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THE GERMAN SOLUTIONHaving characterized Milosevic – a third-rate apparatchik and small-time hoodlum – as a Slavic Hitler, it is only natural for US government propagandists to push for a German solution to the Serbian "problem." For if Milosevic really was guilty of "genocide" against the Albanians of Kosovo – in spite of the inability of forensic scientists to uncover more than 2,000 bodies in the war zone, including Serbs – then surely the Serbian people themselves were "Milosevic's willing executioners," as the New Republic phrased it. The US State Department-New Republic doctrine of collective guilt requires mass reeducation and the self-abnegation of the Serbian people. In support of this thesis, RFE/RL cites the presidents of Croatia and Albania, who complain that "Neither the new Serbian leadership nor Serbian society as a whole has begun a 'catharsis' of the emotions and beliefs that at one point led to the rise of Milosevic and ultimately to four disastrous wars (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 17 and 31 October 2000). Nor do most Serbs even seem to sense any need to look deeply into themselves and at their political culture." "CATHARSIS" AND SUBMISSIONThis "catharsis" means nothing less than total submission. The US and Germany will settle for nothing less than the Bosnia-zation of Serbia: that is, a Serbia occupied by NATO troops, where Serbian nationalists are arrested for engaging in "hate speech" and Serbian nationalist parties are banned, their elected candidates to the national assembly thrown out at gunpoint by the NATO-crats. Even now our KLA allies are penetrating the southern border, provoking a new conflict, and RFE/RFL has a clear line on this, too: the poor Albanians are once again being put upon by the evil Serbs, who have the gall to object to Albanian border incursions. A formally-constituted "Liberation Army" has been organized, consisting of at least 600 militants, who aim to break off yet another piece of Serbia, this time in the Presevo valley, and adjoining regions, but the existence of an organized Albanian terrorist network does not interest the editors of RFE/RFL: their main interest is in "reporting" yet another Albanian "mass exodus" on account of Serbian police action. Interviews with various Albanians claiming mistreatment at the hands of the Serbs are cited, RFE?RFL reports UN estimates of 5,000 "refugees" – and does any of this sound familiar? How long before CNN is down there "reporting" yet another "humanitarian catastrophe," illustrated with an endless loop of Albanians trudging down dusty roads? RUSSOPHOBIA – COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOUThe present administration is fixated on the Balkans, and its chief interest in the Middle East is Israel, while their would-be successors in the GOP are mildly skeptical of Balkan adventurism (although they are committed to seeing it through) and have a much broader Middle Eastern agenda. Dubya and his co-president-to-be, Dick Cheney, have their sights set on the oil fields of Iraq and the Caucasus. An increasingly adversarial relationship with Russia, not only over the Caucasus but on account of NATO expansion – which ideologues like Bush advisor Paul Wolfowitz are absolutely committed to – is inevitable if and when Dubya wins the White House. Putin will do nicely as the new Hitler, until and unless a more convincingly villainous Russian ruler comes along. Already the alleged rise of Russian anti-Semitism is becoming a Western cause celebre, and Putin is being roundly criticized for breaking up Russian media conglomerates critical of the regime. There is a certain revival of anti-Russian sentiment among conservatives, or at least an attempt to stoke those dead embers. THE ENEMY IS AT HOMEHowever, I doubt this effort will catch fire, and for the same reason that a crusade to unseat Saddam will be met with something less than enthusiasm among the thousands who demonstrated against the Gore coup, and the millions more who were deeply angered by it. These millions – the Republican base – will not soon forget the horrors of Coup 2000. Nor will they forgive, in spite of Dubya's conciliatory rhetoric and the bipartisan love-fest that is sure to come. This blatant attempt to seize power, utilizing a Praetorian Guard of lawyers and street activists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to steal an election, has had a clarifying effect on the Republican rank-and-file: they may be confused enough to believe that "compassionate conservatism" means anything other than hard-assed liberalism, but, for once, they know who and what their real enemies are – and they aren't in Belgrade, or Baghdad. Please Support Antiwar.comA contribution of $50 or more will get you a copy of Ronald Radosh's out-of-print classic study of the Old Right conservatives, Prophets on the Right: Profiles of Conservative Critics of American Globalism. Send contributions to Antiwar.com or
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