Thaci Hires Speechwriter: Borat

And now for something... slightly different.

It appears that the KLA regime in the self-proclaimed "republic of Kosovo" hired as their newest speechwriter none other than the infamous Kazakhstani troublemaker, Borat Sagdiyev. Evidence? In the July 18 statement to the Imperial Secretary of State, "prime minister" Hashim Thaci declared:

"Thank you, Madame Secretary, for the strong support that the United States of America has given to Kosovo and its people.

Today, Kosovo is an independent, sovereign and democratic state; it is a country of peace, stability and with a perspective to develop. Kosovo has excellent cooperation with all the countries of the region, with Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and in the near democratic future, we believe, also with Serbia. ....

This is a historical visit and meeting, because it is the first delegation of the state of Kosovo to visit Washington.

We expressed our new commitment to making progress in Kosovo, and awareness about the new responsibilities that we will take over for Kosovo as a state that will be part of the Euro-Atlantic family, part of NATO and of the European Union, and always in excellent relations with the US.

Kosovo and the people of Kosovo bow before the Government and the people of America for their support."

This had to have been written by Borat. Right?

(Apologies to Sacha Baron Cohen any offense that may have been accidentally given by associating his name with the terrorist KLA regime.)

The Real Face of Evil

Mark Twain once famously said, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Richard Holbrooke probably never read Twain, and even if he had, that would hardly stop him. The man who ended the Bosnian War on America's terms (after Washington sabotaged every attempt to end it any other way), known for a complete absence of tact and only a loose attachment to the truth, Holbrooke is somewhat of an idol to Clinton-era interventionists, some of whom have been reborn as Obamamaniacs.

Once a month, he pontificates from the pages of the Washington Post, a newspaper that's never seen a Russian or a Serb it did not love to hate (unless the said Russian or Serb did Empire's bidding without a second thought; then he merely could not be trusted). He used this month's opportunity to gloat over the capture of Radovan Karadžić, former leader of the Bosnian Serbs.

Now, I'll give Holbrooke this; he doesn't hide his Serbophobia. He wears it proudly, like a badge of honor. That doesn't make him much different than the hordes of Serbophoboes-for-hire that infest Western capitals and media, but they usually have an excuse ready if someone brings it up, because their greatest fear is being accused of "intolerance". (Not that anyone cares about calling people on hatred of Serbs; in this day and age of political correctness, not hating Serbs is a hate crime.) But Holbrooke hates openly, and with pride. Fair enough.

Lies are another matter, though. His Post column today contains at least four verifiable untruths. I know, I know, a Serb-hater engaging in lies? What's the world coming to?! Well, I for one am sick and tired of lies. And I'm going to do something about it.

Lie the first: The one and only time he met Karadžić, Holbrooke and his team were in Belgrade, "trying to end a war that had already taken the lives of nearly 300,000 people."

This is what editors would call a "gross factual error" that should get any journalist fired on the spot. Not so Holbrooke, apparently. But the official demographic study of the ICTY (the same tribunal Holbrooke praises in his diatribe) from 2003 established the total death toll in Bosnia at just over 100,000 civilians and military. Subsequent research by a Bosnian commission reached the final figure of 92,000 dead. Yet the 250,000 or even 300,000 have been routinely used in reports of Karadžić's arrest as verified fact. It is, however, a lie.

Lie the second: Holbrooke blames Karadžić, Gen. Ratko Mladić, Slobodan Milošević and God only knows who else for the deaths of three of his colleagues, Bob Frasure, Joe Kruzel and Nelson Drew. They died when their vehicle slid off the road into a mine-filled ravine. In his Post column Holbrooke claims the road they traveled went through "sniper-filled, Serbian-controlled territory." In fact, the road they took went over Mt. Igman, a supposedly demilitarized zone under nominal UN control which was in fact occupied by the Muslims and used as their army's base of operations.

Furthermore, as Holbrooke reveals in his memoir, he blamed the Serbs because they would not give Frasure and his team a safety guarantee if they tried flying in. But the Serbs could not give any such guarantee, not because they were willing to shoot the plane down, but because they could not stop the Muslims from doing so. So the American diplomats used the road through Muslim territory and died. May as well blame the Serbs for the mountain being there in the first place...

Lie the third: Holbrooke claims his meeting with Karadžić resulted in the lifting of the siege of Sarajevo. Complete and utter nonsense. All he did was reopen the airport, which was closed due to ... drumroll... the NATO bombing of Bosnian Serb positions around the city! That was the bombing Holbrooke refers to in the column as threatening to continue (and he actually did, pleading with NATO to "give us bombs for peace," as detailed in his book). Even after the war ended, Sarajevo remained under an internal blockade, as residents needed permission from the Muslim authorities to leave the city.

Lie the fourth: Holbrooke claims that former Serbian PM Zoran Đinđić was assassinated in 2003 "as a direct result of his courage in arresting Milosevic and sending him to The Hague in 2001." Holbrooke may well believe this, as do many fanatical "democrats" in Serbia, but there has never been any actual evidence to prove it. To this day, it's just a conspiracy theory, which Holbrooke here presents as fact. Alright, then, Holbrooke was an agent of Al-Qaeda, tasked to arrange a deployment of American troops in Bosnia so they would present easy targets for terrorists and weaken America for the upcoming conflict with the Faithful. See how easy it is to just make up bullshit on the go?

I've just about had it with this sanctimonious, uncouth, arrogant, corrupt slimebucket. He actually had the temerity to title his Post column today "The Face of Evil." He ought to look in the mirror.

Post scriptum:

In addition to the four whoppers in Holbrooke's venomous diatribe, there is one passage that ought to be of interest to Balkans observers: "the negotiating team (meaning Holbrooke) had decided to marginalize Karadžić and Mladić and to force Milošević, as the senior Serb in the region, to take responsibility for the war and the negotiations we hoped would end it."

