Why It Should Matter

I have a new post up on Barely a Blog, run by the brilliant Ilana Mercer. (Ilana is a terrific writer, superb researcher and a classical liberal par excellence; if you're not a fan of hers, you should be.)

If you want to help others understand why what is happening in the Balkans matters in the grand scheme of things, I've laid it out there, in 700 words or less. I can expand upon just about anything in there, at great length - but that's the gist of it.

As for the why and wherefore, my theory is that it's all about power. As Robert Higgs has documented, the U.S. government has a history of claiming more powers for itself in times of emergency. Not surprisingly, that ends up resulting in a constant state of emergency, with government authority approaching infinity.

Now apply that to the international stage. The Cold War is over, the rules you once agreed upon to constrain your rival (who vanished almost overnight) are now constraining you, and you need to find a new cause to justify your dream of a "benevolent global hegemony". So you find (and just in case, instigate and stoke) a brutal civil war somewhere prominent, which gives you a pretext to posture at white-knighting, and get rid of those pesky laws and rules in the process.

If that happens to replicate the policies of Hitler 50 years prior - who's going to notice? Your people only know Hollywood history anyway. If you can declare your targets the Nazis Reborn, adding insult to injury, so much the better. All for the sake of bringing about the desired End of History...

People who dismiss American exceptionalism don't realize that it actually does exist - albeit not in the way its proponents would appreciate. This may well be the first hegemon in world history that self-destructs by dismantling the underlying principles of its own hegemony, because they are considered inconvenient. The proverbial cutting the branch one's posterior rests upon, as it were.

Humanitarian Intervention - Isn't

The edition of RT's "Crosstalk" that was taped Monday morning was shown last night, and is up on RT's website today.

While I don't have much to say about Ian Williams' boilerplate interventionism, I found myself intrigued by some of the arguments of Isa Blumi. Of course I find the claim that the Empire was somehow in cahoots with Milosevic absolutely preposterous; if that was collaboration, what's hostility like?

Blumi also argued that dictators who can quash dissent quickly aren't picked as targets of "humanitarian" bombs. If true, this would greatly undermine the case for interventionism , since by implication, the Empire isn't noble and caring but rather coldly opportunistic, and only picks safe victims for its self-righteous knight-errantry.Which, of course, tracks with everything I've argued over the years.

However, Blumi's argument founders on the shoal of Kosovo. Milosevic actually had the KLA crushed, not once but twice - in 1997, and again in 1998. The first time it was resurrected by Germany's BND, and the second time the US intervened to save it, by sending Holbrooke to treat with the KLA. Holbrooke, Talbott, Norris, and others have outright confessed that this wasn't about the Albanians at all, or even about breaking Serbia (which did figure into the equation, mind you), but all about establishing dominion in the Balkans and keeping Russia out and down.

Interventionists would have us believe they are knights-errant riding around the world bombing "bad guys" and "liberating" their people from "tyranny." Spare me. They are in it for their own purposes - often for natural resources, but always for power.

And no one, not Williams, not Blumi, not any of the US and EU diplomats, not Blair's chief spin-doctor Alistair Campbell (currently on the blood-drenched payroll of Crime Minister Thaci) has ever managed to explain how "protecting and saving" people is accomplished by killing them.

"We had to destroy the village to save it," an American soldier famously quipped to a reporter in Vietnam.
Well, that's why you lost.

And There Was Blood

On September 16, exactly forty days after their July fiasco, KFOR and EULEX confirmed their outlaw status by repeating the attempt to seize two "border crossings" between occupied Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. Tasked with peacekeeping under UN resolution 1244, the only document making their presence in the province even resemble something legal, both organizations chose to place themselves into the service of Hashim Thaci and his "independent state of Kosova".

As in 1999, they thought it would be easy: they show up with overwhelming force, string barbed wire across the road, install Thaci's "customs agents" and prevent any Serb traffic in or out of the province until they recognize the occupation government. They did not expect resistance. They did not expect the local Serbs, betrayed and abandoned by the government in Belgrade, to block the "peackepeers" in turn - with trucks, concrete blocks, earthen berms, and even their own bodies.

For eleven days, KFOR and the Serbs faced off. KFOR would tear down a Serb barricade, only to find a new one built to replace it. German and American troops - together in a mission of repressing Serbs, how ironic - threatened to shoot, but never dared. Until this morning, when they did.

They claim "self-defense." Sure they do. They claim it was the Serbs' fault. Sure they would. Isn't it always? Yes, by all means blame the local population for refusing to submit to an illegal occupation and its illegal blockade, harassment and repression. Keep in mind that those Serbs who use the Albanian checkpoints routinely get arrested, beaten, or have their vehicles impounded or destroyed - yet KFOR and EULEX do nothing. So much for the U.S. and NATO standing for "freedom". Yes, "freedom" is when you get the right to do as you're told, and nothing else. Dare refuse, and you become a "rogue."

Here is something the "repressive, lawless military occupation force" (in the words of former UNMIK official Gerard Gallucci, an American) doesn't seem to understand: they are up against the people who have nothing to lose but their lives. The fact that they decided to stay and defend their homes, facing down the Albanians, KFOR and even the betrayal of their own government - well, the quislings in Belgrade anyway - ought to indicate these people will not surrender. As did the barricades and the sit-ins.

Serbs passing a cabbage dish to a German soldier at Jarinje, September 18, 2011

Last week, the Serbs at that very barricade shared their food with the German occupiers, in an act of good will. Today, that was repaid with bullets.

KFOR claims it was targeted by "pipe bombs." Amateur Serbs, reporting from the area as they have for the past two months, say the locals used clumps of dirt, rocks and "cheerleader flares" (sparklers used at soccer games). Those are not "pipe bombs." And unarmed people facing off heavily armed troops is not a "clash," but a massacre waiting to happen. KFOR also lied about using rubber bullets. Video evidence clearly shows live ammo.

Apparently it was Americans who opened fire. How ironic. They've effectively changed sides from 70 years ago, assisting Germans and proud heirs of Hitler's allies against their own historical ally.

If you think my invocation of WW2 is improper, consider this: one of the Serbs detained this morning - prior to the shooting - protested (see source account here) his treatment to KFOR by saying that "it's beginning to look like Auschwitz around here" (referring, presumably, to thick barbed wire and armed German guards). KFOR's response was, "Not yet. We don't have gas chambers for you."

