “solving” Kosovo status. Albanian terrorists and Islamic extremists will behave the same way towards remaining Christian Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija:
http://comments.breitbart.com/071211175557p3d3kaah/#comment-11228 Father killed daughter for not wearing hijab, her friends say ( in Toronto!)
80 Comment by Ljubinko Jovicic on 13 December 2007:
Dear Chronicles readers,
search Kosovo and the Westphalian Order
by Amb. James Bissett
Read Response Nr. 20 by Ljubinko Jovicic.
I left Kosovo several days before NATO attacs. The non existent ethnic cleansing as casus belli was a criminal fake.
All political consstructs and coseguences of an illegal war are illegal.
Ljubinko Jovicic
81 Comment by Boba on 13 December 2007:
PRESS CONFERENCE ON YouTube
“KOSOVO, A PREVENTABLE DISASTER”
Held on December 5, 2007
Charles Lynch Room, Parliament Hill, Ottawa
Ambassador James Bissett, Chairman of The Lord Byron Foundation, former head of Canada ’s Immigration Service, and former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia
H.E. Dr. Dusan Batakovic, Serbia’s Ambassador in Canada
Dusan Prorokovic, MP; Deputy Minister for Kosovo and Metohija, Government of Serbia
Dr. Serge Trifkovic, Executive Director of The Lord Byron Foundation and foreign affairs editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=gMrM-P_ZjHQ&feature=PlayList&p=12F2C6F7C0D51DAC&index=2
82 Pingback by Theme: The Battle for Kosovo « on 16 December 2007:
[...] U.N. Envoy Unveils Kosovo Proposal James Bisset: Kosovo and the Westphalian Order Serge Trifkovic: Kosovo as a Symbol of Anti-Postmodernism Julia Gorin: American Patriots Must Speak Up on [...]
83 Comment by JM on 23 January 2008:
“In Brussels, decision-makers’ attitudes may differ according to age and bureaucratic rank, but not according to their inherited cultural traits. They read the same books, watch the same movies, eat the same food, think the same thoughts, and write similar memos. They are post-nationalists who subscribe to the view that the duty of the member states is to “facilitate the achievement of the Union’s tasks and refrain from any measure which could jeopardize the attainment of the Union’s objectives.”
Appropriately enough for Belgium, there is a starkly surrealist aspect to this: the Walloons and the Flemish rarely inter-marry. I can’t recall the exact figure (from a BBC radio programme), but it was reckoned that 95% of the population had married within their own ethic group. Surprised me.
-Jovica
84 Pingback by Snaphanen » »Der er gebyr for visse navneændringer« on 9 February 2008:
[...] give up their land to Muslim thugs. This template will eventually be used against all Europeans. As Srdja Trifkovic warns, even if the Serbs are robbed of Kosovo, Muslims will not thank the [...]
85 Pingback by Send These Political Demons to Prison….NOW!!! « Twilight Zone: The Curse of Knowledge on 24 February 2008:
[...] On February 18, the US government inflamed Serbians by recognizing Muslim separatists in Kosovo, a historic province of Serbia, as an independent country. Two hundred thousand Serbs marched in protest and the US embassy in [...]
86 Pingback by Will American Empire End Before It Ends the World? By Paul Craig Roberts « Dandelion Salad on 25 February 2008:
[...] On February 18, the US government inflamed Serbians by recognizing Muslim separatists in Kosovo, a historic province of Serbia, as an independent country. Two hundred thousand Serbs marched in protest and the US embassy in [...]
87 Pingback by News | Serbian Unity Congress » Will American Empire End Before It Ends the World?, VDARE.com on 27 February 2008:
[...] On February 18, the US government inflamed Serbians by recognizing Muslim separatists in Kosovo, a historic province of Serbia, as an independent country. Two hundred thousand Serbs marched in protest and the US embassy in [...]
88 Pingback by Thoughts on the Balkans… « Christ is in our midst! on 27 February 2008:
[...] On February 18, the US government inflamed Serbians by recognizing Muslim separatists in Kosovo, a historic province of Serbia, as an independent country. Two hundred thousand Serbs marched in protest and the US embassy in [...]
89 Comment by Chris Edwards on 29 February 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic; an extremely well-written document. So much so, it struck me as much a narrative on eloquent and effective use of the English language as it did about the decay of Europe’s culture in the modern world. And I mean that as a compliment. Whew! I agree mostly with your broad assertions, although I don’t know that “there is no French writer worth reading today, no Dutch painter worth sponsoring, no German composer worth hearing,” as this is a matter of relative perspective, I suppose, and can be argued.
