By the time "The Enduring Schism" posted, I was already halfway across the world, jetting off for a two-week visit to the Balkans. I've only returned a week or so ago, and have been sorting impressions and catching up with news ever since.
Part of the trip included a visit to Serbia - all too brief, alas, but intensely productive. Much has changed since my last visit, back in 2005. That was before the "EUrophile" government had wormed its way into power in the confused aftermath of "Kosovian" secession; I knew opposing them was morally right even from across the Atlantic, but seeing the effects of their misrule only confirmed it. My only regret, again, is that I didn't have more time.
There isn't much to say about the current government, except that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the waffling princeling of Denmark. They may not be quite the replacement quislings I thought them earlier this summer, but their reaction to the slings and arrows of the Empire, the EU and their local enablers can only be described as whiny. Contrary to Sun Tzu's advice to fight when "in death ground," they have chosen to try subterfuge and press on, as if nothing were amiss.
Such a non-response has proven strangely effective, though. Having
predicated their approach on encountering either submission or
resistance, neither the Germans, nor the Empire, nor their "NGO"
infantry on the ground know what to make of the government's weaponized
confusion.
One example was the "pride parade," scheduled for October 6. The government banned it at the last moment, using the pretext of security (ironically, put into place by its parade-supporting predecessor, aiming to stop the opposition from protesting). Yet the police then deployed 2000 riot control officers to protect a distasteful "art exhibit" by a Swedish artiste, calculatedly insulting Christianity and Judaism. After several days of public outrage - but no violence - the exhibit was ordered to close.
Another case of the "confusion bomb" in action has been the reaction to the "soccer racism" story. At an under-21 match against England (which Serbia lost, 0-1), one English player was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end, and a fight broke out on the pitch. The player, Danny Rose, claims he was the target of racist insults by Serbian fans. Media in the UK have seized upon Rose's claim to wallow in a vicious Serbophobic campaign echoing the 1990s.
At any point between June 2008 and June 2012, the response from Belgrade would have been a simpering apology. Not so this time. Serbia's embassy in London has stayed mum (which might be for the best, considering), but basketball star Marko Jaric criticized the hysteria, while the Serbian Football Association (FSS) posted a video clip from the match that directly contradicts Rose's claims.
Yet just as one might think there's a method in the madness, the Prime Minister goes and meets with the Crime Minister of Thacistan, pretending that's perfectly normal and that Serbia is engaging in "constructive negotiations" with separatist terrorists while respecting its constitution and sovereignty.
While it is possible that a meaningless meeting filled with worthless words is just the thing to throw the "Snake" and the rest of his organ-and-heroin merchant clique off-balance, I'm afraid that might be giving the people involved too much credit. Had they been able to do right by Serbia, they would have done so many times over by now. Unlike their predecessors, they do not wish their country harm - but may yet, in their indecision and ineptitude, ill serve her cause.
Part of the trip included a visit to Serbia - all too brief, alas, but intensely productive. Much has changed since my last visit, back in 2005. That was before the "EUrophile" government had wormed its way into power in the confused aftermath of "Kosovian" secession; I knew opposing them was morally right even from across the Atlantic, but seeing the effects of their misrule only confirmed it. My only regret, again, is that I didn't have more time.
There isn't much to say about the current government, except that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the waffling princeling of Denmark. They may not be quite the replacement quislings I thought them earlier this summer, but their reaction to the slings and arrows of the Empire, the EU and their local enablers can only be described as whiny. Contrary to Sun Tzu's advice to fight when "in death ground," they have chosen to try subterfuge and press on, as if nothing were amiss.
 |
| "Alas, poor Serbia. I knew her, Horatio" (Sir Lawrence Olivier as Hamlet) |
One example was the "pride parade," scheduled for October 6. The government banned it at the last moment, using the pretext of security (ironically, put into place by its parade-supporting predecessor, aiming to stop the opposition from protesting). Yet the police then deployed 2000 riot control officers to protect a distasteful "art exhibit" by a Swedish artiste, calculatedly insulting Christianity and Judaism. After several days of public outrage - but no violence - the exhibit was ordered to close.