For shame, KFOR. If you still have any.

UPDATE (17:30 EDT): I just spoke to RT about the events. Not sure when the video will be available.
Again, these weren't "clashes". This wasn't KFOR acting in "self-defense." It was KFOR being the muscle for Hashim Thaci's illegal government, abusing the population that protested in a peaceful and civilized manner. In 1999, KFOR stood idly by as KLA rampaged across the province, driving hundreds of thousands out and burning their homes and churches. In 2004, KFOR stood by again, letting Thaci's followers expel and burn out thousands more. Now KFOR is assisting Thaci openly, and to what end? Hoping that these last Serbs either submit to Thaci's thug "state", or pack up and leave?

Some "democracy." Some "freedom." Some "law and order."

Odds and Ends

I've been too busy to sit down and write a proper follow-up to Showdown, so this will have to suffice.


KFOR and EULEX found themselves outmaneuvered last weekend, as the local Serbs built roadblocks of logs, trucks, earth and even concrete, sealing them off at the two "customs posts" (Jarinje, Brnjak). They also sealed off the routes leading into the northern part of Kosovo from the Albanian-occupied south. While this has had the effect of seriously impeding their own supply, they've effectively disabled KFOR traffic. I can't imagine the occupiers are happy about this, but there's little they can do without appearing extremely heavy-handed. They may try, of course, and spin it as peacekeeping - but in the era of viral videos, can they really risk it?

It is worth noting that the Empire operates on the idiotic assumption that the Serbs in Kosovo are being directed from Belgrade somehow, or that the quisling government there can command them. Having become used to astroturf behavior of their Balkans allies and proxies, they can't imagine a genuine grassroots protest.

The truth, however, is that Belgrade has no control of the situation in north Kosovo, and may be rapidly losing control over the rest of Serbia as well. The reason the minister in charge of police is objecting to the October 2 "Belgrade Pride" is not that he hates homosexuals, but that he's mortally afraid of his police refusing orders and defecting. Once that happens, the government can kiss its quisling posterior goodbye.

In other news, Senator Marco Riubio (R-Fla.) said in a recent speech that the U.S. military  has been "one of the greatest forces of good," because they "stopped Nazism and Communism and other evils such as Serbian ethnic cleansing.” I wanted to put together a rebuttal of this nonsense, but Julia Gorin beat me to it. I would like to add, though, that the lion's share of credit for stopping the Nazis should go to the Soviets; that the U.S. armed forces did precisely nothing to defeat Communism; and that putting "Serbian ethnic cleansing" on par with Nazism is a heinous insult for all the victims of Nazi aggression - which includes the Serbs.

Also, does that mean only Serbian "ethnic cleansing" is bad, while everyone else's is virtuous? For example, that committed by Croats, or Albanians, which the U.S. armed forces have actually sponsored? It certainly seems that way. Why else would the Wall Street Journal publish editorials by such luminaries of humanitarianism as Hashim "Snake" Thaci, leader of the terrorist KLA and the current prime minister of the so-called independent Kosovo, Julia Gorin asks.

Meanwhile, I did manage to write up a quick look at the Palestinian Authority campaign to declare statehood and request recognition by the UN, which was posted on Ilana Mercer's Barely a Blog. I've been reading Ilana's stuff for years; she's a fantastic writer and excellent researcher, who just published a very interesting book on South Africa and I am grateful to have the opportunity to guest-post on her blog

Right now I'm working on a column for Antiwar.com, and preparing to make an appearance on RT's Crosstalk. Sleep? What's that?

Showdown

Forty days after being defeated by the local Serb community, the Empire and its KLA allies are at it again, seeking to set up "Kosovo customs" at two checkpoints facing inner Serbia. As in July, official Belgrade refuses to fight - but it won't do the spineless quislings any good. Having decided that the government set over them - I'm deliberately not saying "their government" - is in manifest dereliction of its most basic duty, the Serbs are organizing and defending themselves.

However much they prefer to live in a virtual reality constructed out of their own (and Imperial) propaganda, the quislingocracy in Belgrade cannot help but notice this development - and panic. That fear was stoked yesterday when Russia's ambassador, Alexander Konuzin, stood up at a pro-NATO conference in Belgrade (the fact that one was being held at all illustrates the depths of the government's depravity) and angrily rebuked the audience for fiddling while their country was being put to the torch. His exhortation, "Are there no Serbs here?" has already gone viral, and Konuzin Fan Clubs are popping up all over the social networks.

I spoke to RT this morning (video at the end) about the situation in Kosovo. These aren't "clashes", but an organized effort by the terrorist regime in Pristina to impose its writ on the last Serb enclave still holding out, with full knowledge, help and support of the NATO "peacekeepers" and the EU "law and order" mission. Though "terrorist" is a worn-out buzzword by now, it really fits here. The "government" in Pristina is basically the KLA, by any reasonable standard a terrorist organization, which has not only terrorized the province's Serbs and other non-Albanians, but also the very Albanians it purports to represent, both prior to the NATO invasion in 1999 and ever since. It also stands accused, by both a credible investigator and Empire's own Inquisitors, of trafficking in narcotics, weapons, slaves, sex slaves, and human organs (forcibly harvested from captives no less). How dare these people talk about "law and order"? How dare NATO, the foremost international outlaw?

The 78-day air terror campaign, intended to seize Kosovo from Serbia, ended when the Yugoslav government at the time signed an armistice with NATO (which the Alliance promptly violated). The UN Security Council approved the armistice and passed Resolution 1244, authorizing NATO occupation of Kosovo but guaranteeing the sovereignty of Serbia. That resolution has been systematically violated by NATO ever since, culminating in the 2008 "declaration of independence" by the KLA "government."

In March this year, almost twelve years to the date from NATO's attack on then-Yugoslavia, the Security Council passed Resolution 1973, authorizing the Alliance to set up a "no-fly zone" over Libya. NATO proceeded to bomb Libya instead, and offer direct support to the anti-government "rebels" there, in a reprise of 1999. If 1244 was a fig leaf for naked aggression, 1973 was a condom used in casual rape. Forgive me if I don't take the notion of "law" coming from these people very seriously.

