Free Republic

Ultimately, the Ustashe murdered more than 30,000 Jews, or 75 percent of the country’s [Croatia's] prewar Jewish community. Photo by: (Reuters) Just over a month from now, on July 1, a historic event will take place in the heart of Europe, when the EU welcomes Croatia as its 28th member state. The move will mark the culmination of a grueling decade long process, one in which the former Yugoslav republic had to implement widespread changes in a number of fields – ranging from intellectual property law to the free movement of capital – to bring itself in line with accepted...

Alyse Radenovic (http://www.alyseradenovic.com) was born in 1973 therefore during her early adult life the war in the former Yugoslavia was blazing. This extremely talented artist was born in America and her adorable fine art covers many different themes and often flows in many directions. Many strong passions exist within Alyse Radenovic and this applies to her love of art and her deep respect towards many political issues. Of major concern for Alyse Radenovic is the distortion of reality when it comes to the coverage of what happened to the Serbs in Bosnia, Krajina and Kosovo. Therefore, this article is about...

"...Outside my windows, the dark-browed Serbian peasants, the men in somber black, the women in their bright embroidered clothes, passed unhurriedly but more silently, more grimly than usual to the early Sunday market. I watched them thoughtfully as I began to pour my tea and turned the short-wave radio knob... ...I heard no sound but the jingling of milk carts in the streets and the shuffling of peasant feet. But it was coming, this raucously heralded doom. ...Bomb after bomb exploded all round us, some not more than twenty yards away. The effect was almost inconceivable. It wasn’t the noise...

<p>SARAJEVO, BOSNIA — Turkey conquered the Balkans five centuries ago. Now Turkish power is making inroads through friendlier means.</p> <p>Two Turkish-run universities have opened in Bosnia’s Ottoman-influenced capital in recent years, bringing an influx of Turkish students and culture to a predominantly Muslim country still reeling from a brutal ethnic war almost two decades ago.</p>

BELGRADE -- Today marks the 14th anniversary since the start of the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia, i.e. the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ.A heating plant in New Belgrade is seen after being hit by NATO missiles (Tanjug, file) The bombing lasted 79 days and resulted in at least 2,500 deaths and more than 12,500 injuries. The attacks on Serbia started on March 24, 1999, and the last one took place near Kosovska Kamenica on June 10 at 13:15 CET. The death toll among the military and police forces reached 1,008, including 659 soldiers and 349 policemen. Around 6,000...

The former gravesite of King Peter II in St. Sava Monastery before his remains were exhumed and transferred to Serbia. This was his gravesite for 42 years, from the time he died in November of 1970 to January of 2013. Photo by Aleksandra Rebic, February 25, 2012.The former gravesite of King Peter II in St. Sava Monastery in Libertyville, IL U.S.A. after his remains were exhumed, January 17, 2013. Photo courtesy of Vera Dragisich.Aleksandra's Note: It's been almost a month since the remains of the only European king buried on American soil, HM King Peter II Karageorgevich, were exhumed at...

Two men who changed history never met, but they should have. They had an enormous impact on each other’s lives. They both were men of war. One would survive. The other would not. The following gives voice to General Draza Mihailovich, the one who did not survive, and what he might have said to the one who did, the great Statesman Winston Churchill, had he had the chance to do so.Dear Winston, During a critical period in the history of the world, our paths crossed in a fateful way, though we would never meet. I would die first, without any...

The so-called EULEX mission, with a staff of roughly 2,500, has cost more than €1 billion since 2008. Nevertheless, the European Court of Auditors finds that levels of organized crime and corruption remain high, while the judiciary is inefficient and suffers from too much political influence. I compare the development of a police force in Kosovo with that of the Obilic power plant near the capital, Pristina. Since NATO drove the Serbs out of Kosovo in 1999, there have been plans to install a filter at the plant. The plant continues to spew pollution unabated into the air. It's the...