Here is the open admission that Milosevic was forced to negotiate on behalf of the Bosnian Serbs, and that he did not, in fact, exercise control over them, effective or otherwise.

Furthermore, Holbrooke's turn of phrase ("senior Serb in the region") suggests that neither he nor his superiors cared a whit about actual legitimacy of countries and leaders, but saw the Serbs as some savage tribe to be cowed into submission by a display o violence. Had this taken place somewhere in Africa, Holbrooke and his government would have rightly been accused of racism. But since the target of their hatred and contempt are the Serbs, no one cares.

An Orgy of Lies

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic yesterday (or Friday, as some reports indicate) occasioned an orgy of Serbophobia in the Western press, as wire services, newspapers and TV networks competed in who would trot out more rancid propaganda to "spice up" otherwise factually sparse reports about Karadzic's capture.

Karadzic was thus described as minion of Milosevic (false), a "key organizer" of the Bosnian war (also false), the "Butcher of Bosnia" (that one's new), an architect of "genocide" in Srebrenica (wasn't that supposed to be Mladic?) etc. Dozens of reports I've read have repeated the baseless assertion that Karadzic had disguised himself as an Orthodox priest and hid in monasteries - a claim calculated to defame the Serbian Orthodox Church.

To describe the war itself, the media dug up every trope and cliche from their old clipboards: "Europe's most murderous conflict since the end of World War II" is just one example. Similarly, the siege of Sarajevo was alleged to have killed 12,000 (only if one counts the military fatalities, and then on both sides, could this number possibly be true), and the Bosnian war a "quarter-million" people. I mean, come on, that crap again?

I could also dwell on the lazy (or malicious? you decide) description of what supposedly happened in Srebrenica; to hear the mainstream media say it, Serb forces stormed the unprotected, disarmed civilian town, seized 8,000 men and shot them on the spot. Except none of this - none - is actually true.

It's revolting. It's disgusting. It's normal for the folks that brought us "Kuwaiti incubator babies" and "Saddam's weapons of mass destruction" and God knows how many other lies invented and disseminated to justify the Empire and its wars of conquest.

My next column on Antiwar.com will deal with the Karadzic affair, but I just wanted to express my intense revulsion with this obscene orgy of lies. I've actually survived the war in Bosnia, inside Sarajevo no less. It was terrible enough without presstitutes, pseudo-diplomats and NGO scum making up preposterous stories, as they have for the past 16 years. Everyone claims to be championing the "victims," but they don't; they use the victims to achieve their own ends, be that greater circulation/ratings/awards, conquest and domination, or simply money.

Now, if you want some actual facts about Radovan Karadzic and his role in the Bosnian war, I direct you to an excellent essay by Srdja Trifkovic posted earlier today. But if you are happy to feed on the offal poured down your trough by the mainstream media, what the hell are you doing reading this blog anyway?

What, me worry?

Rumors of my retirement following the formation of a Yellow-and-Red government in Serbia have been wildly exaggerated. I'm a libertarian, remember? When one believes that all governments are bad, and some are worse than others, seeing a really rotten government ascend to power is hardly a cause for despair. A sigh of exasperation, perhaps, maybe a bit of disappointment, but when one seeks to comment on the condition of humanity (or parts thereof) those come with the territory. May as well complain about the water being wet, or the summer being hot. Which it is, by the way.

The world being what it is, I'll run out of time before I run out of material. So stay tuned. I'm just getting warmed up.

Supporting Their Own

Just as I was watching the ending of the Croatia-Turkey matchup at Euro 2008 (I won't give it away, but let's just say few saw that coming), this photo arrived in my inbox:



I don't know the source. I don't know where it was shot (though I presume somewhere in Germany, judging by the license plates) or when exactly. The caption was, "In Germany, support for their own."

As a commentary on immigration, integration and multi-culturalism in Europe, this picture is certainly worth a thousand words.

Kudos to the Irish

As they shoot down the EU Constitution crudely disguised as the "Lisbon Treaty."

After the original Constitution was staked through the heart by Dutch and French voters in 2005, the EUrocrats decided to get sneaky (after all, that's always worked far better than open collectivization), change some wording, stop calling it a Constitution and make it a "treaty" instead. This way, they figured, no referenda would be necessary and they could simply ratify it in parliaments.

Except the Irish law mandated a referendum. And that was a problem. Because, you see, the Irish had already told the EUSSR to shove it back in 2001, rejecting the Treaty of Nice. That was fixed by holding another referendum the following year; no doubt there would have been another yet, had the voters not "seen reason" and "made the right choice" (i.e. voted as their lords and masters in Brussels told them to). Still, the Irish had a history of being... difficult.

So this time, there was an enormous amount of pressure put on Ireland to shut the hell up and obey, from the EUrocracy and the commentariat alike (covered in a lot of detail by Brendan O'Neill). And the Irish still said "no."

Now, the naive might think the EUSSR will just melt away like the Wicked Witch when doused with water. No such luck. Too much power and Other People's Money is at stake for the EUrocrats to just give up. I'm guessing there will be enormous political, media and economic pressure on Ireland to annul the vote, or vote again (and again, and again, until the "right" result is achieved). Or the EUSSR might suspend Ireland's membership, thus enabling the "Treaty" to come into effect on schedule and unhindered. Laws and rules aren't going to stop the people who've already said that legal is whatever they decide is legal (e.g. the Kosovo declaration of "independence").

The Irish rejection, however, could encourage other EU countries to, um, re-evaluate their relationship with Brussels. Not likely, I know, but at least it keeps the EUrocrats from sleeping well at night. In this bleak world of deceit and violence, one should cherish any victory, no matter how small or temporary - while hoping, of course, and working so it becomes sweeping and permanent.

Go raibh maith agat, Eire.

