The insufferable Jeffrey T. Kuhner, Washington Times’ chief Croat apologist, abuses logic and truth in his most recent commentary.
Kuhner claims that Bosnian Muslims insist on a unified, centrally governed Bosnia despite the opposition of more than half the country’s population (36% Serbs and 17% Croats), which is true. It is also true that Alija Izetbegovic and his followers have aided and sheltered Al-Qaeda, during and after the Bosnian war, and there is evidence that this continues to be the case.
However…
Kuhner’s attempt to advocate self-determination not on the basis of law or principle, but on fear of Jihad, is deplorable. Muslim militants, their vitriolic propaganda and aggressive politicking are bad enough without embellishments such as Kuhner’s claim that they seek “to either wipe out or convert all Christians in the region.” Eventually, yes – but they would much rather keep them as tax-paying thralls.
Mid-way through the article, Kuhner reveals his cards:
“Most importantly, the Bush administration needs to foster closer ties with the Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina for one simple reason: They are on the front-lines in the war against Islamic terrorism in the Balkans. The Bosnian Serbs, meanwhile, are unreliable allies. Many of them are still seething with resentment against the United States for its decision to use military force to end the Serbs’ campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass murder during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. “
He continues to extol the virtues of Croats, especially those in Herzegovina, as the “bulwark of Christendom.” Nowhere is it mentioned that Herzegovina was under Turkish rule for centuries, and that the aforementioned bulwark were in fact Serb refugees who were settled along the border devastated by Turkish raids. Or, for that matter, that the Croats of Herzegovina were notorious murderers of the Nazi-allied but [url=http://www.balkanpeace.org/cib/cro/cro15.shtml]independently genocidal[/url] Pavelic regime in World War Two. So the US should avoid “unreliable” Serbs because they are “mass murderers,” but Croat mass murderers should be fine?
There is a perfectly principled and rational case for self-determination in Bosnia, and much truth in the Bosnian Muslim leadership’s involvement in the Jihad . Tarnished with cheap propaganda, though, the truth looks a lot less appealing. Perhaps that was the point?