For the third time in a hundred years, German troops are occupying Serbian soil. The first time they came in 1915, and were sent packing three years later. The second time, in 1941, they lingered for four. This time, it has been twelve and counting. Perhaps they think the Serbs have finally been broken. The quisling regime in Belgrade certainly does. They are both very much mistaken.

I wonder if the NATO troops facing the Serbs this evening realize their predicament. They aren't up against "illegal and criminal elements," but against an entire people, who value freedom - the actual thing, not Empire's buzzword - far more than their lives. There is exactly one Balkans nation that has faced down every invader and would-be conqueror over the centuries, and emerged from the struggle triumphant (however bloodied and bruised) every time. It is behind those barricades. KFOR is in front of them. If those assorted lackeys of Empire have any sense at all... they would be somewhere else.

Once More About the "Belgrade Pride"

Last year, the corrupt, contemptible regime in Serbia sent six thousand police to occupy downtown Belgrade, so a handful of Imperial politicians, local quislings, professional activists and their foreign guests (including a prominent Dutch pedophile) could parade down the city's main avenue. One of the participants, Predrag Azdejkovic, boasted about taking Belgrade's "anal virginity".

The general citizenry reacted to the "Pride Parade" with cold contempt. Many who went forth to oppose it directly chose to do so peacefully, as part of Church processions, which were blocked and harassed by the police. Others chose to assault the police cordon directly. The government reveled in branding them "thugs and hooligans," conducting mass arrests and show trials, and arguing that Serbia needed more of its "reforms" in order to become "civilized."

Make no mistake, though: the riots of 10-10-10 were anti-government, not anti-gay.

In the past two decades, Serbia has been blockaded, bombed, and dismembered by the Empire, then looted by the repressive and treacherous regime while being dismembered some more. Once an exporter of food, Serbia now has people rummaging through garbage for leftovers. The government callously disregards the Constitution and other laws, gerrymanders election results, mocks the democratic process and routinely insults its citizens' intelligence. It aids and abets ethnic and religious separatism within the country, while systematically suppressing or subverting any expression of Serbian identity, faith, culture or tradition. To ask for "gay rights" in such circumstances, when there are hardly any rights at all, is simply perverse.

We are told it isn't easy to be gay (or lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, whatnot - though these groups have very little overlap between themselves, and are only lumped together because they define themselves by their alternate sexuality) in Serbia. That is true. But it isn't easy to be anyone in Serbia, unless one is somehow associated with the government.

Therein's the problem: the "GLBT" activists - not the folks who wish to enjoy life with their sexual partners, but those people who get paid (by foreign foundations, as well as Serbian taxpayer money) to be victimized homo/trans/alt-sexuals - don't want the government out of their bedrooms, but are actually in bed with the government. The 2011 "Pride," scheduled for October 2, isn't about anyone's rights, human or otherwise - it's about privileges for these professional victims, and further empowerment of the government, at the expense of Serbia.

One cannot demand tolerance from others, while being intolerant. Acceptance needs to be earned. If the alt-sexuals spoke up against government abuses of the law and the citizenry, that would certainly advance the tolerance and acceptance of them among the general population. But no - instead, they align themselves with the government considerably responsible for the present reprehensible state of affairs. By doing this, and taking the government's coin, the professional alt-sexuals are doing their constituency a colossal disservice. So while the advocates get to keep getting money for fighting the problem they are themselves making worse, the ordinary alt-sexuals - who presumably just want to live in peace - are being manipulated to serve the corrupt regime, instead of joining forces with the oppressed Serbs and thus earning acceptance and tolerance.

In effect, the alt-sexuals are being set up as the lightning rod for the disaffected citizenry. The Pride is the government's way of telling the jobless, the hungry and the humiliated, "Eat cake." It's an insult, as much as anything this government has done for the past 3 years (and parts of it before then). There is a general understanding among the populace that the alt-sexuals aren't the real enemy, but only a cat's-paw of the government. That won't make it any easier to swallow the insult, however. It is very likely there will be violence come October 2, once again aimed against the government, once again manipulated by it to justify further repression, further abuses and further insults.

Now, in the struggle between the current government and the Serbian people, my money is on the latter. Furthermore, I am willing to wager that most alt-sexuals think the same way: last year, most of them wanted nothing to do with the parade. But that's not enough - they are still tolerating the hijacking of their interests by professional activists and the government. If alt-sexuals of Serbia want to earn acceptance, they will have to fight alongside the general populace, for the rights of all and not just their own.

9/11

I remember that Tuesday morning the way I remember much of the Bosnian War: in vivid detail. The confusion, the shock, the horror of the burning and crumbling towers, the pillar of black smoke coming from the Pentagon. But the world didn't stop turning. And nothing actually changed that day.

Within weeks, the man who got into the Oval Office on a promise of a "more humble foreign policy" had launched a war without end. Except that the "War on terror(ism)" was lost before it began. U.S. policymakers have persisted in believing their own myth about the "good" terrorists (i.e. ones they could control) versus the "bad" ones (the ones that would attack America), no matter how much the terrorists themselves blurred that line, repeatedly. They even begged jihadists to like them (again)!

Eventually, the "War on Terror" became a "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism", a term signifying precisely nothing. Instead of fighting fear and terror, the Empire unleashed them upon the world. The discrepancies between reality and fantasy were discounted through perception management. The 2006 mockumentary "Borat" was supposed to have been a comedy. But when the title character enthuses about the "war of terror", it wasn't funny. It rang true.

Seven years after that fateful Tuesday, the American public knew it wasn't really involved in a war on terrorism any more, only in the protracted and pointless occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq (a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, but was nonetheless invaded). The man who promised Hope and Change promised to end those wars. He hasn't delivered.

In May this year, the alleged mastermind behind 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was killed in Pakistan. If the official version of events is to be believed (so many lies have been told about the wars, it's hard to believe anything any more), he was taken out by Seal Team Six, a special forces unit. The question that begs to be asked is, couldn't something like that have been done in the first place, without two full-scale invasions and a bunch of proxy wars? Instead, bin Laden's alleged purpose - to bleed America dry in the sands of the Muslim world - seems to have been achieved, all right.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist (I'm more interested in conspiracy facts). Nor do I believe for a second that everything would have been just fine had America not "provoked" the jihadists, as some well-meaning folks think. Jihad isn't some benevolent ideology of spiritual self-fulfillment, but a religious commandment to perpetrate violence upon the infidel. Many people who call themselves Christians may not take the commandments of their faith very seriously. Rest assured, many Muslims do. The real error was believing that jihad could be harnessed, controlled and directed to achieve a strategic purpose. That belief was wrong in 1978, it was wrong in 2001, it is wrong now, and it will be wrong tomorrow.