Jasenovac, Blood and Ashes

In 1983, Croatian director Lordan Zafranović made a harrowing documentary about Jasenovac, the biggest death camp operated by the 1941-1945 "Independent State of Croatia." The film, "Jasenovac: Blood and Ashes" was suppressed during the 1990s, following the rise of Tudjman's nationalist government. Zafranović himself was blacklisted and lived in exile in Prague.

The film has recently become available on YouTube, with English subtitles:

- Part 1;

- Part 2;

- Part 3;

- Part 4;

- Part 5;

- Part 6.

It can be downloaded for free in from here and as a free torrent here.

I mention this now not in service of modern politics, but to honor the courage and integrity of the filmmaker who told the story of this bloodiest chapter in Croatian history, and to cherish the memory of the innocent victims of Jasenovac and the regime that operated it. Such atrocities must not be allowed to happen again. Forgetting is also a crime.

May the memory of Jasenovac victims live forever.

~ MikeVronsky, from sivisoko.blosgpot.com

Someone Got It Right

Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo, that is. One would think that after eight years of Clinton "humanitarianism" and another eight years of Bushian "humble foreign policy" the American people would not be eager to elect another warmongering imperialist to the White Marble Throne. Not so.

This week Antiwar.com is doing its quarterly pledge drive, soliciting donations from readers in order to continue its operations. As part of illustrating the consistent opposition of Antiwar.com to imperialism (which is bad for both the people being "liberated" and Americans), Raimondo has posted excerpts from his 1996 brochure opposing intervention in Bosnia. From his introduction:

It was the Kosovo incursion that set the stage for the Iraq invasion, from the rhetoric of "liberation" to the mechanics of "nation-building." Operation Allied Force had all the elements that were later developed to the max in Operation Enduring Freedom – an allied group that provided phony "intelligence," i.e., war propaganda, and had the same hubristic, hectoring style. Militant interventionists, such as John McCain, jumped on board the war bandwagon because they realized that a precedent had to be set in the post-Cold War world, an assertion of American hegemony.

Today, we are all paying the consequences.

Whether you want to or not, you are already funding murder and pillage at home and abroad, through taxes you are forced into paying. If you value your freedom and oppose the soul-sucking and murderous enterprise that is the Empire, I urge you to make a voluntary contribution to a cause of liberty and justice today.

(Yes, I'm a columnist for Antiwar.com and as such, keeping them in existence is in my self-interest; but that doesn't make anything I've said here any less true, and you know it.)

Democracy, Tolerance and Enlightenment

There is a small, but very loud, group of people in Serbia that style themselves better than the rest of their countrymen. They are the "Other Serbia," gathered around the radio/TV network B92, the Liberal Democratic Party and so-called non-governmental "human rights" organizations (who are financed almost exclusively by foreign governments, and care not a whit for human rights of Serbs). These "true believers" even see the quisling Democratic Party and its sycophantic leader Boris Tadic as "too soft", too willing to make compromises with the underfolk - the Serbian people, the Serbian Orthodox Church, academia and press. Naturally, they see themselves as the paragons of democracy, tolerance, and enlightenment - and in the pursuit of these lofty ends, consider any and all means acceptable.

(That they are an instrument of foreign governments isn't even questionable; just look at their analogs set up in Russia, funded from the same source...)

Once a week, the radio show Peščanik ("Hourglass") channels the feelings of these "Otherserbians" (not to be confused with "Serbnationalists"). The two hosts - Svetlana Lukić and Svetlana Vuković - have taken to publishing transcripts of the show; the latest book of these transcripts, volume 10, was recently reviewed by Slobodan Antonić. I've translated the review here, omitting perhaps a sentence or two; those who read Serbian can see all of it here.

Please note that Antonić writes with dripping sarcasm, and that the language and imagery used by the self-proclaimed champions of "modernity and reform" can be nauseating to some readers. Proceed at your own risk.

Any errors in the translation are my own.

Educating the "People Gone Wild"
(Pečat, issue 12, May 6, 2008, p. 48-50)

Peščanik is often dubbed a "cult show" of the Other Serbia. That is quite literally true, as the authors and fans of Peščanik are an ideological and political cult, gathering once a week by their radios to listen to the same preachers. Those most dedicated will buy the books of collected sermons.

One such book is before us, containing the transcripts of shows between September and November 2007. It contains the core ideological messages of this cult: belief in their own ideological and political exceptionalism, contempt and hatred towards their surroundings. They curse the sin-soaked people for not accepting the cult and not giving itself fully over to its shamans. But the cult is noble, and instead of leaving the unworthy to their fate, it is ready to make sacrifices and lead it into deliverance. All they need is a tiny bit of power - and the entire society will become like Peščanik.

"My people are a special kind of stupid," says Petar Luković (p. 314). "Serbia is not a normal country," agrees Svetlana Lukić (p.99). It is a "pit of a country, a suffocating room, a cell and an insane asylum both at once" (p.9). Latinka Perović says the same thing, in a more sophisticated way: "Serbia is a very neglected country with institutions that aren't functioning, and very far away from any notion of rule of law." (p.329). It is a country, adds Ivan Kuzminović of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, where "thirty percent of people are missing teeth and voting Radical" (p.248).

It is hard to love such a pit of the toothless. "We Serbs are a people who worshiped Milošević and killed Đinđić," explains Sreten Ugričić. "It is hard to love that, belong to that, and identify with that, it is hard to be a Serb patriot" (p.347). So one must understand why this cult believes that "contempt for the people is the highest form of patriotism" (Ugričić, p.346). However, members of this cult are not snobbish, willing to look upon the sinful with contempt from on high. They want to help, and "take responsibility," so they have a plethora of advice.

One such advice is to disregard the will of the people. "Oh, if everyone heeded the will of the people, we'd have all been fucked," explains Petar Luković (p.235). "The very worst thing here is that the elected politicians follow the will of the people," he warns (p.235). "The government has to listen to the citizens, yes," concurs Nataša Kandić, "but those citizens have to have certain values" (p.260). And since the toothless people don't have the right values, the government ought to listen to the elite, gathered around Peščanik. If only they are given a chance, they will perform their social mission: "to educate the people gone wild"(Dubravka Stojanović, p.265).

