An Israeli in Kosovo

Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal ^ | August 4, 2008 | Michael J. Totten

[Diocletian]

Interesting.

[Diocletian]

check it out.

[eleni121]

Yeah interesting BS from Totten...paid stooge of Muslims.

Bottom line: Ethnic cleansing works when it is Christians being ethnically cleansed at the behest of the Saudis.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

[Bokababe]

Totten has obviously become the spokesman for the "Kosovo Albanian Independence" Marketing Program. He's not above using Israelis and Jewish sounding Muslims (Stephen Schwartz) to do it.

Check out the graphic in the upper right of Totten's webpage -- the cross and crescent melded into one symbol. Ironically, it's also the sign of the devil (the D with a hash mark in it) in Balkans -- which pretty much explains it all.

[Diocletian]

Akin to how Julia Gorin does it for the Serbs?

[Bokababe]

"Akin to how Julia Gorin does it for the Serbs?"

No. Julia Gorin has been on the Kosovo issue since the 1999 NATO Bombing, as a matter of conscience. She didn't even know any Serbs when she got involved, and like me, it is about America's involvement to her, not really about Serbia.

Totten has jumped on this bandwagon out of nowhere. (His knowledge and experience was the Middle East, not the Balkans) But all of a sudden he's "promoting Kosovo independence" with the zeal of a two-dollar whore. Something's wrong with this picture.

[Diocletian]

It's too bad that she is full of crap on Kosovo, as American soldiers in Kosovo testify:

We are members of the Army National Guard currently deployed to the province of Kosovo with Multi-National Task Force (East), or MNTF (E). Our task force is made up not only of the National Guard, but the Army Reserve, the active Army and the Air Force. We come from various parts of the United States, including Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and 23 other states. We are what is called “boots on the ground” Soldiers. We are here. We are witnesses to what is happening in Kosovo, so what was published in the American Legion magazine in July of 2007 created the need for us to reply to the inaccuracies.

The American Legion Magazine ran an opinion piece in the July issue by a New York comedienne named Julia Gorin, whose writings have been published in a number of conservative publications, including Front Page Magazine and National Review Online. She is also a contributing editor to the Jewish World Review. Ms. Gorin may be a funny lady, but her commentary is filled with wild accusations, inaccuracies, distortions and downright lies that serve only to hurt our peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and shed a negative light on the Soldiers who are carrying out said mission.

Ms. Gorin’s accusations include, but are not limited to:

• “A Serb a day is killed in Kosovo.”
• Kosovo Serbs live inside barbed-wire, NATO-guarded perimeters, beyond which they “dare not venture.”
• When shot by Albanians, NATO troops are directed to flee rather than fight back.
• Serbian nuns continue to be killed.
• Serbian churches and monasteries are destroyed.
• Albanians call U.N. and NATO “occupiers” and want them to get out.

“I can initially tell you that …a Serb being killed a day is not just a ghastly exaggeration, but an erroneous allegation,” says Sgt. Tara Vayda, an intelligence analyst at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo. According to Vayda, the worst ethnically-motivated violence that has occurred here during our stay in Kosovo has been Kosovo-Albanian teens throwing rocks at Kosovo-Serbian-associated busses or a Serbian elderly couple.

While throwing rocks at people or busses is not an activity one would call desirable behavior on the part of the Albanian teens, it certainly does not constitute the murder of a Serb every day. Ms. Gorin’s claim is exactly what she denies it to be – an exaggeration at best and a downright lie at worst.

“Our mission in Kosovo is to maintain a safe and secure environment in our area of responsibility in order to provide the stability that allows local governmental institutions to address and resolve the issues of self-governance and service to their residents, and to allow those residents to live their lives free of the fear of past conflicts,” says Col. Steven Scott, the Deputy Commander of Civil Military Operations for MNTF (E).

“We do this with a ‘boots on the ground’ presence everywhere in our sector; young Soldiers building and maintaining relationships with local leaders, shop owners, teachers and students, and folks going about their daily routines. We do this by engaging civil leadership and assisting them in their attempts at solving the vast problems they face every day. We do this through humanitarian assistance, whether improving infrastructure, or distributing the many, many donated goods we receive from our families and friends.”

According to Col. Scott, the Soldiers work to provide reassurance to the people of Kosovo that bad things won't happen to them, and they work very hard to keep that commitment.

That's why the accusations hurled by Ms. Gorin in her article are so appalling and insulting to our Soldiers. Her implication that 200 Serbs have died on our watch is absurd.

Members of the Joint Implementation Commission in Kosovo have a special mission. They work with the Serbian Armed Forces to enforce compliance of the Military Technical Agreement and UN Security Council Resolution 1244. They operate along the Administrative Boundary Line between Kosovo and Serbia proper (or Uza Serbia, as the Serbs call it).