Immobilized with fear, a 4-year-old British girl huddled for eight hours beneath the legs of her slain mother in the back of a car filled with corpses on a remote Alpine road — all while French investigators stood nearby, unaware the girl was there.

The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns among diplomats and investors about Belgrade's bid for European Union membership. Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: "There will be no return to the 1990s," the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war. "As prime minister, I will never make a decision that will be an injustice to Serbia and its citizens," Dacic said after meeting President Tomislav Nikolic, head...

Who could not despise the tottering Bashar al-Assad dictatorship in Syria? The Syrian strongman has killed some 10,000 protestors over the last year; thousands of Syrians are now refugees. The autocracy arms and aids the terrorist organization Hezbollah. It targets democratic Israel with thousands of missiles, and still does its best to ruin neighboring Lebanon. Theocratic and terrorist-sponsoring Iran has few allies -- but Syria remains its staunchest. Almost no country over the last half-century has proved more hostile to the United States than has Syria. With sanctions not working, and with the Chinese, Iranians and Russians not eager to...

BELGRADE -- The proceedings for rehabilitation of WWII General Dragoljub Mihailović resumed on Friday [May 11, 2012] before the Higher Court in Belgrade. Mihailović was a commander of the Chetnik movement during World War II who was sentenced to death in 1946. The court listened to audio recordings from the trial against Mihailović, provided by historian Slobodan Marković, specifically one part of his closing argument given on July 10, 1946. “By comparing stenographer's notes and transcripts of the audio recording, it is evident the former were cut short by 27 percent and the meaning of sentences was often changed,” Marković...

Aleksandra's Note: While this excellent analysis by Srdja Trifkovic focuses on the "internal" history of Croatia, it is important to note that four days after Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, Hitler's staunch ally the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) declared war on both the United Kingdom and on the United States on December 14, 1941. What makes this especially significant is that less than three years later, on April 16, 1944, which was Easter Sunday for the Serbian Orthodox, the Anglo-American forces bombed Belgrade, the capital of their loyal and devoted ally Serbia, even though there was...

BELGRADE, Serbia — At least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in Serbia’s mountains, authorities said Thursday, as the death toll from Eastern Europe’s weeklong deep freeze rose to 123, many of them homeless people. The harshest winter in decades has seen temperatures in some regions dropping to minus 30 C (minus 22 F) and below, and has caused power outages, traffic chaos and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries and airports. The stranded in Serbia are stuck in some 6,500 homes in remote areas that cannot be reached due to icy, snow-clogged roads with banks...

Belgrade may hold the pulse, but the soul throbs well beyond the capital cityAs peace has returned to most of the Balkans, countries in the region, including those that broke off from the former Yugoslavia, are opening their doors to tourists. And Serbia, despite the unsettled conflict with Kosovo to its south, is no exception. To the Serbs, religion is a crucial part of life. And the most important spiritual sanctity in Belgrade is this grand cathedral dedicated to Saint Sava, the first archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the founder of Serbian law and literature. Saint Sava was...

Catholics in Bosnia-Herzegovina should be treated equally. This was the demand expressed by Vinko Cardinal Puljic, the Archbishop of Sarajevo, during a visit to the international headquarters of the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). In the employment market, in schools and in other spheres of social life, Catholics are systematically disadvantaged, he reported. The aim is to persuade them to leave the country. Church lands and buildings that were confiscated during the period of Communism have not been returned, and building approvals for churches are subjected to years of delay. The government “has no interest...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 24, 2009 PRESS RELEASE BROOKLYN RESIDENT INDICTED FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER OVERSEAS AND CONSPIRACY TO PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT TO TERRORISTS An indictment was unsealed in federal court this morning charging Betim Kaziu, a U.S. citizen and resident of Brooklyn, with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.1 Kaziu is scheduled to be arraigned later today before United States Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for...