It isn't quite right to say that nothing has changed since that Tuesday, ten years ago. While the government, and the thinking behind it, has remained much the same (though a different faction is in power; that ought to suggest a few things, by itself), the United States of America isn't the same country any more. I have trouble recognizing it, and I've witnessed the transformation, gradual as it was.

Whether things keep getting worse, or some day take a turn for the better, there is no going back. Panta rei.

Against the Occupation of the Mind

Three years ago, I wrote about a "mental occupation" that Serbia is under - a perfidious, soul-sucking cloud of self-hatred and contempt, generated by the ruling caste of Communist heirs, globalists, oligarchs and media magnates (often mistakenly called the "elite"). That was itself inspired by a 2007 post about cowardice, resulting from an essay by Julia Gorin (I wasn't the only one it inspired, either).

Since then, I've been trying to break those mental chains through persuasion, satire, contempt, mockery, and any number of other techniques available to a writer that I could think of. I honestly don't know to what extent this has been my doing, and to what extent it was simply people adding two and two and coming up with four instead of "European Union," but Serbia has since developed a significant intellectual resistance to "elite" oppression, and is well on the way to throw off the mental chains - as well as the physical chains of their quisling government, in a not too distant future. It hasn't been easy, or pleasant, or simple - but it was needful, and remains worth doing.

I recently came across the writings of Daniel Greenfield. I've just posted a translation of his essay concerning the demographic demise of both Cold War empires (h/t Mightiest of the Nine). Today, I discovered another, this time concerning the self-hating Jews. Therein, he gives the following description of mental occupation, which I consider particularly relevant:

"Being right isn't enough. the left is rapidly metastasizing into its final genocidal form. Its occupation of the minds of civilized men has become a disease that is consuming the host. And like a mosquito deadening the nerve endings of the skin of its victim, the first symptom of the disease is an inability to recognize the problem. Its final symptom is to state that the problem is not the mosquito drinking blood, but the amount of blood that hasn't been drunk yet.
This is the point of view of the mosquito, of the Israeli left, the American left and of every left. It is Code Pink, the ACLU, Not in Our Name, Women in Black, J Street, Jews Say No, Please Kill Us Because We Raped the Planet and Don't Deserve to Go On Living.
The optimist says that the glass is half empty [sic]. The pessimist says that it is half full [sic]. The left says that it should be completely empty and you should feel ashamed that there is any water in it at all. And that if you had any humanity and decency, you would pour out that water right now. If you don't, then you're fair game. And if you do, you're fair game, because you didn't do it quickly enough. And if you do it quickly, you're fair game because you are descended from people who didn't pour out their own water quickly enough.
This is the occupation of the mind. It has a surface logic over an utterly irrational mindset. Its goal is to convince you to kill yourself. Its goal is to convince you to say, No, or at least, Maybe."

Bear this in mind when next you hear an impassioned activist for something. Is he (or she, as it may be) trying to persuade you to fight for your survival, or trying to talk you into suicide? And once you've figured it out... what are you going to do about it?

Traitor's Reward

The Hague Inquisition convicted Momcilo Perisic today, sentencing the former Yugoslav general to 27 years in prison for "aiding and abetting" alleged war crimes.

It is worth noting that Perisic was deemed guilty of nothing he actually did, but of what the Inquisition thinks he could or should have done to prevent the asserted atrocities from taking place. By that "standard", every single general officer is a war criminal - which is why it only gets applied to the Serbs.

What's ironic here is that Perisic was a CIA asset. He was caught in 2002 - by the bumbling DOS police, no less - conspiring with a U.S. embassy official, who turned out to be a CIA operative. Subsequent investigation revealed that Perisic had been working for the U.S. since 1997. Facing Serbian military justice, he surrendered to the Inquisition instead. Yet not even his service to the Empire could save him from being sacrificed at the altar of Collective Serbian Guilt.

This does nothing to change the fact that the ICTY is a false court, and that all its verdicts ought to by rights be null and void. But it does provide a fitting reward for treason, I suppose. Treason runs wide and deep in today's Serbia. Perhaps, now that they know what "rewards" await them in this world and the next, the other traitors might repent. I'm not holding my breath, but still.

Third Time A Charm?

“Germany should now, as it has become peaceful and reasonable, get all that Europe and the whole world has refused in two gigantic wars, a sort of smooth hegemony over Europe.”
- Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Secretary

It sure seems today, 72 years after its start, that it was Germany that had actually won World War Two. Overlay the map of the EU with that of the German Reich at the height of its power. Look how Yugoslavia was "wiped off the map" once again - this time by decree, and only then by bombs and boots on the ground. Behold, the same ethnic groups that once allied with Hitler find themselves the most enthusiastic "allies" of Berlin - or rather, its patron, the Atlantic Empire. That partnership probably goes a long way to explain the success of Germany's latest drive for European hegemony.

Julia Gorin just did a write-up about a presentation by Rodney Atkinson - former British Ministerial Adviser, author, and lecturer at University of Mainz in Germany - made in February 2008 (coincidentally, when German-supported Albanians declared the "Independent state of Kosova" in the occupied Serbian province) at the British House of Commons. The above quote is mentioned at the very end of Atkinson's presentation, the transcript of which can be found on Gorin's blog. The arguments presented there are culled from two books that Atkinson had written by then about the EU's roots in German designs for European hegemony.

Far-fetched? Not at all. Several years ago, one Serbian blogger tracked down several Nazi propaganda posters from the 1940s that extolled the virtues of National-Socialism and promised the Serbs an idyllic future in the "European family of nations" if only they'd just roll over and serve the Fuehrer. The similarity with pronouncements and promises from Brussels - often parroted by the sycophantic Serbian politicians - was uncanny. That is, until Atkinson pointed out the direct connection between Brussels and the 1940s Berlin. If the shoe fits...