I’ve read through this entire thread and I can’t tell if this is more a debate of European history, a political forum whereby we’ve soundly covered most of the likely war criminals dating back several centuries or a platform to discuss the current situation in Serbia. All of which are fine, in my opinion, but I find myself out of breath, mid-thread and the lobs/jabs only get more intense with no real debate on a solution to this crisis – and it is a crisis and not just in the Balkans or even Europe.
Clearly, this is a space of good thinkers, of educated people who have well formed opinions and who passionately believe in theirs. What I am missing however, is the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ And on the popular side, I mostly agree with Dr. Trifkovic’s literary pictoral of the general state of things.
‘Why’ the dilution of culture throughout Europe – and the world? Why the Serbs are “facing an ongoing reduction of their physical space.” Why the “Western demand to accept and absorb postmodern cultural matrices in order to prove their fitness for the allegedly desirable political and economic integration into “Europe”.” Why “the dwindling native populations?” And so on…
It is clear that virtually every culture on earth today is changing – becoming ‘watered-down,’ flattening, disappearing borders, the acceptance of a single international language (English), multi-ethnic states are the norm – not the exception, etc.. And its everywhere from the US to the jungles of South America and Malaysia, to Iceland to New Zealand and everywhere in-between. Why? Energy. And energy translates to economics.
There arent so many religious conflicts anymore, unless you consider and include their economic impact on a given dispute. All disputes today are economic; driven by an evaporating supply of light sweet crude – and soon the chase will include water. The race for a constant energy supply is on; both today and for its reliable access over the next century, hence the US military swell abroad and near oil sanctuaries.
The world is flattening at an incredible speed (largely because of access to energy/fuel). This accelerates the dilution of culture as we’re more able to interact/interbreed than ever before and this trend will continue. As our world has shrunk so considerably with our ability to move freely around the world, we have enterted the sphere of the almighty world-economy. Lets face the fact these globalization trade-offs are irreversible and all of the things that we’ve debated in this thread – and elsewhere – will continue on a similar path. Humans won’t cahnge so our path in macro terms is easy enough to predict. But we live our lives in largely micro terms. I can tell you there will be war ahead, but I don’t want it in my home or within proximity. I can tell you we’ll deplete our natural petroleum supply, but I can’t tell you who will be the first to run out.
I believe that the formation of Europe’s union was a matter of necessity. It was either ‘unite’ or die. There is ano argument to be had on this matter as far as I am concerned and from an economic perspective, its working. Still the point made of Europe’s dwindling population is real and is a real problem. With combined birth rate and immigration not supporting an aging population, who will pay for these pensioners? The socialist governments will be bankrupt within 30 years and is the reason the yin and yang of western and eastern Europe may prove the almighty savior. If I can live down the street more cost-effectively and its safe, then why not move? Especially if its now so easy to get there. There is a tectonic shift happening in Europe and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Serbia is its newest fault that is showing economic activity.
We (the US) have invaded Kosovo for reasons of self-interest (oil/military) and told them they can have this Serbian land (for a price, to be sure). We have broken the law in doing so and made ourselves the world leader of hypocrisy and saddened good people (Serbs) who bought into our pitch of all things good. A significant black-eye and not a single attempt at a good reason to argue our position, not that one existed in the first place (atricle 1244). And we call this freedom? Kosovo will be free as long as the Kosovars submit the US rule. And for that, I also feel badly.
‘How’ do we move forward from here? We can recount history all we want. Do we wish to repeat it? In the case of Serbia – I think not (violence). I don’t want it for the Serbian people nor do I believe they do – theres been enough killing in their history. All of the wars and strife of days past are part of every tribe’s history – and they shape us as much as our successes.
I live in Europe and have spent some time in Serbia over the past 6 months and have come to see these people in a much different light than they’re pitched by many western media sources. They are warm, friendly, hospitable, tolerant people. And, they’re an emerging European economy. A state coming of age where prosperity is at its fledgling state. The good people of Serbia are soon to realize a quality of life they’ve never before enjoyed. They’ll soon be free to travel the world like the rest of us.
A return to violence is a return to isolationism. I don’t believe that is the way forward for a people so long enduring a suppressive history. The light is at the end of the tunnel and its either real freedom and prosperity like they’ve never before known or its that damn freight train.
I like these people and I like what they stand for, in principle. How do we help them stay the current course of free-market reform and (genuine) democratization. Beginning tomorrow, what do the Serbian people do when they get out of bed and send their children off to school?
90 Pingback by Readerslab » Will American Empire End Before It Ends the World? on 6 March 2008:
[...] On February 18, the US government inflamed Serbians by recognizing Muslim separatists in Kosovo, a historic province of Serbia, as an independent country. Two hundred thousand Serbs marched in protest and the US embassy in [...]