SOMETHING'S
ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF KOSOVO
The
murderous mob unleashed its fury on Mother Teresa Street,
Pristina's busy main street, not far from the Grand Hotel,
home base of many employees of international organizations
involved in the "reconstruction" effort, the day
before a scheduled visit from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Surely this confluence of events must have caused even the
densest UN bureaucrat to ask – if only to himself –
what is it they are constructing. When soldiers of
the occupying army, such as the Poles, are complaining that
they don't dare speak Polish because it might be mistaken
for Serbian (both are Slavic languages) we know something
is amiss.
A
DEADLY IRONY
What
is emerging in Kosovo is the most virulent and militant form
of racism and cultural particularism to take power since the
rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party in the
1930s. That the adherents of the most crazed ethnic chauvinism
– who will murder a man come to help them because
he spoke the "wrong" language – have seized
power as the result of a war ostensibly undertaken to stamp
out racism and ethnic cleansing is just one of the clever
little ironies of our policy in the region.
THE
FIRST AMERICAN CASUALTY?
Another
irony is that this may well be the first American casualty
in this war – who fell victim, ironically enough, after
the war was declared officially over. For it turns out that
Krumov was reportedly an American citizen; although born in
Bulgaria, he moved to America and attended the University
of Georgia. The UN office in Pristina said he was a Bulgarian
national, but several news reports cite Bernard Kouchner,
chief UN official, as saying Krumov was an American citizen
of Bulgarian descent. This was naturally not followed up by
the American news media: for them, the war in Kosovo is over.
For the Serbs, Albanian dissidents, and other minorities in
Kosovo, however, it has barely begun.
TREASON
AND RESISTANCE
Pity
the poor people of Yugoslavia – not only are they facing
a cold winter with dwindling oil supplies, a shattered economy,
and crippling sanctions imposed by the vengeful "humanitarians"
of the West, but they are also saddled with a clueless "opposition"
that blurs the distinction between resistance and treason
and undermines its own cause. The Belgrade newspaper Glas
Javnosti reports that Vuk Obradovic, Slobodan Vuksanovic,
and Dragoslav Avramovic, leaders of the much-vaunted opposition
coalition, the "Alliance for Change," along with
representatives of the Serbian Renewal Movement and the New
Democracy party, met with Western diplomats in the Bosnian
Serb city of Banja Luka. There they approved Avramovic's plan
that the sanctions be selectively lifted: Only those few cities
controlled by the pro-NATO opposition will be exempted from
the embargo. Of course, this assumes that these Serbian Quislings
will not be driven from office, through the streets, and clear
out of town for collaborating so openly with the would-be
conquerors of their own country.
"HANOI
JANE" REVISITED
To
understand how ordinary Serbians see the "democratic"
opposition, or at least the Avramovic wing of the movement,
one has only to think of the popular American reaction to
actress Jane Fonda's trip to Hanoi during the Vietnam war,
where she had her picture taken astride an antiaircraft gun:
she is known, to this day, as "Hanoi Jane," and
for many years has not dared to rear her head again except
in exercise videos. The reaction to traitors is universal
and visceral, and it is no wonder that these future administrators
of Vichy Serbia are far less popular than even the widely-hated
Slobodan Milosevic. What they want, and who they are, is so
disgustingly apparent that it is almost enough to make Serbian
support for Slobo seem a semi-rational act – as a radical
repudiation of all NATO-crats, both foreign and domestic.
ALLIANCE
FOR NATO
By
even attending this meeting, the Alliance for Change and its
tiny satellite parties made clear their total obeisance to
the US and its NATO allies. For this conclave was the aborted
result of an earlier scheduled meeting, in Luxembourg, with
the foreign ministers of the European Union. But
more than half of the invited Serbs did not show up, in
protest at the ignominious conditions laid down 24 hours before
the start of the conference: the NATO-crats suddenly decreed
all attendees must agree that Milosevic should be extradited
to face charges before the UN War Crimes Tribunal. While the
unindicted war criminals such as Agim Ceku – who killed
thousands of Serbs in the Krajina region, as commander of
the invading Croatian Army – are seizing power in Kosovo,
the very act of resisting the breakup of Yugoslavia is deemed
a Serbian "war crime." Any Serbian who went back
to his people and tried to sell a line like that would be
lynched in less than 24 hours – and rightly so.
