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August
7, 2003
The
New Janissaries
How
Low Can Serbia's Rulers Go?
by Nebojsa Malic
This
week, just as His Elevated Majesty was becoming increasingly
testy about all the questioning of his feeble rationalizations
for the Empire's Middle Eastern adventure – which has turned
quite sour for the troops on the ground – Washington received
an unlikely morale booster. It was announced that during his
late July visit
to Washington, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic offered
1000 Serbian troops for the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan
– "any mission" His Majesty decides on.
During
the centuries of occupation, Ottoman Turks would regularly
round up young Serbs and other Balkans Christians, march them
to Istanbul, convert them to Islam and train them as the sultans'
shock troops and administrators. This was known as devshirme,
or the "blood levy," and these converts as janissaries.
This conscription and forcible conversion was considered a
particularly painful episode in Serbian history. Apparently,
in the "new democracy," that has changed.
The
Blood Offering
Zivkovic
came to Washington in order to boost his flagging popularity
among Serbians by appearing to enjoy favor with the ultimate
power. Upon his return, he talked about "strategic partnership"
and "end to pressure and coercion," never mentioning
the troops.
The
Prime Minister's offer was revealed in a patronizing Washington
Post column this Monday. Even as it actually sought
foreign mercenaries to relieve the
strain on its shock troops, the Empire was so scornful
of its groveling slaves that it treated the offer cautiously.
The columnist who reported it, one Jackson Diehl, was openly
contemptuous.
One
is tempted to treat Diehl himself with caution. He displays
appalling disrespect for facts by claiming NATO "crushed"
the Yugoslav Army in 1999 (it didn't), and that Serbia was
"the most frequent starting point for European wars in
the past 100 years" (it wasn't). He reported differently
from Kosovo back
in 1986, when he still knew how. But given the Dossies'
record of prostrating Serbia (not so much themselves) before
Washington, the claim that Zivkovic offered troops is credible
enough.
Furthermore,
news from Belgrade this past weekend was that Dossie defense
minister Boris Tadic purged
the top brass, forcing into retirement a perfectly competent
general who humbled NATO in Kosovo, as well as the head of
Army Intelligence. While Tadic has pledged to purge opposition
to joining NATO's satellite program "Partnership for
Peace," these dismissals might be aimed specifically
at clearing the way for Zivkovic's troop offer.
"Partners"
or Servants
Is
it not enough that four years ago the Empire launched a war
of aggression against Serbia – accusing it of "invading"
its own territory – thus committing a clear-cut prima facie
war
crime? Now the Serbs are expected to join Imperial aggression
against Afghanistan, Iraq, and God only knows who else, and
maybe even say, "thank you very much, may we have another?"
to the whole issue of NATO's barbaric bombing.
Perhaps
not. Again, Zivkovic had not mentioned the troops at all until
Tuesday night, when the word got out on CNN. Serbian media
then re-broadcast the news, and it was all over the Wednesday
morning newspapers as well. Obviously, someone in Washington
talked. So much for the "strategic partnership,"
then.
So
what now? With the Empire "considering" Zivkovic's
offer, how will Serbia react? Will the Women
In Black protest the deployment of Serbian conscripts
to an Imperial war, the way they protested
"Serbian nationalist aggression"? Or is it OK to
die for foreign "democracy," but not for one's own
home? Don't bet on it. All the supposedly pro-peace and human-rights
NGOs are a pillar of Dossie (i.e. Imperial) power, guided
by nothing even remotely resembling a coherent principle.
Knowing which side their bread is buttered on, they will stay
silent.
Prattle
aside, there will never be a "partnership" – strategic
or otherwise – between Serbia and the Empire. The neocons
want servants, not "partners;" compliance, not "cooperation."
Everything Washington needs in the Balkans, it has already
received from Serbia's hostile neighbors, and even its co-habitant
in the "union," Montenegro. Far from securing some
sort of preferential treatment, further groveling will only
invite further abuse. But that is yet another concept the
Dossies are incapable of comprehending.