SARAJEVO -- The Islamic Community in Bosnia-Herzegovina has called on Muslims in that country to boycott the upcoming New Year celebrations.By taking part, said the organization, they would "violate Allah's boundaries, and do something their master hates and despises". The Islamic Community statement on Wednesday quoted from a book by Almir Dumica, entitled, "Pearls of the Sunnah in the Mosaic of Time": "On that night, turn off the lights early and let everyone see you're boycotting everything happening on that night. Do not fear anyone's objections. Don't you have a right to choose? Do not say, 'how can I do...

In Sofia, Croatian ambassador to Bulgaria Danijela Barišić and Leszek Hensel, ambassador of Poland – current holder of the EU Presidency – hosted a celebration on December 9 of Croatia’s EU accession treaty signing. Ambassadors and guests from EU and other countries turned out in force to offer congratulations. Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer Croatia signed on December 9 2011 its accession treaty with the European Union and if all goes according to plan, will join the bloc in July 2013. Before the process progresses further, the country must within 30 days from December 9 approve in a referendum accession to the...

The world court ruled Monday that Greece was wrong to block a bid by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to join NATO in 2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's use of the name “Macedonia.” In a 15-1 ruling, the court found that Greece's veto breached a provisional 1995 deal under which Greece had agreed not to block membership of the country in international organizations if it used the name FYROM, while the matter was submitted to further negotiations. More than 15 years later, mediation over the name is still ongoing. The victory is partly...

BELGRADE -- Oliver Ivanović says he does not rule out the possibility that Serbs from northern Kosovo may "declare independence" of that part of the province. Oliver Ivanović (Beta, file) This could happen if the West continues to insist on the implementation of the agreement on customs stamps and other issues in Priština's favor, the Ministry for Kosovo state secretary said in Belgrade on Friday, after a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Kosovo and Metohija. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in early 2008, but Serbia rejected it as an illegal act of secession. Serb north of the...

Thank goodness for those among us who remain vigilant against the lies... Review: “Tito’s War” by John Brown, World War II History Magazine, November, 2011, Volume 10, No. 7, pp. 54-61. Review by Carl Savich In the November, 2011 issue of the military history magazine "World War II History", published in Herndon, Virginia, an article entitled “Tito’s War” by Australian author John Brown purports to chronicle the conflict in Yugoslavia between Draza Mihailovich’s Chetnik guerrillas and Josip Broz Tito’s Communist Partisans during World War II. This account is fake. It is a phony history of World War II. John Brown...

BELGRADE -- More than 1,000 Serbs have been murdered in Kosovo since June 1999 - when the war ended and international forces were deployed in the province. This is according to Assistant Minister for Kosovo Kruna Kali�anin, who spoke in Belgrade on Thursday. She also noted that "almost nobody" was charged and put on trial for those crimes. The international community, in the meanwhile, showed a tendency to "minimize" the importance of Serb victims, Kali�anin added. These statements came a day after a Serb man was shot and killed, while two others were wounded in Kosovska Mitrovica. Kali�anin also accused...

The conflicts that engulfed the former Yugoslavia still remain unresolved in the political arena and open to Western political shenanigans and covert meddling from Turkey and Saudi Arabia in Bosnia and Kosovo. Orthodox Christianity faces many attacks and only a naïve individual would claim that America and the hands of Turkey and Saudi Arabia are clean. America and other Western nations did little to stop Turkey invading Cyprus in 1974 and creating a de-facto nation and altering the demographics of northern Cyprus and using this area for military purposes. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of Cyprus you have no...

Kragujevac Memorial Park Introduction by Nebojsa MalicIn March 1941, the Yugoslav government signed a cooperation treaty with Nazi Germany, under threat of invasion. Two days later, it was toppled in a coup. Outraged, Hitler swore to "wipe Yugoslavia off the map," and delayed the planned invasion of the USSR for a stopover in the Balkans. By all military criteria, "Operation Punishment" was a cakewalk, wiping out resistance in seven days. Many willing collaborators eagerly helped the Nazis dismember the dysfunctional state. But within two months, not one but two resistance movements had sprung up, challenging the occupation, albeit in different...

