Continuity, Confirmed

The title says it all: "Obama the Imperialist," writes Richard Seymour in The Guardian.

I couldn't have written it better myself, though I've tried.

Hide! They are "Helping" Again!

Being in the U.S. myself, I can't watch Voice of America news. You see, VOA is official Washington propaganda directed to the outside world, so it can't be shown to Americans. Might interfere with all the brainwashing done by PBS, CNN, Fox and so on, somehow, I guess.

So I could not verify for myself what Serbian agencies reported today, about what Ambassador Robert Gelbard told Voice of America. But I'll take their word that Gelbard said that "Washington must help Serbia progress and consolidate democracy and stability."

Gee, Bob, hasn't America "helped" enough? First it helped destroy the country built on the blood of over 2 million Serbs, while making a million Serbs into refugees or second-class citizens. A part of Serbia has been occupied and declared an "independent state," following an illegal war of aggression undertaken by NATO at Washington's orders. Then Washington used Serbia as a Petri dish for testing the formula of "popular revolution" that was later deployed in Georgia, Ukraine, and (without success) Belarus. In its efforts to "help" Serbia, Washington has not only supported the very people Bob Gelbard has called terrorists, it has also funded the very worst quisling scum, both within the government and the so-called "civil society."

“The Balkans are a very important region and the United States of America should closely cooperate with the European Union and Russia in order to preserve the progress made in the last decade,” Gelbard is said to have told VOA.

Progress? Yeah, the nightmare I just described above is considered "progress" in Washington. Through a combination of aggression and Trojan takeover, Washington is finally completely in control of "the most important country in the Balkans that has an influence on the whole region” (Gelbard to VOA, as quoted). And just to be on the safe side, it will grind it down to a more manageable size soon.

Once a Balkans envoy until his candid remark about the KLA got him exiled to Indonesia, Gelbard is now a member of Obama's policymaking posse, and in that capacity he criticized the freshly departed Emperor, who "completely ignored the Balkans in the first four years" and then focused solely on Kosovo thereafter.

But hey, according to both Washington policymakers and their paid presstitutes in Serbia itself, carving out Kosovo was supposed to help Serbia overcome the handicaps of having a culture, history and heritage that were holding it back from become a proper member of the "international community" - you know, a lobotomized postmodern society that obeys Imperial commands unconditionally. So you see, Bush the Lesser was actually helping Serbia, just like Clinton before him bombed it, with nothing but the best of intentions in mind.

In their minds, maybe. I'm aware that sarcasm isn't readily apparent in writing, so I'm laying it on with a trowel here; if you really believe this garbage, I've got a sweet coastal property in Kansas for you...

Now, where was I? Oh yes. Gelbard also praised "a very good authority there with President Boris Tadic at its head." He probably said a good government, but thanks to the idiot who translated the interview we got "authority." Whatever. The point is, Gelbard and his people like Tadic. And why shouldn't they? He's doing their bidding to the letter, while pretending to care about the country and people of Serbia. He's selling them down the river with a song in his heart. Who in Washington wouldn't be proud of such a creature?

So chin up, Serbians - Uncle Barack is coming to "help," just like George and Bill before him. Between the brotherly affections of the American people (as represented by the enlightened policies of their democratically elected government) and the sheer brilliance, competence and honesty of your own elected officials, a brighter future of prosperity and democracy is just around the corner. Any day now. Soon. Real soon. Almost there.

Now, about that beachfront property in Kansas...

Pathetic Plavsic

In 1990, Biljana Plavsic was elected into the 7-member Presidency of what was then still the Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, part of the Yugoslav federation. She was still in her home in downtown Sarajevo when war broke out in April 1992 (so much for the whole "conspiracy of Serbian aggressors" theory); I remember watching the footage of her being evacuated from the city in an armored car.

