Author: Nebojsa Malic

In today’s New York Times , neocon Leslie Gelb advocates a partition of Iraq into three ethnic statelets. Then he invokes a “precedent” (sic): Yugoslavia. According to Gelb, it was held together by Tito’s laudable coercion, but the supposed Serb coercion to that end was pure evil, and had to be fought until Yugoslavia fractured into “natural states” such as Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Of course, Bosnia is not natural, Kosovo is a textbook case of settler takeover, and Croatia was “free” only after an ethnic cleansing that put the WW2 genocide there to shame – but Gelb doesn’t bother with facts if they get in the way of a good argument. Continue reading “Double standards: Iraq and Bosnia”

What happens if an Agent of Empire disobeys his masters and tells the truth, for once? He gets fired, and his work dropped into the Memory Hole.
Such is the case of Chris Stephen, of the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), who found out first-hand the price of displeasing the Powers That Be… Continue reading “…And Nothing but the Truth?”

The same day as The Real Izetbegovic, Izetbegovic’s former colleague in the Bosnian Presidium, Nenad Kecmanovic. published his obituary of the not-so-dearly departed Bosnian Muslim leader in the Serbian weekly NIN. The full article, availabe in Serbian on NIN’s subscriber site, reveals much about Izetbegovic and his organization, both good and bad. Politically, hovewer, Kecmanovic cannot forgive him:
“His skill in parlor politics that kept him on top for over a decade was inversely proportional to his catastrophic political judgments.”
“One can only say that he destroyed every possibility that the former Yugoslav heartland, through a consensus of three equal peoples and democratic agreement of its citizens, could eventually become a sovereign state.” Continue reading “More about Izetbegovic”

Today’s article by Karen Kwiatkowski at LewRockwell.com is an interesting take on the way to defeat the neocons – and generally, anyone who relies on the argument of force, rather than the force of argument.

Now, I’m a fan of cultural history, which is relevant because art often reflects the undercurrents of society. So Col. Kwiatkowski’s column reminded me of an episode of a delightfully subversive SF show called Babylon 5 (starring Yugoslav actress Mira Furlan, among others) from a few years back. At one point, an Earth officer – who had rebelled against the government that turned fascist using a terrorist attack as an excuse – is captured and interrogated by the fascists.
The entire episode takes place in his cell, where the interrogator/torturer tries to break Captain Sheridan in a cold, calculated manner – and keeps failing.
At one point he asks the drugged, starved, poisoned, beaten, and utterly powerless prisoner, mocking his devotion to the truth:
“Can you win?”
Sheridan replies: “Every time I say ‘No’.”
That’s really all it takes. They never break him.
And they lose

Sam’s post on a book review in the eXile reminded me I haven’t visited their page for a while. One of my favorites is the “War Nerd,” though I’m not sure why. Maybe because he doesn’t mince words…
Here’s his take on the whole “Greater Albania” issue. The way I’ve argued it, it’s a bit more complex, but this guy just cuts right to the bone.
There’s also a great piece on French military history, for all those who denigrate them as “cheese-earing surrender monkeys.” Pay attention to the battle of Monongahela and its implications for American history (i.e. what if a certain officer had not survived?).
Fascinating stuff.

There’s that old canard that no press is bad press. Certainly, with everything that’s been written about them over the past decade or so, the Serbs should know that’s a lie. But sometimes “good” press is excruciatingly bad press, too. Consider an October 6 editorial by the War Street Journal (subscribers click here, the rest you will have to trust me), extolling the virtues of “better friends to America than the French.”
Welcome to the Dark Side. Continue reading “War Street Journal: “Our Friends, the Serbs”?!”