"We need a self-transformation," claims Nikola Samardžić, "we don't need to pollute the European Union, like so much biological waste" (p.61-2). Of course, such wild people and "biological waste" needs to know order before even thinking about the EU. "Do they need our garbage? I don't think so," says Samardžić (p.62).

To educate and enlighten such garbage, one has to resort to extreme measures. Since, as Nenad Prokić educates us, the last witch-burning in Europe happened in Serbia (p.153), perhaps it would be proper to apply similar measures to the unworthy populace: "Nothing will get better in Serbia until the Holy Spanish Inquisition starts burning people at the stake. Think of it what you will!" (Prokić, p.33).

"Either we get them, or they will get us," agrees the paragon of tolerance Biljana Srbljanović (p.152). "We need to attack, but not piecemeal, but straight at the head, where they are most dangerous," she adds. Sadly, it's impossible to burn the entire people at the stake, but one could make an example of the nationalist elite. "I have only one thing to say about the Serbian elite: Napalm is all!" said Petar Luković in the previous volume (book 9, p. 282). Thus the Other Serbia easily resolves the issue of "biological waste," between the stakes and napalm.

As they see it, garbage is not confined to "nationalist" parties. Its fountainhead is the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Patriarchy, explains Svetlana Lukić, "is still looking for the first decent human being" (p.353). Since there are no decent human beings within the Church, that explains how Petar Luković commented on the hunger strike of Bishop Filaret: "The pig slopped" (93). The Church pigs will have their turn, once the "education" begins, followed by the nationalists and all the other "fascists."

Speaking of which, "fascism" was in particular a topic of this collection. Rajko Đurić established that the number of Nazis in Serbia is "over 250,000" (p.191). "Fascists and Nazis," explains Đurić his numbers, "aren't just those who wear the swastika. There are salon fascists, thought fascists, academic, literary and media fascists..." (p.191). How to treat these professors, authors and journalists is clear: "They are Hitlerspawn, and there is no talking to Hitlerspawn; for communication, one needs logos, a mind, reason" (p.191). Dealing with the estimated quarter million Serbian fascists, as Peščanik counts them, is simple: "The depth of thoughts and breadth of soul of a Nazi can only be measured by a bullet" (p.190). Burnings at the stake, napalm and bullets - and there we have it, the holy de-Nazification and decontamination trinity of Other Serbia.

In addition to "Serb fascism," this book also dwells on uncovering the evil Russian imperialism. Until recently, Peščanik paid no heed to the gigantic heap of biological waste out east, perhaps too busy with the one at home. Now, however, the evil Russia has invaded Peščanik's blissful existence. They have discovered that all the evils that have visited us throughout history came from - Russia!

Nenad Prokić thus lectured us that the Russian secret service, the Okhrana, was behind the key assassinations in Serbian history: the 1860 murder of prince Danilo in Kotor, the 1868 murder of prince Mihailo in Belgrade, the 1903 murder of King Alexader Obrenović - and of course, the 2003 murder of Zoran Đinđić (p.28). But Prokić was not satisfied with these incredible discoveries - he also taught us that the Russians were behind the Holocaust! Namely, says Prokić, the Nazi genocide of Jews would not have been possible without the Okhrana agent Matvei Golovinski writing the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Paris in 1898 (p.28). Hitler drew inspiration from the "Protocols," and "Golovinski was believed by Churchill and Stalin"(p.28). And this satanic Empire is now thought of in Serbia better than our eternal friends and worldwide benefactors, the United States? Never!

No wonder Pera Luković rages whenever he sees something Russian on TV. "I watched the Russian version of 'My Nanny' on B92, and you know what? I'd have these Russians shot, and I'd shoot those who bought the show, too. It's a Russian home, man, we're watching a reality show from a fucking Russian home!" (p.232). Only the evil Cuba can measure up to the evil Russia, so Luković does not cloak his rigtheous anger over the dire Cuban threat to the Other Serbia: "Fuck Cuba, fuck all of Cuba with both Fidel and Raul, and all their brothers and sisters if they have them. Fucking cunts!" (p. 234).

Mirko Đorđević explains the justified odium towards the evil Cuba. He is horrified that now "Che Guevara is used as a symbol by the most aggressive of nationalists" (p.307). And since it's well known that fascists are easily identified by wearing Che T-shirts, as well as those that say "Rossiya", it is finally understandable how thye preachers of Peščanik arrived at a number of some quarter-million Nazis in Serbia.

Finally, this volume introduces a sudden discovery by Peščanik of the incredible potential for Euro-reforms in the - Socialist Party! This was claimed as early as September 14, 2007 by Miljenko Dereta. Asked how to ensure "the maximum support for the pro-European option," Dereta explained his vision: "There is a surprising potential in the Socialist Party of Serbia" (p.48). This potential, Dereta says, can only be realized if the SPS does the following : "I expect of the Socialists to reform, denounce the past and help the pro-Europeans. We need to support those leading the SPS in that direction. There is a generational change in SPS, and those who were directly involved in the events of the 1990s are dying out. New people will replace them and reform that party, and they will need help. They should not be forgiven, or forgotten, but they will need help to make a new step"(p.48).

The prophetic Dereta clearly saw the danger of Euro-reformers never winning a majority in Serbia, so he demonstrated his tolerance by offering the warm embrace of the Cult to the outcast SPS. Who can say the Cult is discriminatory, who says the only things they offer are napalm and bullets? No, Dereta says nicely, "Don't forgive, don't forget, but help them make a new step." And look how useful listening to Peščanik can be, in the aftermath of the May 11 elections. All it takes now is that "one small new step" by Ivica Dačić; his membership won't get absolution, but if he makes that one "right step," everything will be all right. Every radio will be Peščanik, every TV will be B92, every newspaper will be the "Helsinki Charter" (newsletter of Sonja Biserko's Helsinki Committee for Human Rights - GF.), every school will become a "summer camp for civic instruction," and the government will finally begin "educating the people gone wild."