In 1996, Plavsic allied with Bosnia's NATO overlords in an effort to destroy the power base of her former political party. She also helped the "reforms" that had started to modify the Dayton peace agreement from its original form into the "living document" it is now. Plavsic and her Prime Minister, Milorad Dodik, were seen as American puppets, and lost the 1998 elections due to a backlash from their excessive servility. (Dodik is now being attacked as "nationalist" by those very same Americans that ran him a decade ago, just because he's refusing to dismantle the Serb Republic and lead his people meekly into a Muslim-dominated centralized state.)

Having outlived her usefulness in Bosnian politics, Plavsic could do one more thing for the Empire, though. In 2000, she was accused of war crimes by the Hague Inquisition. She turned herself in, and in 2002 agreed to plead guilty.

Googling the news from back then, I found this description by Australian radio's Michael Brissenden that's pretty typical of the Western media coverage of Bosnia, Plavsic, and the Serbs in general:

She was one of those most driven by the racist dream of an ethnically pure Serb nation. Many who covered the war remember her as one of the true ideologues.

She spoke often and with considerable passion to the international media. She advocated the division of the Bosnian state and the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, along ethnic lines and by her own admission, she was part of a political leadership that collaborated closely with the former Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic in the conception and execution of the objective of ethnic separation by force.

Now she's the first senior Serb leader to admit guilt for the crimes and atrocities committed in Bosnia and she's told the final hearing of her trial that the leadership of which she was a part led an effort that victimised countless innocent people.

There was never a "racist dream of an ethnically pure Serbian nation" - except in the sick minds of Serbophobes. If this were true, how does one explain the fact that Serbia is the most ethnically diverse part of the former Yugoslavia today, and all those poor victimized "democracies" such as Croatia, Slovenia, "Independent state of Kosovo" and parts of Bosnia dominated by the Muslims are over 90% ethnically homogeneous? Besides, the Bosnian Serb leadership did not take orders from Milosevic; Richard Holbrooke went through a lot of trouble to force Milosevic to negotiate on behalf of the Bosnian Serbs, because Washington found them unwilling to bend to its will. And Plavsic was rather inconsequential in wartime Serb politics; it was the media and the Inquisition that declared her an ideologue and a policymaker, because for the whole setup to be effective, they needed her to be.

Plavsic's miserable attempt to save her own skin by damning her people failed. At age 72, Plavsic was sentenced to 11 years in prison and sent to Sweden. Her "confession" had some limited propaganda value at the time, but she later lapsed into oblivion. Bitter at the Inquisition, she refused to testify in any other trials, and was left to rot in the Swedish lockup.

Now she has given an interview to a Swedish magazine, saying she wanted to retract her confession, and that it was just an effort to save her skin. Ironically, even this is being used to further anti-Serb propaganda, providing yet another occasion for old tropes about systematic killings of non-Serbs and genocide. The magazine even makes the absurd allegation that Plavsic "has been accused of playing a key role in the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, where at least 8000 Muslims were killed."

As a Christian, I believe in redemption of just about everyone. Even those who shamefully betray their people to say their own skin (and don't even manage to do that, because the Empire went back on its word. Shocked? Just ask the American Indians). But it would be a lot easier to pity Plavsic were it not for the example of Slobodan Milosevic.

Whatever one may think of his conduct while in power, once he was rendered to the Inquisition in 2001, Milosevic fought tooth and nail - not to save himself, because the outcome of his show trial was a foregone conclusion, but to defend his country and his people from accusations of war crimes, atrocities and genocide. The Inquisition was used to breaking its victims easily; Milosevic not only refused to bend, he destroyed their case in court. When everyone else lawyered up and bargained for the most lenient sentence, Milosevic actually fought back and challenged the Inquisition to prove their case. Which they manifestly could not.

The contrast between Milosevic and Plavsic is just overwhelming.

Biljana Plavsic is now 79, well beyond the average Bosnian's life expectancy. Perhaps she believes in God, and hopes He will forgive her for the things she has said and done in life. He might. Her people? Don't bet on it.