Since World War Two you have had three major conflicts in the Balkans involving Orthodox Christian communities and Islamic communities; this applies to Cyprus, Bosnia and Kosovo respectively. On all three occasions the United States supported the followers of Islam and maybe one day the same will happen to Orthodox Christians in Macedonia? Yet unlike the large Christian communities of Bosnia and Cyprus, it is the land of Kosovo which is being Islamized and Albanianized under NATO, the UN, and other international institutions who are meant to be neutral. The media in the West is once more turning a 'blind...

Recently, as I was bicycling to work, I became the victim of random, unprovoked violence as I was hit by a nearly full bottle of flavored water thrown by a passenger from a car that passed me. Due to my superior reflexes and conditioning I managed to stabilize my bike (and myself rom the initial shock) as the bottle bounced off of me. Nevertheless, why someone would waste a perfectly good, chilled bottle of sugared drink on a 40 degree Celsius day trying to injure someone they didn't even know was very perplexing to me. On another occasion, two speeding...

(Reuters) - A witness in a war crimes case against a member of Kosovo's parliament has been found dead in Germany, an EU police and justice mission (EULEX) spokesman said on Wednesday. Ruling party parliamentarian Fatmir Limaj, who was put under house arrest last week, and nine other people arrested in March are accused of committing murder, torture and violations of the human rights of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and prisoners during Kosovo's 1998-99 war with Serbia. Agim Zogaj, known as witness X in the war crimes case, was found dead in a German park, said EULEX spokesman Blerim Krasniqi, adding:...

As the son of Cuban exiles, junior Florida senator Marco Rubio should be particularly sensitive to attempts at painting a people as crazed criminals, often done in service of an underlying political agenda. But in his speech last week at the Jesse Helms Center in North Carolina, Senator Rubio said, “The American armed forces have been one of the greatest forces of good….They stopped Nazism and Communism and other evils such as Serbian ethnic cleansing.” A year after our leaders lied to us in 1999 about the particularly insidious but ultimately mythical “Operation Horseshoe” (the ethnic cleansing plan subsequently shown...

On September the 16th NATO forces, overstepping their UN Security Council (UNSC) mandates, amid tensions on the administrative border between Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, have fired the first shots at bare-handed Kosovo Serbs in the village of Zupce. The Kosovo Serbs have erected barricades, in a life or death situation, to defend themselves against the Muslim Albanian onslaughts which desire to forcefully incorporate northern Kosovo into the US/EU created Republic of Kosovo, an amputated province from the Republic of Serbia. The Albanian police, aided and assisted by NATO’s KFOR, have taken over two border crossings: Jarinje and...

Tito We have reported earlier of the possible transfer of the U.S. stealth fighter technology to China from the Serb Army which got its hands on it from the downed Stealth Bomber F11 during NATO's bombing campaign in 1999, as it was reported by other sources as well. This will not be the first time for such significant, possibly turning-point, military transfers to originate in the Balkans. The MA theses of Mehta Coleman Armstrong named "'A Rat Hole to be Watched'? CIA Analyses of the Tito-Stalin Split, 1948-1950" talks about the same type of transfer of the top military technology...

BELGRADE -- Today marks the 16th anniversary since the beginning of Croatian army and police Operation Storm that led to the exodus of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia. Tadic and Krkobabic in attendance (Beta) Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarch Irinej held a memorial service at St. Mark’s Church in downtown Belgrade for the victims of the 1995 military operation aimed against Serb areas of Croatia. The memorial service was attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of refugee issues Jovan Krkobabic, and by other government officials. Representatives of more than 100 refugee and home clubs...