Once every Serb is issued his personal "self-liberation kit", there won't be much need for the holy trinity of decontamination. The SPS would be transformed, the Orthodox Church will call for entries for a reformist Patriarch, Serbs would stop wearing Che T-shirts, and the Serb professors, authors and journalists will know the beauty of The Hague and the Pentagon. Then N. Samardžić would have to work less on cleaning out biological waste, P. Luković will put down the chainsaw, and N. Prokić will put down the torch.

All will be happy, all will be in NATO - except for that trifling quarter-million. But after that group of infidels is treated by the holy trinity of decontamination, the remaining hard-liners will have to listen to the holy sermons of Peščanik, read the holy books of Peščanik, and meet the holiest relic of Peščanik, the Blessed Chainsaw. Following such testimonies, who would dare not believe?

Smurftastic

It's been four days since the election, and Serbia still doesn't have a government. Last time around, it took four months. Of course, last time it was hard to imagine that DSS would even think of an alliance with the Radicals (and now that's pretty much assumed), while anyone even thinking of a possible coalition between the DS and the Socialists would have been locked up in an insane asylum. Yet now you have the Imperial propaganda machine straining to promote the very people they've demonized for years as genocidal nationalist architects of Balkans bloodshed... It's actually kind of funny, if in a twisted way.

In light of President Tadić's statement that he "won't allow" a government "against the wishes of the people," I can only recall something I wrote last May, when it was Tadić and his Democrats that trampled all over that will (and the Radicals had parliamentary plurality):

Nikolić's election was protested by EU commissars. A scheduled delegation from Brussels canceled its visit. The world media (otherwise known for their fair and impartial coverage of Serbs, right?) are spreading panic about Nikolić being an ”ultra-nationalist” etc. President Tadić, head of the Democratic Party, said Nikolić's election was ”harmful to state interests” and a ”democratic Serbia.” Or was that a Democratic Serbia?

Tadić's party has been negotiating (or not) for months with the old PM Koštunica about a new government, without results. They claim they got the most votes, so they can dictate the make-up of the government. One teeny little problem with that argument is that the Radicals actually got the most votes. But that's an inconvenient truth, and thus overlooked in "democratic" discussion. Because, you see, only the "democratic bloc" can act democratically and build democracy in a democratic state... At which point I'm getting flashbacks to an 1980s cartoon where every Smurf smurfs smurfingly the entire smurfing day!

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, then. Seems like Tadić and his foreign sponsors believe they are the only ones that get to decide who and what is "democratic," regardless of how people vote or what they actually think. Holding people in contempt has never been a winning strategy in the long run. I wonder if they know that.

A Math Lesson

Official results of the Serbian elections haven't been released yet, but the EUphoric Democrats are already claiming total victory. Everyone's got a right to an opinion, of course - but not to their own facts.

Well, what about the facts? According to CESID, a pro-Western election monitoring NGO, the May 11 election results are as follows:

Democratic Party/G17 : 103 seats
Serbian Radical Party (SRS): 77 seats
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)/NS: 30 seats
Socialist Party of Serbia/PUPS: 20 seats
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP): 13 seats
SDA: (Muslim parties) 4 seats
MK (Hungarian parties): 2 seats
KAL (Presevo valley Albanians): 1 seat
Total seats in the parliament: 250

If I understand correctly, it takes 126 mandates to swear in a cabinet. Let's assume the Democrats will get the LDP on board, as well as the Hungarians, Muslims and Albanians. That's still only 123 mandates.

But if the Radicals, Socialists and the DSS make a deal... they have 127 mandates right there. A majority. A government.

Oh, I suppose it is theoretically possible for the Democrats to court the Socialists, but wait - aren't the Socialists the "hardline ultra-nationalists," the party of "the late dictator Slobodan Milosevic"? Hard to imagine the self-proclaimed postmodern democratic reformers whose wellspring of legitimacy is the coup against Milosevic in October 2000 actually contemplating any sort of cooperation with them. Anyone who can see the Socialists in the same government as LDP has got to be on some powerful hallucinogens.

Now, anything is possible, in theory. But in practice, the only way the Democrats will have won this election is if they can somehow defeat the math that says they do not have a majority to form a government.

A New Kind of War

Gary Brecher, the eXile's resident War Nerd, writes in TakiMag:

To succeed in the post-1918 world, the world Woodrow Wilson dreamed up where “small nations” have rights even if they can’t defend them, you need to use slower, less obviously military methods, like birthrate and immigration.

The classic example of this kind of slow conquest is Kosovo. The Serbs could always defeat the Albanians on the battlefield, even when outnumbered, but the Albanians had a huge advantage in the most important military production of all—babies. According to the BBC, the birthrate of Kosovo Albanians 50 years ago was an amazing 8.5 children per woman.

The Serb/Albanian conflict offers damn near perfect lab conditions to prove my case that birth rate trumps military prowess these days, because the Serbs always beat the Albanians in battle, yet they’ve lost their homeland, Kosovo. Here again, we can blame Woodrow Wilson and his talk about “rights.” In places where tribes hate each other, a tribe that outbreeds its rival will become the majority, even if it can’t fight. So, after generations of skulking at home making babies, letting the Serbs do the fighting, the Albanians finally became the majority in Kosovo and therefore the official “good guys,” being oppressed by the official “bad guys,” the Serbs. At least that’s the way the naïve American Wilsonian types like Clinton saw it. So when the Serbs fought back against an Albanian rebellion in Kosovo, and dared to beat the Albanians, Clinton decided to bomb the Serbs into letting go of Kosovo, the ancient heartland of a Christian nation that had spent its blood holding off the Turks for hundreds of years.