The Germans certainly have perseverance. One would think that, failing to conquer Europe twice, in a spectacular and bloody fashion and at great cost to themselves (and others), they'd stop trying. It appears, however, they are still at it. Both times prior, their plans ran afoul of the Serbs and their stubborn resistance. That helps explain the present hostility for Belgrade and Berlin's support for its "legacy" allies in the region.

Thing is, Germans aren't the only people capable of holding a grudge, or soldiering on against the odds. I'm not sure about the Brits, or the rest of Europe, but somehow I don't quite think Serbia is as defeated as its enemies believe. And I doubt the third time will be a charm for Fritz.

Three Days in August

There is an interesting documentary up on RT about the failed August 1991 coup.

It is ironic that the cabal that attempted to overthrow Gorbachev actually succeeded - just not in the way they intended. The real winner of the August 1991 drama was Boris Yeltsin, who proceeded to put Gorbachev out of work by dissolving the Soviet Union.

These days, the American press is waxing nostalgic for Boris Nikolayevich, pining for the days when Russia was a "democracy" (which in Empire-speak translates to "does what it's told"). Yet most Russians seem to remember Yeltsin as the fellow who ran Russia into the ground while drinking his troubles away, a buffoon propped up by the Americans.

Yeltsin was ousted in a palace coup at the end of 1999. He died in 2007, and was given a state funeral. Perhaps that was more out of respect for the symbolism - him being the first democratically elected president of the Russian republic and all - than for the man himself. Who knows?

Gorbachev is still around, making a living off the laurels of being the last Soviet leader. Though his word is eagerly quoted in the West, in Russia itself he commands very little respect. Simply put, nobody is nostalgic for the Yeltsin days, or even the last days of the USSR. Russians' support for the current government, warts and all, is almost plebiscitary.

I used to get angry seeing the rampant Russophobia on the pages of American papers. Now I find it amusing. It's all part of the world of fetish and fantasy the Atlantic Empire leadership prefers over actual reality. At the end of the Cold War, they had a choice: be a shining example for the world, or surrender to the temptation of unrestrained power. They chose power - and failed. If sneering at others makes them feel better about that failure, so be it.

The Russians have paid a steep price for their delusions, and seem to have learned something from their mistakes. Would that the Americans will be so fortunate, when it's their turn.

Storm, Kosovo and Empire

I really don't have much to add to my 2005 essay about "Operation Storm," the Empire-sponsored ethnic cleansing operation by which Franjo Tudjman's government effected a final solution of its "Serb problem."

Though the Hague Inquisition has declared it part of a "joint criminal enterprise" when convicting two Croatian generals in April, it is unlikely this verdict will be allowed to stand for long. Zagreb maintains that this was a great and noble victory, celebrates the holiday as "Homeland Thanksgiving Day" and - most importantly - the sponsors of the operation still look upon Croatia with favor, even as it is no longer their "junkyard dog."

There is no doubt that "Storm" was cooked up in the Pentagon kitchen; the Empire doesn't deny its mercenary outfit MPRI was instrumental in turning Tudjman's army from rabble into something resembling a military. A decade later, the pattern was repeated in Georgia (which eventually attempted a similar-style operation, albeit with a very different outcome).

Of course, the conquest of Krajina was greatly helped by the fact that Croatians had the Serbs outnumbered, outgunned, surrounded, blinded (NATO airstrikes took out their communications) and - last, but not least - abandoned. Perhaps the calculation in Belgrade was that the sacrifice of Krajina might save Serbia from Imperial invasion; if so, they soon realized their mistake. But that's a topic I'll save for later.

Croatians and their Western advocates erroneously label the war a struggle for independence; no one - not Belgrade, nor the Krajina Serbs - actually sought to stop Croats from having their own state, as much as that would have been a perfectly legal course of action under the extant Yugoslav constitution. The only thing in dispute was whether a Croat government - moreover, one that has deliberately sought continuity with the WW2 Ustasha - had any right to rule over territories inhabited mostly by ethnic Serbs.

There is one aspect of that conflict that remains largely ignored: the involvement of Kosovo Albanians in the Croatian military. I am not aware of any research into the actual number of Albanians who joined Tudjman's forces. There is anecdotal evidence of Albanians fighting in both that war, and the subsequent/parallel war in Bosnia, where they supported the Muslim government of Alija Izetbegovic. But the plural of anecdote is not data. More research is needed.

Two names do come to mind, however. Rahim Ademi was a brigadier-general during the Medak Pocket operation, and was even put on trial for war crimes there, but was acquitted by a Croatian court - surprise! - along with General Norac, in 2008.

Somewhat more (in)famous is Agim Ceku, who also joined Tudjman's army in 1991, and took part in the Medak operation (where he was wounded). Ceku commanded Croatian army units during "Storm." After the war, Tudjman gave him command of the 5th Military District - but in 1998, he "retired" to join the KLA, which was being rebuilt in Albania (the Serbian law enforcement having successfully quashed the Jashari rebellion).

Neither Ceku nor his political superior, KLA supreme leader Hashim Thaci, have ever been charged with any atrocities, even though under the Inquisition's own doctrine of command responsibility they were ultimately responsible for every single act of terrorism their underlings (such as Fatmir Limaj or Ramush Haradinaj) had committed. Thaci is now "Prime Minister" of the self-proclaimed Kosovaristan, while Ceku simply changed insignia and continued to command the KLA under the name of "Kosovo Protection Corps" (which now passes for Thaci's military).

The Official Truth in Croatia (and Kosovia) is that their separatist rebellions were legitimate self-defense from "Serbian oppression" embodied in the evil Slobodan Milosevic. The problem with this theory is that it completely fails to explain the prior history of Albanian and Croat belligerence towards the Serbs, which predates Milosevic by a great deal.

What is one to make of Albanian separatism in Tito's Yugoslavia, which created Kosovo as a political entity in the first place, invested vast amounts of money into its modernization, and provided a welfare system that enabled Albanian families to have a dozen children or more? What is one to make of the 1973 "Maspok" (mass movement) events in Croatia, long before Milosevic was even on the political radar?

And for that matter, what about the Croat and Albanian alliance with Hitler in WW2, exemplified by the "Independent State of Croatia" and its Devil Division at Stalingrad, or the 21st Waffen-SS division "Skanderbeg", composed primarily of Albanians from Kosovo?