Aleksandra's Note: Today, July 17, 2011, marks the 65th anniversary of the death of General Dragoljub-Draza Mihailovich, Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland during WWII. Among the many honors of distinction that can be attributed to General Mihailovich is leader of the first organized and successful resistance to the Nazis in all of occupied Europe. The anniversary of a death can be marked in an infinite number of ways. On this day I've chosen to share the words of Mihailovich himself. It is my hope that those who aren't familiar with who General Mihailovich really was will...

The European Union and Croatia on Friday concluded accession negotiations and thus, the Balkan country will become the 28th Member State of the organization in 2013. "We concluded today that the accession negotiations with Croatia have reached their final stage," said Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Monday on a resolution backing limited U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military campaign against Libya, days after the expiration of the legal deadline for President Barack Obama to seek full-blown congressional authorization. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, introduced the non-binding resolution along with five other Republicans and Democrats. (SNIP) Also backing the resolution were Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Today, May 4, 2011 is the 31st anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito, the lifetime President of Yugoslavia. Some adore him, some hate him, some are disgusted by the very mention of his name nowadays. Yugoslavia was the country of my birth and childhood. This is what I have to say about it, now, from a distance. The good aspects of Communism were the following: free health care for all, free education for all, including University education, high respect for workers' rights (there was no way you could get fired - unless you did something really stupid, but...

"Real Heroes" 1942 "What Kind of Man is a Hero?"By George J. Hecht, President and Publisher "Real Heroes" Comics and Founder of "Parents Magazine""Does War make heroes? On first thought you say, 'Yes, of course, war makes heroes.' And in a way it is true. A great many famous men would never have been known as heroes if war had not brought them fame. But on the other hand, the uniform does not make the man. He has to have the stuff inside him, before he puts on that uniform....Most of the "Chetniks" in Mihailovich's growing army of guerrilla fighters...

The Krajina Chronicle By Srdja Trifkovic The Krajina Chronicle reviewed by Amb. James Bissett, Chairman of The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies.Srdja Trifkovic is no stranger to Chronicles readers, many of whom have found his articles commenting on foreign affairs, with particular attention to the Balkans, to be insightful, penetrating, and written with authority. His latest book, The Krajina Chronicle, provides further confirmation of his extraordinary talent. The book is a history of the Serbian warrior-farmers who formed the first line of defense against Islamic invasions into the Habsburg Empire. It is a story of heroism and tragedy that...

America’s population of white children, a majority now, will be in the minority during this decade, sooner than previously expected, according to a new report. The Census Bureau had originally forecast that 2023 would be the tipping point for the minority population under the age of 18. But rapid growth among Latinos, Asians and people of more than one race has pushed it earlier, to 2019, according to William Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution who wrote the report about the shift, which has far-reaching political and policy implications. The single largest increase was among Hispanics, whose birthrates...

America attacked Libya without provocation on March 19, 2011. America attacked Libya by the order of President Barack Obama. The President authorized this action based on authority of the United Nations. The President did not authorize this action based on either the Constitution or Federal law. America has conducted missile strikes, and air strikes, against Libyan military targets. These facts are not in contention.

Last Monday [March 21, 2011] marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Arthur “Jibby” Jibilian, the WWII O.S.S. radioman who risked his life in Operation Halyard to help rescue more than 500 U.S. pilots who were shot down over Yugoslavia. This was done with brave assistance from the Tuskegee Airmen. The operation was part of the largest WWII rescue from behind enemy lines, and since it couldn’t have happened without the Serbs, the story has been suppressed and remains largely unknown to Americans. Few people can boast Jibby’s patriotic credentials, yet when our fighting men and women were sent...

The justice or injustice of a cause may in large part be measured by the ethics displayed by those who uphold it. The ongoing campaign to whitewash the former regimes of Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić and to justify their genocidal crimes against the Bosniaks is about as unworthy a cause as it is possible to imagine; consequently, the people who wage it do so in the most dishonest and malicious manner possible. Their campaign is fundamentally an expression of hatred – for Bosniaks, Croats, Albanians, anti-fascist Serbs, Jews and others who opposed the genocide. So their tactics are of...