Now, what helped the Albanians in this endeavor were two things. First, after 1945, Serbs had little or no authority in Kosovo (or Serbia, for that matter), so they could do little to stop this. Secondly, Tito's regime plowed massive resources - plundered from all over Yugoslavia - into the Albanian-dominated province, building schools, hospitals, factories, apartment blocks and other benefits of civilization. One notable thing is that the Albanian birth rate did not drop with urbanization - quite the contrary, it rose thanks to better medical care.

This is precisely what KFOR commander de Marhnac spoke of last November: Albanians not only outnumber the Serbs, they also out-breed them by orders of magnitude. And if the Serbs dare procreate, there's ways of fixing that.

Kosovo is not just a case study of successful (for the time being, anyway) demographic warfare. It is also a case study in how not to oppose it. A military response, even a successful one, can be used as a pretext for an actual invasion (i.e. the 1999 NATO bombing/occupation). It is inhumane by definition, and opens one up to charges of "genocide," whether deservedly or not. The only way to resist this sort of takeover is prevention. This means not just tighter immigration controls - though there is good sense in not letting just about anyone in, let alone people who wish you ill - but tackling the core vulnerability that demographic warfare has been designed to exploit: the welfare state.

Without a way to saddle someone else - preferably the host society - with the expense of delivering, feeding, educating and employing all those "weaponized" babies, any project of demographic conquest is effectively stillborn.

Flags and Advertising

Balkans politicians talk a lot about "branding" their pocket-countries. Maybe they should take a look at what that would look like, using the example of flag design.

Hilarious. Or is it?

(hat tip: Vox Day)

Back in the Saddle

I'm back from overseas, and trying to catch up; before regular posts resume, I'll try and answer some questions posed in my absence.

lassejohansson wants to know:

As a libertarian, what is your view of the radical party in Serbia? They seem to have wind in their sails right now. Do you think this is good for Serbia? And if they win, what will it mean for Kosovo? Finally, what do you think it will mean for the cooperation between Serbia and Russia?

I've written about my mixed feelings concerning the Radicals before. I still think their greatest shortcoming is that they essentially subscribe to the same exact model of governance as the demoncrats and Jacobins. Yes, patriotism is and should be a major issue, but one can't neglect the importance of putting food on the table, either. Look, economics ain't hard; less taxation means more capital for investments, more profit, higher wages and better living. A gargantuan bureaucracy regulating every aspect of life, from the price of rapsberries to banking, is going to require confiscatory taxation even if none of its employees were corrupt in any way. The solution is clear - but the Radicals and Kostunica are yet to grasp it. Surely I'm not the only one pointing this out... am I?

This doesn't mean any sort of "wild capitalism" or "neoliberalism" or what have you; it merely means that the government has become so obsessed with plunder, it's abandoned its ostensible main reason for existence: protection.

Now, the Radicals are Russophiles, while the demoncrats are EUrophiles, so it's to be expected that a Radical government would have better relations with Moscow. There's lessons to be learned from Russia. In 1998 it was a wasteland, ruled by a corrupt puppet of the Empire and lorded over by oligarchs and organized crime. In just a decade, it's turned itself around almost completely, just because the government was business-friendly and cracked down hard on both oligarchs and criminals. For all that the West is criticizing Putin, he has neither sent tanks to bomb the parliament (like Yeltsin) or invaded anyone (like Bush the Lesser).

What any of this may mean for Kosovo, it's hard to tell. The Empire seems convinced that the Serbs will roll over and give up, accepting the Albanian usurpers. I don't think that's going to happen, well, ever. Still, it would not hurt the Serbs to make that known rather explicitly. Just so there's no misunderstanding.

Speaking of which, eudaemonism has a good question:

I'm doing some background research on the term "Merciful Angel" as metaphor for NATO's 1999 Operation Allied Force, and wondered if you could help me identify the origin - if not specific originator - of the term.

Honestly, I have no idea. It's always been clear to me that NATO's 1999 attack was named "Allied Force" - they weren't even pretending to have humanitarian motives, it was just naked aggression, pure and simple. Judging by how widespread the misconception about the operation's name being "Merciful Angel" is in Serbia, I'd hazard a guess it originated from the Serbian television at some point. I know that's not very helpful, but that's the best I've got.

Ok, now back to catching up with emails and news; My latest column about the Balkans contains most of my observations from Bosnia. I'll post some more thoughts later.

On the Road Again

I'm in Europe for the next two weeks, doing some research and getting some (in my opinion) well-deserved R&R. I may post some observations while traveling, but then again, I might not. Reliable broadband 'net access is still a pipe dream in some places. We'll see.

Meanwhile, chew on the notion that Europeans tend to look at Americans with a mixture of pity , sympathy, condescension and smugness. Sure, the EUSSR is destroying itself from within as well - but that self-implosion is far less obvious than the teetering dollar, the Iraq fiasco, and the circus that is the presidential election.

Six Little Reasons

On the anniversary of NATO's bombing of Serbia, March 24, 1999 - March 24, 2008

By Slobodan Antonić

(translated by GrayFalcon; all flaws and mistakes mine. Original at NSPM)

Serbia is the only European country that was bombed by NATO. The bombing was illegal, without UN Security Council authorization. While bombing Serbia, NATO committed atrocities against civilians. This is why Serbia cannot just join NATO. That might be possible only when Serbia receives a clear apology from NATO leaders, even if only for the “collateral damage” it suffered in 1999.

Such an apology has not come. Quite the contrary, NATO and U.S. officials incessantly repeat that the 1999 aggression was “necessary,” and don’t mention atrocities at all. Numerous NGOs in Serbia, receiving a steady stream of funding from the U.S. and other NATO countries, keep telling the Serbian public that all Serbs must atone for crimes. Meanwhile, NATO is not only not atoning for its misdeeds, but considers it somehow rude of Serbia to even mention them.