THE
TREACHERY OF WASHINGTON
The
treacherous role of Washington in this public relations disaster
is of particular interest. Note how they set up the opposition,
and dangled the carrot of winter fuel and a link to the EU
in front of them, and then cruelly jerked it away on the very
eve of the Luxembourg conference. There has been a sadistic,
gloating tone to the policies and propaganda of the NATO-crats
all along, both during and after the war, and this incident
underscores it, exposing the real agenda behind their ritual
invocation of "democracy" and "human rights."
The US and its European allies have no more desire to see
the democratic opposition take power in Serbia than Stalin
either expected or wanted the American Communists to take
the White House.
FIFTH
COLUMN
The
Communist Party in America was never an electoral alternative
but a fifth column in the pay and under the direct control
of a foreign power, not a real political movement but a Soviet
Trojan Horse. The NATO-crats are following the Stalinist model
to a tee – although they are far less discreet than Stalin
ever was. At least the Kremlin encouraged their Western agents
to keep up the appearances of political independence: the
NATO-crats require nothing less than open collaboration –
and not only that, but NATO's Serbian admirers must undergo
ritual humiliation, foreswearing not only their sovereignty
but also their souls.
SERBIAN
BENEDICT ARNOLDS
The
bunch that showed up in Banja Luka, therefore, had already
swallowed this humiliation, undergone the equivalent of crawling
on their bellies through the mud – and still they came
home practically empty-handed, with much less than thirty
pieces of silver for their trouble and their treason. There
was only a few million dollars in emergency aid to provide
heating fuel for the towns of Nis and Pirot, both near the
Bulgarian border: the
London Telegraph [October 12, 1999] reports the
vague promise that if this "pilot project is successful,
it could be extended to other areas." An even vaguer
promise of future membership in "international and European
organizations" once "democracy" has been established
was held out as a face-saving device. But clearly the NATO-crats
share Slobodan Milsosevic's contempt for these Slavic Benedict
Arnolds, or else why make their humiliation so public?
LAUNCHING
PAD
It
was a curious way to phrase it: "if this pilot project
is successful." And what would "success"
look like? The NATO-cratic concept of the Serbian opposition
as a fifth column plays perfectly into the scenario of a cantonized
Serbia, with local politicians breaking away from the central
government after getting themselves "elected," by
hook or by crook, to local office. They would then declare
their "autonomy," and go into full fifth column
mode, acting as conduit and cover for the invasion and conquest
of their own country. Note that the cities of Nis and Pirot
are conveniently near the Bulgarian border – a nation
all too eager to prove its usefulness as a future NATO member
by serving as a launching pad for an Allied assault.
TRUTH
AND CONSEQUENCES
The
last thing the Allies want is a united and democratic Serbia
that refuses to knuckle under, which is why their relations
with the opposition have been such a fractious failure. They
distrust Vuk Draskovich, a committed Serbian nationalist and
former minister in Slobo's government, and they are even having
a little trouble with their usually compliant puppet, Zoran
Djindic, Democratic Party leader and initiator of the Alliance
for Change, who retains enough political sense to have joined
the boycott of the Luxembourg meeting. Far from weakening
Milosevic politically, the war has strengthened his grip.
Not only that, but it has contributed to the growing influence
of the Serbian Radical Party, which makes Milosevic look moderate.
Let the naïve point out that US policy in the region
is having the exact opposite of its intended goals. It matters
little, at any rate, whether what we are witnessing is the
Law of Unintended Consequences in operation – or its
opposite, the Law of Consequences Fully Intended. As a practical
matter, the war in the Balkans, far from being over, has merely
been temporarily interrupted. It will resume, sooner rather
than later, with renewed ferocity – the only question
is when.
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