STANTON, Ky. — The arrest of a Croatian woman in small-town Kentucky for alleged war crimes two decades ago in the former Yugoslavia "brings her long run from justice to an end," a U.S. marshal said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert E. Wier ordered that Azra Basic, 52, be held without bond pending an April 1 status hearing and appointed her a lawyer. Prosecutors argued that no bail amount would guarantee Basic's presence in court. Federal agents arrested Basic on Tuesday. A complaint filed by U.S. Attorney James Arehart accuses Basic of committing crimes at three camps in the early 1990s...

To the Editor Edmonton Journal March 17, 2011 The letters of poet Goran Simic and history professor Srdja Pavlovic in the wake of Canada's deportation of Dr Srdja Trifkovic are rich in rhetoric, but anemic in factual content. Trifkovic is slammed with the pseudo-psychiatric smear "denial".When Hitler announced on 1 September 1939 that Germany had been attacked by Poland, the Poles denied it. That's not "denial". It is a secondary school teacher's job to purvey standard information. However a university professor's role is to train university students to be critical and to develop fresh information. For example, a search of...

The virus of the "Arab revolution" seems to be spreading to Europe. Mass anti-government demonstrations took place in Croatia; there were protesters' clashes with the police. Nationalist trace is visible in these events directly related to the outcome of the war in Yugoslavia 15-20 years ago. A rally with thousands of participants gathered in Zagreb on Tuesday. The participants demanded the resignation of Prime Minister, leader of the Conservative party Croatian Democratic Union Jadranka Kosor. The main opposition, Socialist Party, was not favored either as the protesters burned its flag in the same way as they have the Conservative banner....

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned the feuding ethnic factions in Bosnia and Herzegovina that if they did not resolve their differences, their country was in danger of missing its opportunity to join the European Union and NATO and become a vibrant part of the modern, democratic West. Unfortunately, there are few indications that her message will be heeded. The elections that took place shortly before Clinton’s visit once again confirmed that Bosnia is a fragile, artificial political entity with little prospect for improved viability. Most media accounts in the United States and Europe highlighted the victory of...

BELGRADE, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- After having torn apart their common former homeland during the bloody wars of secession during the 1990s, the armies of the former republics of Yugoslavia -- at least most of them -- are being united again as part of an international peacekeeping unit, reported Radio Sarajevo on Thursday. Meeting in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, military experts from the U.S.-Adriatic Charter discussed the prospect of soldiers from Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia, along with Albania, forming a joint unit of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The unit's tentative name...

March 27, 1999: it was the fourth night of Operation Allied Force, the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia. The effort's initial phase had gone remarkably well; U.S. and allied aircraft had inflicted heavy damaged on Serb air defenses and other critical targets, without the loss of a single NATO aircraft. When the Serbs tried to fight back, they generally paid a high price; three of their MiG-29 Fulcrums had been shot down in the early hours of the conflict, and a number of surface-to-air missile (SAM) batterys had been knocked out of action as well. But the Serbs would soon...

Reading "Masters and Commanders," Andrew Roberts's magnificent account of British and American leaders in World War II, I was struck by how many of them, working prodigious hours and under great strain, were struck down by heart attacks while in their 60s. This doesn't happen anymore, I thought, with the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines many of us routinely take. But it does, as we were reminded by the sudden death at age 69 this week of Richard Holbrooke, who was working prodigiously as Barack Obama's special representative for AfPak, i.e., Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke was known in cynical Washington...

This week, the Globe and Mail asked General Lewis McKenzie (Retired) to write the obituary of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke. It was a good idea. The two men had crossed paths more than once on the global stage of the Great Game. McKenzie declined. Holbrooke had just died and the general knew that what he had to say would hardly produce the standard panegyric. When I caught up with McKenzie, he was shoveling snow after a spell away from home. I asked for an interview and to my surprise, he agreed. “I’m just going to tell you what I thought...