Posted on 04/06/2004 4:54:40 PM PDT by DTA
We bombed the wrong side?
Lewis MacKenzie
Five years ago our television screens were dominated by pictures of Kosovo-Albanian refugees escaping across Kosovo's borders to the sanctuaries of Macedonia and Albania. Shrill reports indicated that Slobodan Milosevic's security forces were conducting a campaign of genocide and that at least 100,000 Kosovo-Albanians had been exterminated and buried in mass graves throughout the Serbian province. NATO sprung into action and, in spite of the fact no member nation of the alliance was threatened, commenced bombing not only Kosovo, but the infrastructure and population of Serbia itself -- without the authorizing United Nations resolution so revered by Canadian leadership, past and present.
Those of us who warned that the West was being sucked in on the side of an extremist, militant, Kosovo-Albanian independence movement were dismissed as appeasers. The fact that the lead organization spearheading the fight for independence, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was universally designated a terrorist organization and known to be receiving support from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda was conveniently ignored.
The recent dearth of news in the North American media regarding the increase in violence in Kosovo compared to the comprehensive coverage in the European press strongly suggests that we Canadians don't like to admit it when we are wrong. On the contrary, selected news clips on this side of the ocean continue to reinforce the popular spin that those dastardly Serbs are at it again.
A case in point was the latest crisis that exploded on March 15. The media reported that four Albanian boys had been chased into the river Ibar in Mitrovica by at least two Serbs and a dog (the dog's ethnic affiliation was not reported). Three of the boys drowned and one escaped to the other side. Immediately, thousands of Albanians mobilized and concentrated in the area of the divided city. Attacks on Serbs took place throughout the province resulting in an estimated 30 killed and 600 wounded. Thirty Serbian Christian Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed, more than 300 homes were burnt to the ground and six Serbian villages cleansed of their occupants. One hundred and fifty international peacekeepers were injured.
Totally ignored in North America were the numerous statements from impartial sources that said there was no incident between the Serbs, the dog and the Albanian boys. NATO Police spokesman Derek Chappell stated on March 16 that it was "definitely not true" that the boys had been chased into the river by Serbs. Chappell went on to say that the surviving boy had told his parents that they had entered the river alone and that three of his friends had been swept away by the current. Admiral Gregory Johnson, the overall NATO commander, further stated that the ensuing clashes were "orchestrated and well-planned ethnic cleansing" by the Kosovo-Albanians. Those Serbs forced to leave joined the 200,000 who had been cleansed from the province since NATO's "humanitarian" bombing in 1999. The '"cleansees" have become very effective "cleansers."
In the same week a number of individuals posing as Serbs ambushed and killed a UN policeman and his local police partner. During the firefight one of them was wounded which caused an immediate switch from Serbian to Albanian as he screamed, "I've been hit"! The UN pursued the attackers and tracked them to an Albanian-run farm where they discovered weapons and the wounded Albanian who had died from his wounds. Four Albanians were arrested. Once again, the ambush had been reported in the United States but not the follow-up which clearly indicated yet another orchestrated provocation by the Albanian terrorists.
Kosovo is administered by the UN, the very organization many Canadians have indicated they would like to see take over from the United States in Iraq. The fact the UN cannot order its civilian employees to go or stay anywhere -- they have to volunteer -- combined with recent history that saw the UN abandon Iraq after a single brutal attack on their compound in Baghdad and the reality that Kosovo, under the organization's administration, is a basket case, disqualifies it from consideration for such a role.
Since the NATO/UN intervention in 1999, Kosovo has become the crime capital of Europe. The sex slave trade is flourishing. The province has become an invaluable transit point for drugs en route to Europe and North America. Ironically, the majority of the drugs come from another state "liberated" by the West, Afghanistan. Members of the demobilized, but not eliminated, KLA are intimately involved in organized crime and the government. The UN police arrest a small percentage of those involved in criminal activities and turn them over to a judiciary with a revolving door that responds to bribes and coercion. The objective of the Albanians is to purge all non-Albanians, including the international community's representatives, from Kosovo and ultimately link up with mother Albania thereby achieving the goal of "Greater Albania." The campaign started with their attacks on Serbian security forces in the early 1990s and they were successful in turning Milosevic's heavy-handed response into worldwide sympathy for their cause. There was no genocide as claimed by the West -- the 100,000 allegedly buried in mass graves turned out to be around 2,000, of all ethnic origins, including those killed in combat during the war itself.
The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo.We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early '90s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to other terrorist-supported independence movements around the world.
Funny how we just keep digging the hole deeper!
Maj-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, now retired, commanded UN troops during the Bosnian civil war of 1992.
(c) 2004 National Post . All Rights Reserved.
Imagine there are Serb riots after this. Then NATO issues a statement:
"due to deteriorating situation in Bosnia caused by local extrimists the allience is extending its mission until ..."
A curfew is placed on the town and the local night life is screwed.