Their mission takes them throughout the Multi National Task Force (East)’s area of operations, and they encounter people from all walks of life. They have been guests at the homes of both Serbian and Albanian citizens of Kosovo. Not one member of the JIC team has ever seen Serbian enclaves surrounded by barbed-wire, NATO-guarded perimeters.

In most of the province, Kosovo Serbians are free to leave their enclaves, drive to their destinations, take vacations and walks. As a matter of fact, part of KFOR’s mission here in Kosovo is to ensure freedom of movement of all people who live here.

Orthodox Chaplain, 1st. Lt. Michael Wikstrom has traveled throughout Kosovo and has developed relationships with the religious leaders of the Serbian Orthodox community. He concurs that in the MNTF (E) area of operations, no concentration camp-like conditions exist. He says the vast majority of the province is perfectly safe for Kosovo Serbs to live and travel. He does see some areas of Kosovo where Serbian Orthodox priests and nuns could not travel alone....

It is difficult to say where Ms. Gorin is getting her erroneous information, or whether she’s simply using her rather fertile imagination as a substitute for checking facts. However, her claims of what, in essence, are NATO-run concentration camps are simply untrue.

...and it goes on and on.

American soliders in Kosovo are calling Julia Gorin an out and out liar.

[Valin]

“Akin to how Julia Gorin does it for the Serbs?”
No. Julia Gorin has been on the Kosovo issue since the 1999 NATO Bombing, as a matter of conscience. She didn’t even know any Serbs when she got involved, and like me, it is about America’s involvement to her, not really about Serbia.

Totten has jumped on this bandwagon out of nowhere. (His knowledge and experience was the Middle East, not the Balkans) But all of a sudden he’s “promoting Kosovo independence” with the zeal of a two-dollar whore. Something’s wrong with this picture.

An Israeli In Kosove
Comments
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/08/an-israeli-in-k.php#comments
Marc: One can be a practicing, non drinking, praying five times a day, fasting for Ramadan non sleeping around Muslim, and still be “one of the good guys”.

Yes, Marc, I know. Iraqi Kurdistan is full of people like that. The Arab parts of Iraq are becoming more like that now than they were.

Kosovo is European, so it’s different. You probably don’t know it, but cranks like Julia Gorin and Andrew Bostom are attacking me because they are certain Kosovo is a “jihad state” like Gaza even though they have never been there and will never go and have no sense of what Albanians are actually like in the real world.

I draw attention to the non-fundamentalist people in Muslim societies because many Westerners assume they do not exist, that every Muslim country on Earth is like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan. Those three countries hog so much media attention and are assumed to be standard, but they aren’t. A huge number of people I casually know still think alcohol is banned in the places I visit and that women wear “burkhas.” It’s ridiculous.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at August 4, 2008 10:08 AM

Well said Michael!!!!

[Valin]

“Akin to how Julia Gorin does it for the Serbs?”

But don’t you know that the Serbs are pure as the driven snow? They are protecting Christian Europe..that’s why they got into a war with the Catholic Croats. The Serbphiles here never seem to mention that little fact.

[kosta50]

Albanians were all thing to all people. They have no backbone; they are a chameleon tribe that will worm its way up anyone that offers them protection, and assume their identity.

They were zealous supporters of the Nazis when it was profitable, and of Stalin and, later, of Mao, and now they embrace the US with equal enthusiasm. They know that without the US they would be nothing, and they can't be America's "friends" and Israel's enemies, so they tolerate a token (propaganda) Israeli cafe (making sure it the Israeli flag is flanked by an American flag as if saying "do not touch"), never mind the flag of Albania and not of Kosovo.

So, this is an organized propaganda piece. It's transparent and it's intended to appeal to the naive and the stupid, as usual.

[Jacob Kell]

I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a “out and out liar”. IMO, she has legitimate concerns. However, I admit that she may be relying on outdated and/or exagerrated data for her statements. If so, she risks hurting her credibility and risks people not listing to the points she wants to make.

BTW, the article links below seems to contradict what Nicki Fellenzer was saying and they appear to contain more than enought sources to back it up:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/ending_the_balkan_quagmire_at.html

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=9A68C6F6-8A08-453E-B2E8-6E247D2736CD

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=CEE2CB87-7FB5-42AD-83CF-23C04E660D99

[Lent]

You probably don’t know it, but cranks like Julia Gorin and Andrew Bostom are attacking me

Only crank I see here is Totem with this propaganda piece. I should waive the banner high for the fruits of the 14th century Jihad by the Turks in creating dhimmis of the Christian populations resulting in conversion by force or attrition because of oppression? I don't think so. As is quite evident by now anytime Muslims are in a position of authority population or otherwise they Jihad for separation. Only an imbecile would cheer along with them.

