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June
13, 2002
Balkans
and the Big Picture
War
Crimes, Terrorists, and Empire
Hollywood
did it again last weekend,
as the Chris Rock-Anthony Hopkins feature Bad Company
revolved around preventing "Yugoslav" terrorists
from blowing up New York City with a nuclear weapon. Even
the film critics saw through
such a pathetic plot setup. But it must have been rather embarrassing
when a most unlikely suspect was arrested
Monday for allegedly plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb"
in Washington, DC. Not only was he not "Yugoslav"
or "neo-Nazi" (as the politically correct Sum
of All Fears would have it these days), he was an American
Muslim of Hispanic origin.
That's
one movie option no one is going to touch with a ten-foot
pole, though. Tinseltown finds it a lot easier to pin the
"terrorist" tag onto Serbs or Russians even as real terrorists
are nothing of the sort. As mentioned before, there must be
something more at work here than simple ignorance, or a poor
excuse of trying to "promote tolerance." How does labeling
a nation that has nothing to do with terrorism – while avoiding
those who have – "promote tolerance"?
Make-Believe
Terrorists
Hollywood
obviously prefers to invent fake terrorists for the sake of
vapid plots, though real life offers far more interesting
– and incredulous
– fare. But is that any better than what the Empire is doing?
If
one asks the Hague Inquisition, Slobodan Milosevic is a far
worse threat to world peace than Usama
bin Ladin. First he is accused of "terrorizing"
the court by not letting the prosecution crucify him.
Then he is alleged to have created the world's greatest offshore financing
structure. There is also the cardinal sin of not reading
Human Rights Watch e-mails.
Besides, no one's ever accused Al-Qaeda of genocide, while
Milosevic's guilt in that matter is already widely assumed.
The
War Crimes Scam
To
hear the Inquisition's witnesses, even when the real terrorists
plot
assassinations of their supporters, everything is Milosevic's
fault. Darth Sidious,
eat your heart out: the real Dark Lord of the Sith sits in
the docket in The Hague – or so they'd have us all believe.
So while Al-Qaeda is out of reach, but ever-so-conveniently
"out there somewhere," Milosevic and the entire Serbian people
are made to bear the brunt of Empire's exercise in vital powers.
The
most recent victim of the Inquisition was "K12," supposedly
a truck driver who was supposed to testify about truckloads
of Albanian bodies allegedly reburied in Serbia even as NATO
pulverized its road network. After refusing to testify and
complaining about psychological pressure, "K12" was found
"in
contempt of court" and threatened with fines and imprisonment.
So, though legions of previous witnesses have freely perjured
themselves – an act of contempt if there was ever any – lying
for the prosecution, only the one witness who refused to
do so is actually punished.
On
top of all that, news that the prosecution commissioned a
report by a reputable Harvard scholar about "Serb nationalism
in the 20th century" makes it clear what the entire
"trial" is about. All the slick PR talk about "individual
guilt" and "command responsibility" were really a cover for
an effort to put the entire country – through its leader –
on trial, and impose on them a burden of collective guilt.
Like the futile hunt for ephemeral Al-Qaeda through the picturesque
Afghan caves, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic is all show,
no substance.
Fiddling
At The Fire
One
would expect the people who overthrew Milosevic to at least
defend the Serbian state – as their current fief – if not
its people. Instead, Zoran Djindjic persists in his quest
for power, and Vojislav Kostunica persists in opposing him. Statements
in Serbian media regarding the Budding Report (to call it
by its author, Prof. Audrey Helfant-Budding) are pathetic
to the point of being shocking. Kostunica was "surprised"
by the Inquisition's claims of collective guilt. A leading
government international law expert was "disappointed." And
Foreign Minister Svilanovic, Djindjic's lapdog if there ever
was one, quickly commented that judging evidence was "not
the government's job," but that of the Inquisition.
No
wonder the Inquisition and the Empire dare so much. There's
no one to resist them any more.
The
Phantom Menace
Meanwhile,
in Washington, a disturbing, although entirely expected, pattern
emerges. The horrendous attacks of Black Tuesday are ultimately
used by unscrupulous politicians. Their perpetrators, alleged
or confirmed, are largely ignored. It is as if the Al-Qaeda
is the Phantom Menace, whose mythical omnipotence justifies
everything. This "jihad construct" also masks the existence
of a very
real jihad movement, one few are aware of, and even fewer
are ready to face.
The
agenda seems to be to escalate the paranoia and expand both
the government
and the reach of Imperial power. Distracted by the daily terror
warnings, fake movie terrorists, and show trials of "war criminals"
who'd have been seen as heroes had they by any chance been
American Presidents, few seem to notice the growing shadow
of the Empire as it boldly asserts itself with such "defense"
doctrines as "first
strike."
Why
the Balkans Still Matters
When
Balkan Express started out as a column, it was supposed
to cast light on the widespread ignorance about the peninsula
– and the former Yugoslav federation in particular – because
it was such an important piece of the Big Picture. Almost
two years hence, it appears ignorance is but a part of the
problem, standing right next to bald lies and deliberate malice.
And the Big Picture has only become clearer.
Particulars of the Balkans conflict never really mattered to those who run the
Empire, but only the ways in which they could advance the
imperial agenda. Slovenia and Croatia were a pretext for recognizing
Bosnia, intervention in Bosnia paved the way for Kosovo,
Kosovo made possible what happened in Macedonia, and so on. It
had very little to do with the Balkans or its inhabitants,
whose quarrels and feuds were merely a vehicle. Since everyone
was being manipulated, it never mattered who "won" – the only
real winner was the Empire, at everyone else's expense.
That's the hidden meaning, if you will, of what happened in the past ten years.
As show trials and make-believe terrorists show, the Balkans is still used as
a prop in Empire's great game of power. To be sure, it has
become a part of something much more complex and sinister.
That only means, though, that what the Empire does in the
Balkans – and what the Balkans does to either serve or oppose
the Empire – is still very much important.
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