This made it possible to have a welcoming ceremony for an U.S. Air Force Major in Belgrade on July 13, 2006. As a member of the 555th Squadron, Maj. Andrew Wiles took part in the NATO attack on Serbia; some Serbian media even claimed that it was his plane that cluster-bombed downtown Nis. That did not bother the Serbian Minister of Defense, who greeted Maj. Wiles and welcomed him to Serbia. It seems like the “Euro-reformers” in Serbia agree with U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter, who told the weekly Evropa (November 22, 2007): “We believe that [the bombing of Serbia] was hard, but also necessary. It was needed to depose Milošević.”

Due to this belief, the “Euro-reformers” in Serbia have systematically endeavored to repress the memories of NATO’s crimes. Today we remember only the bombing of the Serbian Television – and that not as a crime committed by NATO, but something for which a Milošević official was blamed. Even the memory of crimes has been subject to spin and political manipulation.

Serbia must clearly recall six “little” crimes of NATO, become aware of them, and challenge NATO to recognize them. Only after there is an explanation, Serbia and NATO can talk again. These six “little” NATO crimes are the six “little” reasons that Serbia, under current circumstances, should not join NATO.

The first “little” reason is the 2-year-old Marko Simić. He went for a walk with his father Vladan, on May 31, 1999 at noon, in his hometown of Novi Pazar. When they reached the apartment building at Stefana Nemanje 74, there was an explosion. The building was struck by a missile probably intended for the nearby bus station. (Why the civilian bus station was targeted still remains a mystery.) Besides Marko and Vladan, nine more civilians were killed. Shortly after this tragedy, Marko’s mother gave birth to a girl. When she grows up, maybe she will read the monograph “NATO Crimes in Yugoslavia” and find a photograph of her little brother, on a hospital bedsheet, his face bloody and his left leg gone.

The mother of 11-month-old Bojana Tošović, another “little” witness of NATO’s un-atoned crimes, was six months pregnant. Then her house in the village of Merdare (near Kuršumlija) was hit by a bomb on April 10. Her husband Božin was holding Bojana when the ceiling caved in. Mother Marija could only watch helplessly as her husband, crushed by the concrete ceiling plate, died slowly with their daughter in his arms.

Three-year-old Milica Rakić, of Batajnica, is our (and God’s) third “little” witness. On April 17, around 9:30 PM, she told her mother Dušica she needed to go potty. Dušica took her to the bathroom, put her on the chamber pot, and went to make the bed. They felt safe, because their house was four kilometers away from the military airfield. Then a bomb hit near the building. Right away, father Žarko ran into the bathroom. Milica lay there in a pool of blood, hit by a shrapnel from the bomb. They took her to a nearby emergency room, but she was beyond help. She, too, was photographed on the hospital bedsheet. The photo shows her bandaged left leg, and her deathly pale face, beautiful and gentle. The angelic face of a murdered child.

There is no picture of the dead Branimir Stanijanović, age six, of Aleksinac. With his father Vidosav and mother Divna, he was on a train that found itself on a bridge at Grdelica on April 12, twenty minutes before noon. The pilot, NATO officials later said, had the mission to destroy the bridge, but he saw the train too late. I guess that’s why he came back a few minutes later and hit the train again. Not the bridge – the train. And in the same spot, cars number two and three. The entire Stanijanović family perished, along with another fifteen or so passengers. There is no exact count of the dead, since their charred bodies fell into the depths of south Morava River. Branimir’s body was one of them. If the pilot who did this, and NATO spokesman Jamie Shea – who disavowed any blame for these deliberate murders – are interested in knowing whom they’ve killed, there is a picture of Branimir in existence. It shows him at a school pageant, serious, smartly dressed, with a bow tie. Maybe that is what he is wearing that now, walking in God’s garden?

Eight-year-old Stefan and his sister, five-year-old Dejana Pavlović are in that garden now as well. They were asleep in their family home, in Ralja near Belgrade, when it was hit by a bomb on May 26. It remains unclear what target of any military importance could have possibly been nearby. Father Vladimir died with his children. Mother Branislava survived. Her only memory of her family, snuffed out in the blink of an eye, is a photograph. It shows the children in colorful pajamas, laid out on the blue bedsheet. Dejana’s nose is slightly bloodied. Stefan looks untouched.

Those are the six “little” witnesses of NATO crimes, six “little” reasons why Serbia has to demand an explanation from NATO leaders. The explanation is simple. At the Tašmajdan park, there is a monument to children killed in the NATO bombing. (It is falling apart – of a statue of a girl with butterfly wings, only the wings remain. Perhaps some day the Belgrade authorities will set aside some funds to restore the monument; if they don’t have enough, they should say something – the people will pitch in.) So, NATO Secretary-General Jap de Hoop Scheffer, or another NATO official, needs to come before this monument and clearly say, “Forgive us.” We don’t need him to kneel, or light a candle. All he has to do is bring one flower and ask forgiveness. And Serbia will forgive.

Until then, there’s nothing to talk about. Not in Belgrade, not in Brussels, not in Ohio. One flower at Tašmajdan – that’s the condition for any further talks. One flower at Tašmajdan – and only then can both we and you be human again.

A symbol of something else, now

It is nothing short of incongruous that the government of Serbia and the Serb Republic in Bosnia (RS) have both adopted a design for their press rooms copied from the USA. The outline of the government building, the font, the colors - it's more than a homage to the U.S. government, it's outright mimicry.

Belgrade adopted the "American look" during the rule of Zoran Đinđić (2000-2003), who was ideologically closer to European socialists. Vojislav Koštunica, who at the time presided over Yugoslavia, was a scholar of American politics and philosophy; he had translated the "Federalist Papers," published a study on De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," and praised Hannah Arendt's "On Revolution," a paean to the American revolution and republican spirit.

Many other Serbian politicians, philosophers and intellectuals have been fascinated by American values and ideals. However...