When one connects the dots, the pattern is there: Croats and Albanians, joined in pursuit of the same cause. Where Hitler failed to deliver, the Atlantic Empire succeeded (so far, anyway). It seems everything is in the choice of allies.

KLA Attacks

For a long time now, the Empire has worked on a way to stamp out the last vestiges of Serb freedom in the occupied province of Kosovo (declared "independent" by its Albanian government in February 2008, with Imperial support). They put the plan into effect this week.

The pathetic quisling regime in Serbia - which has been doing everything in its power to implicitly recognize the "Kosovian" government without overtly doing so - responded by mewling about "diplomatic solutions" and "negotiations" with KFOR, EULEX and other Imperial institutions put into place to help the KLA regime carve out Kosovo. Not surprisingly, the Imperial envoy Peter Feith endorsed the Albanians' actions, saying that every sovereign state has a right to control its territory. Except Serbia, of course, because rules do not apply in her case.

According to reports from the province, Albanian special forces were beaten back from the two checkpoints at the "border", with one casualty. KFOR, commanded by a German general, is helping the Albanian "police" occupy the checkpoints. EULEX is silent. Russia is demanding an urgent, closed session of the UN Security Council.

Belgrade is rolling over and playing dead. But the Serbs in Kosovo don't give a rotten rodent's posterior for the regime currently running Serbia - they are fighting for their survival with everything they have. In the rest of Serbia, there are rumors of protest marches, which the government has banned. God forbid anyone resists the Empire! All the mainstream media are toeing the government line, so the public is rapidly turning to Facebook, Twitter and blogs to find out what is going on.

Yesterday evening Moscow time, I commented on the situation for RT. What puzzled me was the presenter's seeming belief that this was an issue that "Serbia and Kosovo" would have to resolve in order to get into the EU. Far as I know, Russia refuses to recognize the self-proclaimed Albanian state. And this is much more than a border dispute - it's an attempt to snuff out Serb presence in the province altogether, under the guise of "law and order."

What law? What order? By rights, it is Serbia that ought to be establishing its sovereignty over the occupied province, instead of Hashim Thaci's mafia clan posing as government.

Of course, President Tadic has already said his government would not fight. In any case, Serbia's military is busy taking part in NATO's exercises in Ukraine (and just who might those be aimed at? Venezuela?). Yet he and his regime are quickly being rendered irrelevant. The KLA/Imperial takeover was thwarted by the local Serbs, who seem to have preserved both their courage and their convictions.

Had the Albanians waited just a few months more, the spineless slugs in Belgrade would have given them their recognition. By launching this idiotic adventure, they may have ensured the fall of Tadic, and the end of Imperial control over Serbia.

Oft evil will shall evil mar...

Oh No, You Don't

To say that something "isn't quite right" about Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian (allegedly) behind the Utøya massacre on Friday, would be an understatement. Yet it is true in more ways than one.

According to the police, Breivik detonated a car bomb in front of the government building in Oslo as a diversion, then infiltrated a summer camp for the ruling party's children on the island of Utøya, and opened fire. Initial reports put the combined death toll of the bombing and the shooting spree at 93, which have since been revised to around 70.

Much is being made of Breivik's Facebook, Twitter and blog posts - all very recent - and the manifesto (CNN) he allegedly worked from. They almost read as a list of talking points of the diversity-obsessed multi-culturalists, wishing to discredit their critics.

Charlie Brooker rightly found it terrible that the media "experts" rushed to judgment and blamed the Muslims. Given the jihadist proclivity for terrorism, that wasn't an entirely outlandish conjecture; the problem was that it posed as certainty.

I'm not sure anyone will dare speak up in a similar manner against a rising tendency to smear all the traditionalists, conservatives, and opponents of totalitarian welfare-statism and unrestricted immigration as murderous fanatics. It will again be a conjecture posing as certainty, only even less grounded in fact. Breivik is shocking precisely because he is a glaring exception to the rule. Surely, his fanaticism can hardly compare to that of people who believe the best way to ensure diversity of appearance (a goal asserted to be good without explanation) is the ironclad uniformity of thought?

Those looking for sympathy for Breivik will find none here. He's a murderer. How can fighting for the future of one's nation - Breivik's declared goal, if the papers are to be believed - mean murdering that nation's children? An absurdity, if ever there was one.

Nor do I want to get into arguments over which of his convictions were grounded in reality; I've been saying for years that actions and beliefs ought to be judged on their own inherent merits, or lack thereof, rather than on the basis of who claims association with them.

I do, however, wish to address one particular aspect of Breivik's alleged motivation, which is getting more and more play in the Western press. According to CNN, his manifesto suggests that he was driven to action by Norway's involvement in the 1999 Kosovo war, directed against "our Serbian brothers (who) wanted to drive Islam out by deporting the Albanian Muslims back to Albania." Next thing you know, the media will declare, "The Serbs made him do it." Worked for that kid in Salt Lake City, did it not?

Let me clarify, then. If Breivik saw the 1999 war in the way described above, he was factually wrong. While Islam is a powerful factor that has shaped and driven Albanian chauvinism for over a century (and certainly underpins the destructive rage against the Serbian Orthodox churches), the Albanian regime controlling Kosovo today systematically oppresses not only the remaining Serbs, but also the Gorani - Muslims by faith, Serbs by language - which indicates that its bigotry is ethno-cultural as well as religious.

If anything, it was NATO - and the U.S. - who saw the war in terms of helping the "good Muslims" against the evil Orthodox Serbs.

The Serbian government fought to defeat a terrorist insurgency seeking to make Kosovo part of an enlarged Albanian state. There was no plan of persecution and deportation - unless one believes the sordid German fiction called "Operation Horseshoe". Serbia is actually the most multi-ethnic Yugoslav successor state, and home to a substantial Muslim population. These days, Belgrade is entirely too tolerant of a militant Muslim cleric who seeks to foment a rebellion in its southwestern parts. To argue that Serbia sought to expel the Albanians in 1999 due to their Muslim faith is to accept NATO's excuse for the bombing. That claim was wrong then, and it is wrong now.

Furthermore, over the past two decades of vilest demonization in the Western media - worse by far than the cartoon depictions of Muslims over which there have been riots, death threats and even murders - as well as not one, but two bombing campaigns, there has not been a single Serbian terrorist attack in the West. Not one. As a result of Imperial meddling, Serb populations in today's Croatia, large parts of Bosnia and Kosovo have become extinct, yet no Serb has ever resorted to terrorism against NATO countries. Let alone shot up a summer camp full of children.

