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October 24, 2002
Casus
Belli
Balkans
The Key To Iraq War?
[Lat.
casus – opportunity, occasion; bellum,-i –war]
Not
a day goes by in which the inhabitants of the Balkans are
not reminded, in some way, that they are servants of the Empire.
On top of the visible legacy of imperial intervention, its
hidden consequences also crop up regularly to deepen the region’s
misery. Adding insult to injury, Imperial occupation is promoted
as an example for the
rest of the world. Finally, having used the Balkans as
chump
change in global power games once already, it is doing
so again, in preparation for its invasion of the Middle East.
A
Sound Investment
After
all, the conquest of the troublesome peninsula was not conducted
in a fit of absent-mindedness, or purely for the sake of appearances.
A demonstration of Empire’s awesome power and "indispensability"
was certainly a calculated part of the interventionist strategy,
but there were other reasons for which to mount a "splendid
little war" in the Balkans.
For
one, it put the kibosh on any plans by Europe to assert independence
from its dominant Atlantic sibling. It set precedents for
further use of Imperial force – anytime, anywhere – and established
a strategic location from which such force could be deployed.
Not a few commentators
have mentioned that championing the causes
of Balkans Muslims was used to calm down their disgruntled
Middle Eastern brethren.
Now
it seems that the servants of His Elevated Majesty, Emperor
of the Known World, are finding new uses for this tortured
corner of Europe.
Occupation
as Freedom
Contrary
to all visible
evidence, one foreign policy partisan recently
argued that the occupation of Kosovo was so successful,
it has outdone itself. "Victim of its own success,"
he called it, proceeding to argue that because Kosovo was
so wonderful, its blissful goodness should be spread to other
disadvantaged corners of the world.
Come
again?
Kosovo
is a terrorist- and criminal-infested hellhole, where violence
and slavery flourish, and where life is in the best Hobbesian
tradition, "nasty, brutish and short." Especially
true in the case of surviving Serbs, this is no less applicable
to many "liberated" Albanians, who are scared
to death of testifying against their terrorist tormentors,
even to Imperial procurators.
This
may be the vision of what the Empire wishes to impose on the
rest of the world, but is it something
the world is supposed to embrace? If so, no one can
say they weren’t warned…
Democrisy
and Hypocracy
So
Kosovo may not be the perfect example, some would say.
What about Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, or Macedonia?
Aren’t they now simply exemplary democratic states? Well,
yes
– and that is largely the problem. Bosnia is another protectorate,
where politics is a deadly
joke. Macedonia has been subverted
and turned into an apartheid society by the insidious
Treaty of Ohrid.
Serbia
just held presidential elections, in which the people’s favorite
was clearly
not favored by the Empire. So when the Prime Minister
arranged for a boycott
that would render the vote invalid – and succeeded
– the various pro-Imperial NGOs, an alphabet-soup of supposed
"guardians" of democracy, said nothing.
In
its sister republic of Montenegro, the regime of Milo Djukanovic,
an opportunistic, power-hungry crook, was given a
new lease on life, thanks to the continued flow of donations
from the Imperial treasury that make up most of the tiny republic’s
budget. Djukanovic also happens to be a champion
of "European integration" and "multi-ethnicity,"
two favorite buzzwords among Balkans vassals. A mercenary
if there ever was one, he still has a mission to accomplish:
separate Montenegro from Serbia, at all cost.
And
Croatia? Its government refuses
to extradite a general accused
of war crimes, not on principle, but because it will be
politically risky. On the other hand, its president is all
for the extradition – though not on principle, but because
it is politically correct (to the real masters of the Balkans,
that is).
All
of these countries are in perpetual crisis – politically,
economically, socially – and its only benefactors are their
ruling elites and their foreign masters. Do any of these paragons
of democracy actually sound appealing? And if so, why?
Criminal
Commerce
Over
the past few days, sensationalist reports from Sarajevo and
Belgrade "revealed"
that a Bosnian Serb airplane factory and a Yugoslav arms
dealership may have sold some spare parts to Iraq.
Seemingly striking, the story is but a tip of the propaganda
iceberg.
An
anonymous Serbian engineer claimed
last month to have built several shelters for Saddam Hussein,
which the US would not be able to destroy by bombing alone.
And when US and Russian troops took
uranium fuel from Serbia’s nuclear research facility in
Vinca this August, reports encouraged speculation that the
fuel could have ended up in hostile hands, with Iraq topping
the list.
Now
it is said that Slobodan Milosevic, currently embarrassing
the Hague Inquisition, was "allied with Saddam"
Hussein. But the only thing they had in common is the undying
enmity of the Empire. If this guilt-by-association trend goes
on, overzealous reporters might extend the already over-inflated
balloon of charges against Milosevic to include "conspiring
against the U.S. government" as part of the nonsensical
"joint criminal enterprise" the Inquisition is trying
so hard to argue into existence.
Certainly,
the antebellum Yugoslavia did quite a bit of business in the
antebellum Iraq. So did the United States, Britain, France,
and the then-USSR. The old Yugoslavia also had business interests
in Libya, Nigeria, Kuwait, Iran, Malaysia, Algeria, Syria,
even the United States. Many countries saw Yugoslavia’s business
came with no strings attached and no threat of force, unlike
the competition from the West.
Though
the Emperor’s mouth is full of pronouncements about "free
trade," any trading not allowed by the Empire is considered
a crime nowadays. And if it happens to be trade that could
help a country to defend itself from invasion, so much the
worse.
The
Living Example
Apparently,
leaders of the Empire are so desperately determined to invade
Iraq, they are seeking a pretext for attacking as far away
as the Balkans.
One
of the chief reasons for this column’s existence has been
the notion that the world should learn from the experiences
of the former Yugoslavia and avoid its tragic
fate. The Balkans has buried more illusions and crushed
more dreams than most other places on the planet. One of the
exceptions, ironically, is the Middle East. Yet just as "peacekeeping"
in the Balkans was the overture to interventions in Bosnia
and Kosovo, the planned attack on Iraq is supposed to be the
staging point for the
entire Middle East.
Well,
as Santayana
might put it, those who learn nothing from history are doomed
to repeat it.
There
was another power, not so long ago, which had come to virtually
dominate the Balkans, and sought to invade the last obstacle
to its total supremacy. When its heir to the throne met
a bullet fired by a young assassin, the Empire had its
pretext – but so did its enemies.
Viennese
courtiers’ desire to crush Serbia led to World War One, which
destroyed not just Austria-Hungary and several other empires,
but most of European civilization as well.
When
roaming the graveyards of empires, whether in the Balkans
or in the Middle East, ignorance, arrogance and stupidity
are not assets.
Just
so no one can say they weren’t warned.
–
Nebojsa Malic
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