A
Power Struggle
Some
clues as to why Zivkovic is courting support from Washington
come from Serbia itself. In late July, the government managed
to purge the Serbian
central bank, whose governor was leader of an opposition
party. In place of Mladjan Dinkic and his G17 associates –
chiefly responsible for the Dossies' economic program in 2000,
be it noted – DOS appointed Kori Udovicki, former Energy Minister
notorious for soaking the life savings of elderly Serbians
by raising electricity prices.
The
departing governor accused two high-ranking advisors in the
Zivkovic government – and members of his Democratic Party
– of money-laundering. This pushed the already scandal-ridden
government's approval rating to new lows. DOS-friendly analysts
at Radio Netherlands speculated
this week that the scandal would herald a power struggle within
the Democratic Party, from which Zivkovic would emerge stronger
and ready to "confront the voters," but that is
highly unlikely. Dossies view elections as a vampire would
garlic and stakes – with a mixture of fear and loathing.
And
with good reason. Their former Trojan horse Vojislav Kostunica
is enjoying rising poll numbers, a development the Empire
is observing with
some concern. Erstwhile Djindjic
stooge Miroljub Labus is also polling well, though not
nearly as well as Kostunica. Both of them are just as committed
to "reforms" and service to the Empire, albeit somewhat
more subtly, as DOS. Empire's grip on Serbia is not in jeopardy,
unfortunately – only Zivkovic's.
Lessons
from Another Vassal
Another
recent visitor to Washington was the Macedonian KLA leader
Ali Ahmeti, until
recently on the US terrorist blacklist. His one-time nemesis,
former interior minister Ljube Boskovski, was meanwhile added
to the blacklist. Neither change was followed by an explanation,
leaving the Macedonians confused.
They've done everything the US has asked of them, and more,
yet the Empire has persistently favored the Albanian segregationists.
While the Empire claims to fight terrorism, it blacklists
Macedonian security officials and treats the leaders of terrorists
("murderous
thugs," as NATO chief Robertson called them) as statesmen.
Back
in September 2001 it
was obvious that US actions (or rather, lack thereof)
in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia made the "war on terror"
as good as lost. For their part, Macedonians learned a depressing
lesson from their bitter experience: sometimes, even being
an obedient US vassal cannot save you.
DOSta!
In
fact, Zivkovic & Co. should read one of Wednesday’s editorials
in the Washington Times, composed by the known Serbophobe
Helle (Bering) Dale. Her "Are
you being Serbed?" asks how these uppity savages
dare protest US hostility and demand fair treatment, when
the entire world knows they are as racist, genocidal and criminal
as Nazi Germany. Zivkovic and his foreign minister, Svilanovic,
yap to presstitutes
at Washington clubs over brandy and cigars, but it’s the people
they represent who suffer. Dale's verbal abuses are one thing,
but deaths in battle quite another. No number of dead Serbs
can ever appease the likes of Dale and her employers at the
Heritage Foundation and the Council of Foreign Relations.
Yet that’s what Zivkovic is trying to do.
DOS
is nothing but a motley collection of irresponsible, corrupt,
statist kleptocrats, who came to power only because of the
public's resentment of the government they replaced – and
lots of bags filled with US taxpayers' cash. Ostensibly "democrats,"
they've established a "domination of political and economic
life of which Slobodan Milosevic could only have dreamed"
(BHHRG).
Whatever troubles beset Serbia before 5 October 2000, the
situation today is entirely the fault of DOS. Zivkovic's groveling
offer of Serbian troops to help the Empire's wars of conquest
and occupation ought to be the last straw for the people who
simply cannot take any more social engineering, deliberately
malicious or otherwise.
It
is time to show these lying, plundering quisling sleazebags
the door – preferably to Hell, or prison, but out of office
will do. Anyone else could run Serbia better, preferably
as little as possible, guaranteeing the Serbians their liberty
but otherwise not preventing them from improving their lives,
as all governments have done so far.
At
some point during the Dossie reign, an anonymous Belgrade
street artist made a pun on the ruling band of thieves' name:
"DOSta," meaning "Enough of DOS." It's
time the pun becomes reality, before young Serbians start
coming home in body bags from once again serving a cruel conqueror.
–
Nebojsa Malic
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