[Bokababe]

Totten is a self-confessed Liberal. Of course he is going to cheer the fruits of the Clinton-led 1999 NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia, and of any and all "humanitarian bombings". Totten also likely voting for Obama. Going to back him on that, too?

[Bokababe]

"American soliders in Kosovo are calling Julia Gorin an out and out liar."

BS, Dio! American soldiers are just following orders and saying what they are told to say! Nicki Felzer, who you quoted, works for the Army (Dis)information Office.

My brother-in-law is a retired Army Colonel and was the first CO of the Army Chaplain School when it relocated from Ft. Monmouth to South Carolina. He was also at the Pentagon during the first Gulf War. I know that Army Chaplains do NOT speak freely to the press unless they are under orders to do so! So this "testimony of a Chaplain" is no more credible than any other soldiers' under orders -- they say what they are told to say.

So quit trying to BS people, Dio -- and quit "waiving the American flag" to manipulate opinion when you aren't even an American!

[DTA]

I wonder if Israelis will finally pull the plug on brazen Nazi revisionism.

This paragraph is a good example:

Albanians did shelter Jews during the Nazi occupation, more than any other people in Europe. More than half survived the Nazi occupation of Kosovo because so many Albanians sheltered them from the Nazi authorities. According to Dan Michman, Chief Historian at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, there were three times as many Jews in Albania at the end of the Holocaust than at the beginning. Albanians were well-known at the time as a friendly population that could be trusted. They refused to surrender Albanian Jews, and they refused to surrender Jewish refugees from elsewhere in Europe. The dark side of the Nazi occupation of Kosovo were the 6,000 or so ethnic Albanian collaborators who joined the so-called Skanderbeg Division of the Waffen-SS. The Germans had serious problems with them, though. Thousands deserted within the first two months, and the rest were disbanded after a mere eight months of “service.” The fact is, Albania and Kosovo are not the same. During WWII Albania was under Italian control and Italians were not bent on destruction of Jews, even sidestepped The Holocsaust and sheltered Jews in territories under their control.

After the war, Albanians from ALbania took credit for Italian effort. The fact that there were more Jews in Albania after the war is because many European Jews hid there.

Kosovo was the entirely different story. Albanians eagrly joined Waffen SS and Nazifascsist movement of Bali Kombetar.

Now, the sons and grandsons of unrepented Nazis claim they saved Jews. It is as if Eichmann's offspring claimed the same.

This propaganda activity is as dirty as it can be.

[DTA]

>>>>>>>>The plane was medical support and doctors and some security, and they took refugees to Israel<<<<<

When Israel sent a medical team to refugee camp, Albanians showed gratitude by gang raping female MD.

This is why the actions of presstitutes like Stephen Schwantz and Michael J. Totten are despicable. They support evil and trick unsuspecting readers to support it as well.

[Bokababe]

"This is why the actions of presstitutes like Stephen Schwantz and Michael J. Totten are despicable. They support evil and trick unsuspecting readers to support it as well."

Yes. But at least Schwartz has an excuse -- he's Muslim and he's rooting for "his team".

But what's Totten motivation? Just being a liberal socialist? An atheist? A paid propagandist? Or has converted to Islam too and hasn't told anyone yet? Totten came out of nowhere on Kosovo and now he spews a steady stream on it as though one trip to the Balkans has made him "an expert". So far Totten's entire reporting on Bosnia and Kosovo seems to be "it isn't the Middle East". Well, duh!

Like I said before, something is very wrong with this picture.

[Hoplite]

After the war, Albanians from ALbania took credit for Italian effort.

Not all of are willing ignore that the Germans took over occupation duties from the Italians when Italy left the Axis in late 1943, DTA.

[Bokababe]

"But don’t you know that the Serbs are pure as the driven snow? They are protecting Christian Europe..that’s why they got into a war with the Catholic Croats. The Serbphiles here never seem to mention that little fact."

You mean just like the Catholic Croats never seem to mention the fact that they and the Muslims were joined at the hip in killing Serbs and Jews during WWII together under the Hitler-backed "Independent State of Croatia"? The union of fascism and the hatred of Serbs and Jews, was even stronger than their religious differences.

Both the Croats Catholics and the Bosnian & Albanian Muslims used each other to get what they wanted -- then and now. So don't assume "the Catholic Croats" were "Catholic" in any sense that most American Catholics would understand or condone! Catholic Croats were "Torquemada-style Catholics" who found greater commonality with Muslims than they did with fellow Christians of another denomination. And Catholic Croats backed the same Muslims who created this flag:

You can say, "That was 60 years ago." But the fact remains that less than two weeks ago the funeral of the WWII Death Camp commender Dinko Sakic was buried in his full Nazi regalia, with a crowd of Croat mourners and a Croat Catholic priest saying that the WWII Croat Nazis laid the foundation of today's Croatia!