Another case of the "confusion bomb" in action has been the reaction to the "soccer racism" story. At an under-21 match against England (which Serbia lost, 0-1), one English player was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end, and a fight broke out on the pitch. The player, Danny Rose, claims he was the target of racist insults by Serbian fans. Media in the UK have seized upon Rose's claim to wallow in a vicious Serbophobic campaign echoing the 1990s.
At any point between June 2008 and June 2012, the response from Belgrade would have been a simpering apology. Not so this time. Serbia's embassy in London has stayed mum (which might be for the best, considering), but basketball star Marko Jaric criticized the hysteria, while the Serbian Football Association (FSS) posted a video clip from the match that directly contradicts Rose's claims.
Yet just as one might think there's a method in the madness, the Prime Minister goes and meets with the Crime Minister of Thacistan, pretending that's perfectly normal and that Serbia is engaging in "constructive negotiations" with separatist terrorists while respecting its constitution and sovereignty.
While it is possible that a meaningless meeting filled with worthless words is just the thing to throw the "Snake" and the rest of his organ-and-heroin merchant clique off-balance, I'm afraid that might be giving the people involved too much credit. Had they been able to do right by Serbia, they would have done so many times over by now. Unlike their predecessors, they do not wish their country harm - but may yet, in their indecision and ineptitude, ill serve her cause.
11 comments:
I'm always hoping that the stupid behavior of the Serbian government is part of some long-term secret plot that is actually working towards Serbia's interest but only appears to be treasonous -employing deception to fool our enemies. I doubt it though unfortunately.
I heard about the 'Serbian racist football incident' and something immediately popped into my mind. Did you notice how whenever someone criticizes Islam or Muslims, they are always called an Islamophobe or even prosecuted and socially vilified, and this is always accompanied by statement of how it is only SOME Muslims that are bad, its only a tiny extremist fringe minority, etc etc, but the moment it is about Serbs, ALL Serbs are bad, ALL of Serbia is evil and racist, and everyone joins in the Serb-bashing. Western/Liberal hypocrisy at its very best.
Maybe Serbs should start blowing up Western buildings and public transportation systems and sending death threats to people who criticize them even slightly.
I wonder what would happen. They can't bomb us again, the world is a different place. China has America by the balls, the EU is falling apart, and Russia has its house in order.
Seriously, we should invite the leaders of Hezbollah to Belgrade. I'm sure we would have much to discuss.
What is your view on the Serb President meeting with the war criminal/'Kosovan' leader?
Have you seen this?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/19/us_weather_service_hack/
Kosova Hacker's Security
Kosova Hacker's Security said the hack was carried out in retaliation for American aggression against Muslim nations, including the
Flame and Stuxnet malware attacks against the Iran nuclear program.
"They hack our nuclear plants using STUXNET and FLAME like malwares, they are bombing us 27*7, we can't sit silent - hack to
payback them," The Hacker News quotes the hackers as saying.
Aleks, yes, I've seen that. Was about to say "well, how about those secular, America-loving Albanians?", but Julia Gorin beat me to it.
Senad, I've long argued that Serbophobia is one of the few (perhaps even the only) officially sanctioned bigotries in the West. And I concur that they can't "bomb us again" and that the world is a different place.
But while it's tempting to think of learning from Hezbollah, if we embraced terrorism now, after not resorting to it even under the demonization of the 1990s, we would become the very thing we're fighting. What point victory, then?
Oh, and as for Dacic meeting with Thaci, I think it was a stupid thing to do. The only thing worse would have been signing something. I hope they are sufficiently afraid of their own people, and won't try that next.
Senad,
Rather than being a result of genuine tolerance in a society, the degree of political correctness demonstrated towards one or another ethnic (but also social) group is in fact directly proportional to the power of its lobby. In other words, all ethnicities are equal but some are (much) more equal than others. If I am correct, it was Voltaire who said that if you want to know who is in control, always think whom you cannot criticize.