No cause can justify the murder of innocents, whether it is purportedly a struggle against the loss of national identity (as Breivik claims), or bringing democracy (as the Empire and its allies have claimed) to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya - or for that matter, Kosovo. Sadly, neither Breivik nor those who will sit in his judgment seem to understand that simple fact.

Still in Denial

*SEE UPDATE BELOW*

Pope Bendict XVI just wrapped up a visit to Croatia today. While Catholic reporters emphasized the pontiff's message about the importance of family, a few reporters here and there noted the controversial praising of Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac.

Roman Catholics may believe their pontiff is incapable of error on matters religious. He definitely can - and does - err on matters historical. Far from being "manipulated by Hitler for his own ends," the so-called Independent State of Croatia (1941-45) was considered at the time the crowning achievement of Croatians' legitimate aspirations to statehood. That very opinion has been shared by all the governments of modern Croatia, from its independence in 1991 onward.

Nor was Cardinal Stepinac a defender of Serbs and Jews, as the Pope alleged, but rather the vicar to Croatia's fuehrer, Ante Pavelic (see note below). The ideology of Pavelic's Ustasha was inseparable from Catholic chauvinism, and its persecution and genocide of Orthodox Serbs was entirely based on religion. One part of the program of pogrom was to coerce into conversion a third of the Serb population - including the children orphaned by Ustasha murders. Catholic clergy not only blessed the Ustasha, but many personally participated in the murdering. Unlike Hitler's murder machine, designed to be impersonal and efficient, the Ustasha took visceral pleasure in their killing - using mallets, knives, pistols and picks. Even the Nazis were disgusted.

At the end of the war, with the Communists taking power in Yugoslavia, top Ustasha officials - including Pavelic himself - escaped to Western Europe, the US and Latin America, thanks to the Catholic Church.

Stepinac was jailed for five years by the Communist authorities, then held under house arrest until his death in 1960. Given that many in Yugoslavia had been shot for much lesser crimes, Tito's regime was actually exceptionally lenient towards Pavelic's vicar and the Church of Rome. Which, by the way, never offered an apology for mass murder and forced conversions. Or the fact it supported precisely the same scenario for the Serbs in the 1990s.

Now comes the ironic twist. Right after the pontiff's visit, Zagreb announced that it will hold a Gay Pride Parade on June 18. The motto of the event is "Tomorrow belongs to us." If that sounds familiar, here's why.

UPDATE: (June 8, 2011) Srdja Trifkovic documents Stepinac's wartime record.

NOTE: I originally mis-identified Stepinac as Pavelic's personal vicar; he was actually the "Supreme Military Apostolic Vicar" to the Ustasha army, which is arguably even worse.

Lawrence Eagleburger and the Murder of Yugoslavia

Lawrence Eagleburger passed away today at his estate in Virginia, at age 80.

He had been Washington's envoy to Yugoslavia twice, spending seven years in Belgrade altogether. After retiring in 1984, he returned to the State Department in 1989, as James Baker's right hand. Eagleburger was acting Secretary for a while, and actually held the post for just over a month, from December 1992 to January 1993.

Today's NY Times obituary claims Eagleburger "was unable to keep Yugoslavia from dissolving" in the early 1990s. Well, here's an interesting question: did he even try?

Conventional wisdom has it that the Bush I administration supported Yugoslavia's survival, and only reluctantly changed its mind after "Serbian atrocities". Warren Zimmerman, the last US ambassador to Yugoslavia, claims that Washington supported Yugoslav unity, but not "if it were maintained at the expense of democracy or by force." That was at best facetious (isn't that precisely what Lincoln did?), at worst disingenuous: in the paragraph preceding that claim, Zimmerman explained the influence of Croatian and Albanian ethnic lobbies, which very much worked towards dismembering Yugoslavia.

Washington's official position - paying lip service to Yugoslav unity, openly opposing the use of force to preserve it, and talking about democracy and human rights - amounted to tacit support for the separatists.

The NY Times obit quotes Eagleburger's warning to the Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, “You can’t hold Yugoslavia together by force.” But the claim that Milosevic tried to do just that is simply not true.

It was, in fact, Milosevic who supported the secession of Slovenia and Croatia -though not Croatia's claim to Serb-inhabited territories, at least not without rescinding the clause in Tudjman's new constitution disenfranchising the Serbs - and even tacitly recognized Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, by creating the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) in April 1992. None of that mattered to the policymakers in Washington and several European capitals, who by then had decided to designate the Serbs as the principal villain of the Balkans drama, the better to cast themselves as heroes.

In 2008, Eagleburger gave an interview to Voice of America, arguing that carving out Kosovo from Serbia set a bad precedent. It was too little, too late - the precedent was already set, back in 1992, when the Badinter Commission decided that Yugoslavia had "dissolved", and Washington went along with this. By 2008, as well, there was a new generation at the State Department, which believed they could shape the world with their willpower, disdaining the "reality-based community" and all that.

Still, I'll always wonder whether people like Eagleburger and Zimmerman, with their extensive Balkans experience, could have contributed to things unfolding differently, rather than being accessories to the murder of Yugoslavia. Perhaps some day American historians and media will honestly re-examine their country's role in this sordid episode, rather than dismissing it as "the fault of those evil Serbs" - but I'm not holding my breath.

Mladic

It just occurred to me this morning that I haven't written anything here about last week's arrest of Gen. Ratko Mladic. I've been busy commenting elsewhere - appearing on RT twice so far, writing three articles for the audiences in Serbia, and putting together a column on Mladic for Antiwar.com - and between all that, this particular venue got neglected.

I don't think I've seen this kind of venom and hatred, in such amounts, in the media since the Karadzic arrest in 2008. What happened in Bosnia was tragic and horrible enough, it doesn't need embellishment. I understand perfectly why the Muslims, Croats or Albanians would exaggerate or invent Serb atrocities - it's all part of the war effort, and these days, the camera is mightier than the cannon. But what drives American, and especially British reporters to simply make stuff up? Could it be that, without a villain, they - and the governments they shill for - can't posture as heroes?