Everything changed with February 17. The majority of the Serbian political class and intelligentsia now thinks ill of the USA. Having any sympathy for American policy is considered a sign of feeble-mindedness (or lack or morals). Even classic American values, from liberty to rule of law, are seen as having been betrayed by the Americans themselves. The minority voices that advise the Serbs to stop opposing U.S. policy invoke "pragmatism" and "realism" - i.e. the argument of force – rather than some moral or political superiority of the American position.

After everything that happened in 1995, 1999 and 2008, the United States have no true friends in Serbia. There are spokesmen and followers, yes, but no friends - no one left who believes we share the same values. Once, American friends in Serbia shared the ideals of freedom and democracy. Today, American "friends" in Serbia mostly share American money. That's symbolic, in a way. The eager translator of the "Federalist Papers" and the commentator on "Democracy in America" is today dismissed by the American government as a "hardline Serb nationalist." Meanwhile, Washington praises the politician who restored the notion of the "iron broom" into domestic political discourse as a "young and dynamic pro-Western leader." Again, that's symbolic."

(Slobodan Antonić, writing in Politika, March 20, 2008)

Something will have to change, Antonić concludes: either the sign, or the U.S. policy towards Serbia. His bet is that after the May 11 elections, there will be a new symbol in the Serbian government's press room. I would not be surprised.

The one people in the Balkans that actually believed in American values, that actually admired America, whose community in America has always proudly served in the military (leading the way in Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, for example) and took pride in being the ally of America in two world wars... and that's the people Washington picked to demonize, embargo, besiege, bomb and occupy? It almost beggars belief.

This - rather than oil prices, or deficits, or the falling dollar - is why America won't be a great power much longer. It has betrayed its own principles and values in pursuit of power.

I notice that no one in Washington is asking "Who lost Serbia?" they way they asked about China, Korea, or Vietnam. Maybe because they know the answer. And maybe because the question isn't who lost Serbia, but who lost America?

They know the answer to that, too.

Servility

(Update 2: corrected for Canadian FM's gender)

The roll of shame has several new additions this week: Canada and Japan both recognized the "independence" of Kosovo, followed by Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Canada's FM Maxime Bernier demonstrated his mastery of wishful thinking when he said that "unique circumstances which have led to Kosovo's independence mean it does not constitute any kind of precedent."

Hey, whatever you tell yourself to be able to sleep at night, Max. But how many are willing to wager that the Quebecois will also claim to be "unique" (hey, isn't everybody?) and go on their merry way?

Japan - which is still under U.S. occupation, following the 1941-45 war - expressed hope that recognition will "contribute to long-term stability in the region" (IHT/Reuters). Right. Because seizing a part of a country's territory is stabilizing. Remember Manchuria?

Japanese FM Masahiko Komura said, "Our country has traditionally been on friendly terms with Serbia, and by this recognition of Kosovo it is not our intention to disturb our relations with Serbia."

Just like it wasn't the Americans' intention to disturb their traditional feelings of friendship for the people of Japan by nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I guess. What's a little tough love among friends?

If Komura-san had any honor, he'd be polishing a sword with his guts right about now.

Canada's Bernier also claimed that recognizing the Albanian quasi-state meant joining "the international community". What community - some 30-odd countries? And all they have in common is that, when Washington says "Jump!" they answer with "How high?" More than anything else, a country's recognition of the Kosovo monstrosity is an indicator of whether it is truly independent, or a satellite of the Empire.

Canada and Japan have just made their choice.

As for Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria, I'm not wasting words. All of a sudden the "satellite" comment is more apt than ever; these three countries were also on the side of "European integrations" at the Serbs' expense back when a certain Austrian corporal was behind the endeavor.

Remember

Four years ago, the terrorist KLA demonstrated precisely how it envisions the future of Serbs in Kosovo. Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku, Ramush Haradinaj and the like can make all the proclamations of democracy, tolerance and human rights they want. By their deeds you shall know them:

• Kosovo Pogrom


• Kosovo Burning (Antiwar.com, 3/17/2004)


• Rummaging Through The Ashes (Antiwar.com, 3/25/2004)


• Saying It Ain't So (Antiwar.com, 4/1/2004)

Remember.

"It has no drive..."

One of Arthur C. Clarke's "laws of prediction" is that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

For some reason, it's the opening scenes of Clarke and Kubrick's 2001:A Space Odyssey that first come to mind reading this account of stumped TSA agents hassling a traveler because they could not grasp the existence of a MacBook Air:

"There's no drive," one says. "And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be," she continues.

A younger agent, joins the crew. I must now be occupying ten, perhaps twenty, percent of the security force. At this checkpoint anyway. There are three score more at the other five checkpoints. The new arrival looks at the printouts from x-ray, looks at my laptop sitting small and alone. He tells the others that it is a real laptop, not a "device". That it has a solid-state drive instead of a hard disc. They don't know what he means. He tries again, "Instead of a spinning disc, it keeps everything in flash memory." Still no good. "Like the memory card in a digital camera." He points to the x-ray, "Here. That's what it uses instead of a hard drive."

The senior agent hasn't been trained for technological change. New products on the market? They haven't been TSA approved. Probably shouldn't be permitted. He requires me to open the "device" and run a program. I do, and despite his inclination, the lead agent decides to release me and my troublesome laptop. My flight is long gone now, so I head for the service center to get rebooked.

Here's the tragic part. The author of this post has surrendered so much of his humanity, having to deal with TSA (and hotels and other trappings of frequent travel) so often, that he titled his post "Steve Jobs made me miss my flight."

How is the appalling behavior of TSA goons (or do I repeat myself) Steve Jobs' fault? Did Apple force this traveler to purchase their product? Is it somehow their responsibility to educate government troglodytes that computers don't need a hard drive any more? Or could it be, just possibly, that the real problem here are the TSA agents who enjoy near-absolute power over the helpless travelers? Just a thought, there.

(hat tip to Manuel Lora at the LRC Blog)