@ Suvorov: I've heard that quote before and I think its rather disturbing that Muslims are in control of the west lol. If not that, then the west still allows them to do what they want - I don't know whats worse. Either way, IMO, shows the inherent self-loathing of the west. Pathetic. They deserve to be Islamized.
@Gray Falcon: I wasn't being entirely serious with the Hezbollah comment. I was just saying that the Serbs paid massively for what they supposedly did. So I was just thinking that we might as well get the value we paid for. Whether we did in fact commit 'genocide' or not is besides the point, because it is perceived that we did, so maybe we should of. See what I'm getting at?
I see what you mean by not reducing ourselves to their level because we will then become what we are fighting, but I'm not sure where your view on this comes from. I am more concerned with Serbs actually getting a better footing in geo-political affairs than with Serbs having the 'moral high ground'. You may disagree and thats fair enough, but I'm just saying there is no point being 'right' if you are dead.
As for the Kosovo thing, I have a massive hypothetical for you, and I'm curious to see what you think of it.
Lets pretend for a second that the Serbian constitution has any legitimacy. What if we made an amendment to it that stated something along the lines of "Kosovo i Metohija' is an inherent and eternal part of Serbia", and any act by government which contradicts this statement is annulled by law.
This would provide a loophole, because then under law, Kosovo will always be part of Serbia, but in the matter of practical affairs, we could treat Kosovo as an independent state and even recognize it as such, which would make things easier for Belgrade, and would also then put us in a position to criticize 'The Republic of Kosova' without it being automatically labelled as 'Serb nationalism'. We could milk the current situation for all it is worth because Serbs do not actually run Kosovo at this time. I think we could exploit the current situation in a few ways but we haven't being doing so.
I think it really doesn't matter whether we recognize Kosovo as an independent state or not, because Kosovo is always going to be seen as being Serb, and even if we did invade it again, whether we recognized it as sovereign or not won't matter, because the people who have interests there are going to see any Serbian attack on Kosovo as an act of war on a sovereign state, regardless of whether we see it as such or not. And since it is not actually under Serb jurisdiction at the moment, why not recognize it, and play along, getting all we can from it, even putting pressure on the EU and the west for 'being good', saying "hey look, we recognized Kosovo, we signed treaties, we are following the rules, when are you going to hold up your end of the bargain", because this will make them look bad for once, and we the more 'obedient' we become, the more room it gives us to also threaten to become aggressive, something the west does not want.
And by making the amendment to the constitution, we can recognize Kosovo practically without actually doing so under 'law', so when we finally do get Kosovo back, all our agreements, treaties, etc with them will be automatically meaningless under Serbian law, because of the loophole provided. It allows us to sort of believe Kosovo is ours forever, but to also trick others into thinking we don't.
I'm not sure if this made sense, but what I'm trying to say is that Serbs are a little too honest. We need to be deceptive instead of being too literal. I think Serbs need to exploit the situation they're in. And part of that needs to be playing a double-game.
But we aren't dead, and we're still right. Would our enemies be harping this much about having "defeated" us, had they actually done so?
Your hypothetical runs aground at the start; the Serbian Constitution is legitimate (why would you think otherwise?). The said amendment is not necessary, because the preamble already says so. And there is absolutely nothing to be gained by recognizing Thacistan, and much more to be lost than just some land.
Senad,
One is allowed to criticize Muslims after all. At least, I haven't heard in years about anyone losing a job for talking about "islamofascism" and the whole "axis of evil" business. Btw, I don't want to give the impression that I am islamophilic, but at the end of the day it is not Muslims who invade one country after another, or run NATO and the EU. And it is not them who control Western media, finance or academia either. Therefore, as averse as I am to certain aspects of Islam, I would be seriously misguided to point my finger at Muslims as the main culprit of our most serious ills.
@Gray Falcon: So in other words, do absolutely nothing? Because that is going just brilliantly. Perhaps we should just freeze in time, set ourselves in stone.