It is outlandish that Mladic is being painted as some sort of Nazi reborn, when his father was killed by the Ustasha (Croatian Nazis) back in WW2, and Mladic himself had been a Yugoslav officer, committed to "brotherhood and unity" and multi-ethnic coexistence, rather than some bigoted nationalist. But perhaps that is the point: by calling Mladic a Nazi, the attention is redirected from his enemies, who had actual Nazi histories and sympathies in the past (one PR flack doing precisely that admitted as much back in 1993).

It is also mind-boggling to see Mladic compared to the recently deceased Osama bin Laden, when Mladic actually fought against a government led by a man who wrote a treatise on political Islam and Islamic revolution, whose army actually incorporated several units of Bin Laden's "Afghans", and whose government reportedly issued a passport to Bin Laden himself. Yet even those who fight against militant Islam in Europe and the U.S. instinctively demonize the Serbs, so deep has the propaganda seeped into every pore of the public.

I could go on at length about my own wartime experiences (on the receiving end of Mladic's artillery, no less), the hypocrisy of treating the people buried as martyrs in the jihad as unarmed civilians for propaganda purposes, or the specific problems with the definition of genocide employed by the Hague Inquisition - but I've already written much about it all, and don't feel like repeating myself.

To me, the most important aspect of this entire affair is that Mladic isn't being put on trial as an individual. The Hague Inquisition seeks to "complete the set" and charge the entire military, political and police leadership of the Serbs, whether in Serbia or elsewhere, with a phantom conspiracy. It has never presented any evidence that this conspiracy existed - but facts and evidence are of no interest to a political court, focused only on creating a villain so its own sponsors can appear noble. For all the good it will do them.

This isn't just about Mladic, or the Serbs, or the Balkans Wars. There is a pattern of demonization at work here, with far-ranging implications. The Empire and its satellites are already invoking Mladic as justification for their war in Libya, just as they used Bosnia to justify Kosovo, and Kosovo to justify Iraq. God only knows who might be next.

Dodik's Gambit

I just noticed an interesting piece that ran on Monday, in which former Imperial official Matthew Parish commented on what had taken place in Bosnia the week prior.

Per Parish, Dodik sought a confrontation with viceroy Inzko because he needed a political victory to bolster his domestic standing. He never intended to go through with the referendum, only to force the Empire's hand - as he did when Baroness Ashton came to visit him and negotiate a deal.

As I argue in this week's column at Antiwar.com, Ashton's actions directly torpedoed any remaining vestige of Inzko's authority, to the point where he might soon get "promoted" out of Bosnia. Parish acknowledges this in passing, but he's much more interested in Dodik and his goals. He posits that Dodik is seeking international attention because Bosnia has grown too small for him:

"...the Bosnian model of state-building has failed and Dodik already has most of what he wants. His sole remaining goal is to reposition international attitudes towards the Balkans and at the same time reinvent himself as a respected international statesman. [...]
We should remember one other thing. Dodik is only 52. One can only wonder what political office he may have in mind after the one he holds now."

This is honestly an angle I haven't given any thought so far. If Dodik is seeking a future beyond the RS and Bosnia, it is doubtful that means Belgrade. So would it be Brussels, then? Time will tell.

Either way, those who put their hopes in Imperial support and the viceroys' powers ought to be very concerned about the future of their own designs. It doesn't look particularly bright.

A Modest Proposal

In 1999, British PM Tony Blair was the leading the calls for NATO bombing of Serbia and the subsequent occupation of its province of Kosovo. In 2008, the terrorists running Kosovo under NATO protection declared it an independent state, and were soon recognized by London. The British ambassador in Belgrade has a status of a proconsul, right after his American counterpart, routinely giving orders to the "democratic" (and unelected) government.

Now the word comes from Scotland that a pro-independence party has won the election there.

Well, sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander, says I. Perhaps Belgrade ought to reciprocate London's steadfast friendship over the past two decades by recognizing Scotland as an independent state. Hey, it would help the oppressed English finally get their own country! Not to mention be a hilariously ironic application of historical justice, such as it may be.

Won't happen, sadly - not because the Scots and the English are undeserving, but because the pack of spineless quislings in Belgrade is too craven. Then again, they won't be in power forever...

Don't You Dare Call It a Victory

So the Emperor announced breathlessly last night that Enemy of the State #1 has been hunted down and killed. Osama Bin Laden is no more. There was a jubilant crowd in front of the White House (I second Ilana Mercer's thoughts on how unseemly that was), and much rejoicing in the morning papers.

Whatever.

Don't get me wrong, I despise terrorists of any stripe, and oppose jihad on principle as well as in practice. But so many things about this takedown reek of stupidity, malice, or both, that I'm hard pressed to feel jubilant rather than contemptuous. First off, OBL was allegedly hiding in a compound right in the middle of a town housing the Pakistani high command and military academies - quite literally under the very nose of Empire's self-declared principal ally. Did the Pakistani military, intelligence and government know his whereabouts? If yes, that makes them liars; if not, hugely incompetent.

Then there is the whole circus of dumping his body into the sea, before any independent confirmation of his identity could be obtained. Supposedly, this was done to avoid making his grave a terrorist pilgrimage site (so why not bury him at the remote U.S. base of Diego Garcia, as Steve Sailer sensibly suggested?) and to honor Muslim religious sensibilities by giving Osama a quick burial. Except burials at sea offend those very sensibilities. Oops.

Anyway, Bin Laden is dead. That ought to mean that 9/11 is finally avenged. Outstanding news! But do you expect His Most Elevated Majesty Barack I the Blessed, Bringer of Hope and Change, to order the troops back from Afghanistan, and Iraq while at it, declare a victory and have a ticker-tape parade? Don't be silly.

Because, for all his demonstrable evil, Bin Laden was nothing more than a convenient excuse. The war was never about him, or his sad bunch of fanatical followers, or jihad, or terrorism in general. Bush the Lesser so much as admitted to it, years ago.

It has been about the Empire all along. About power. Which is why it cannot end. Not now. Not ever. Until the Empire self-destructs, anyway.

So don't you dare call this a victory. When this whole mess started, Bin Laden said exactly what he intended to do: involve America in numerous wars and make it bleed itself to death. He meant to win by losing. Well, didn't he?

I can almost hear him, cackling maniacally, all the way to Hell.