The constitution is meaningless because it has absolutely no basis in anything other than the political interests of the people who made it. Regardless of ones beliefs regarding the enlightenment and classical liberalism, the US constitution has deep roots in enlightenment thinking. The Serb constitution...based on what exactly?
@Suvorov: People in western countries do get into deep trouble if they criticize Islam/Muslims. Perhaps the most famous example of the dutch politician Geert Wilders. He was also at a time refused entry into the UK. If you looked it up, there would be many more cases. And if coarse, lets not forget that some people are actually murdered for criticizing Islam, or live in fear of it.
Serbia's story with Islam is not finished. Kosovo is controlled by Muslims, Bosnia is going to eventually fall apart again, and Southern Serbia has a large problematic Muslim population.
Put that into the global context of Islam vs everyone else and you'll get a nasty picture.
Positing that the only choices are capitulation and "doing nothing" is a logical fallacy. Who desperately needs a decision on the status of Kosovo? The "Kosovarians" and the Empire. Serbia has its Constitution, 1244 and other relevant international treaties guaranteeing its sovereignty. On paper, sure, but enough that it cannot be taken away without some form of consent. Why do you think the Empire is insisting on recognition? Because Kosovo isn't "gone" until they get the Serbs to say so. It stands to reason that so long as Serbia refuses, they cannot win and we cannot lose. And there is a lot of room to maneuver in between.
No I never said capitulate. I said deceive them.
We will never recognize Kosovo and even if the Serbian government does, the nation never will, and that applies to Serbs within Serbia and without.
The reason I suggested a modification to the constitution is because as I said, it would allow us to never actually recognize Kosovo, while at the same time pretending to. That loophole doesn't exist at the moment.
I'm not actually saying we should do it, it was just a thought exercise.
I just think the Serb government is playing the game very badly.
Why on earth would the Serb President meet Thaci? What possible advantage does that bring to Serbia?
If we are going to shake hands with the 'Kosovans' then our actions should be working towards the logical conclusion, which means recognizing them as a state, albeit a fake one or something.
How on earth can we 'normalize' relations with a break-away illegal territory?
Serbia wants both Kosovo and the EU. The idea that the west needs us to recognize Kosovo is irrelevant because we can't do anything about it anyway. Actually we can but it seems to be morally wrong in your opinion.
They have Kosovo, and the EU. They don't need our approval. They showed that explicitly for 4months in 1999.
Meanwhile the Serb President is meeting with the head of state of Kosovo while vowing to never recognize it.
Either he's got some genius plan under way, or he is an idiot.
I'm betting on the latter.
The reason I mentioned Hezbollah is because they are great at simultaneously stating they will never recognize Israel while also extracting concessions from the west for 'good behavior'.
Serbia it seems has yet to figure out how to manipulate the great powers the way Muslims have been.
I mean even if we did wait and do nothing, and just waited for the EU to fall apart and waited for America to withdraw from the region because of its own internal problems, the only way we can still get Kosovo back is militarily. You could at least expect a war with the Albanian locals in Kosovo, as well as Albania itself, not to mention the floods of Jihadists that would flow into the region, and their Arab backers doing everything they can politically to assist them.
Even if we just waited for Kosovo to lose all western support, it still wont be as easy as walking in and taking it all back.
I mean, we are trying to get Kosovo back right? That is our goal yeah?
Sometimes I think the chant 'Kosovo je srce Srbije' is just a way for Serbs to cope with the loss of it. I have yet to see anyone do anything to try and make life difficult for the fake state.
We have all these supposedly patriotic and pro-Serb organizations in Serbia who smash the streets of Belgrade every chance they get.
It just hasn't occurred to me at all why those 'nationalists' are not in Kosovo launching rockets at Pristina.
There is no reason Serbia cannot set up a proxy-state in Northern Kosovo with a military wing.
If it isn't going to eventually recognize Kosovo, what is it waiting for?
Post a Comment