Where is the outrage? Where is the screaming for the commission? Who will stand and call Clinton worse than Nixon? Who will proclaim that he betrayed us and our troops, misleading us to fight against the wrong side? These people weren't a threat to us! The UN didn't say yes!!!!!
Another example of the international jihadist network In action!!!!! So much for lying fifth columnists like Stephen Swartz/Suleyman Ahmad who say that Shiptar muslims are "moderates" and belong to a sect "with affinity for Roman Catholicism". (Well, maybe they have an affinity for Roman Catholicism of the ronly-bonly sort!)
Another one of Suleyman Ahmad's lies is that the Kosovo Shiptars "love Americans" and would never attack them. What about the American KFOR commader who said last month that Shiptar "hooligans" were tossing grenades on his troops?
Last month, the KLA and their supporters among the Kosovo Shiptar population proved that they are Neanderthals who are so enraged by the beauties of civilization that they can only destroy them!!!! I am referring, of course, to the magnificent icons and ancient church buildings that these NeanderNazis destroyed last month. There is an exhibit of Byzantine art--incluing some from Serbian Kosovo--In New York through July 4th. If you can go and see it, you can both admire the artistry and faith behind the creation of such works, and be shocked by the Middle Paleolithic savagery of anyone who would seek to destroy them!!!!
Needless to say, its time for America and the rest of the "West" to totally reverse our policy in the Balkans, and support the Serbs!!!! It is also time for us to rededicate ourselves to our faith and our civilized values!!!
From a Serb nation one now has Croatian Serbs, Bosnian Serbs, Kosovo Serbs and of course Serbian Serbs.
At the same time Albanians are Albanians whether they are in Kosovo, Albania or Macedonia.
There are presidential elections in Macedonia right now and the Albanian candidates fly Albanian flags and play the Albanian national anthem and if the Macedonian authorities say anything about it then the Macedonians are extrimists.
There are, however, Serbian and other Orthodox church groups that ARE sending aid to Kosovo Serbs! (I am working on getting some Western Christians to join in as well--we'll see how far that gets, with the Lord's help.)
Perhaps it's time to post, once again, links to websites of organizations that are aiding our Kosovo Serb brothers and sisters.
I have to admit that the anti-Slavic bent you cite certainly does appear to have been the effect of the West's policy. I still have a hard time believing that it was the conscious intent (because, what in the world could someone like Bill Clinton have against Slavs in general or Serbs in particular? *bizarre*)
But I must say that I was quite shocked, during the Serbia bombing, to hear the way people suddenly started talking about Serbs. I heard in the course of normal conversation, from otherwise "liberal" people, many, many comments that would have been interpreted as pure bigotry had they been about Jews, blacks, etc.
I had people tell me that Serbs were "inherently violent", for example. And this couldn't *just* have been anti-Slavism; it was a Russian professor who told me this!
Albright wasn't too bright, was she? She should have kept up the cleaning-lady pretense and heard what the Albanians really had in mind.
MANY of "US" were VERY UNCOMFORTABLE with our "Serbian Intervention."
We MAY HAVE turned "Long-time Friends" into Implacable Enemies--ALL to make "The Clintons" "Look Good!"
I Fear we may be paying for the "Politically Motivated Mistakes" of the "Clinton Era" for DECADES to come.
Doc
In Kosovo, no member was under attack, and the actions were strictly internal ones.
I spoke out against that war, loudly, at the time, and have done so since. I notice that the liberals supporting that war now are the ones that say we are in an "illegal war" in Iraq, and never mention Kosovo.
Because of our daily bombing of Iraq, another reason was to appease the Islamic world to show that we really cared for them and that we were willing to destroy a Christian nation to do it.
Also, we couldn't allow this little pip-squeak of a nation defy the New World Order. This applies to both Dems and Reps. The Serbs had to be taught a lesson.
The result? We have handed the Balkans over to Osama bin Laden's cutthroats and mafia, the KLA.
"In November 1992, the Bosnian-Serb soldier Borislav Herak was arrested by the Presidency's forces in Sarajevo and charged with the murder and rape of Muslim citizens. Allegedly, he said under interrogation that he had worked at the 'Sonja' prison camp located north of Sarajevo, and had seen me come by and pick up four Muslim girls, who were taken away and presumably raped and murdered. He indicated that I had arrived in a jeep, and the girls had followed my party when we left in a car. The story made headline news during the Islamic conference in Saudi Arabia, attended by President Izetbegovic. Fortunately, the North American press showed an encouraging degree of good taste and at first declined to carry the story. The story did, however, receive wide coverage in the Islamic press, and in Croatia, Germany and Italy.
"Given that I hadn't even known that a place called 'Sonja' existed; that I had never ventured north of Sarajevo except on one drive to Belgrade with 200 others on May 17; that I never drove around Sarajevo in anything but a VBL armoured vehicle after my return to the city on June 10; and that I didn't go anywhere without UN colleagues as witnesses, I was more than upset over such disgusting fabrications. My greatest concern was the impact these lies would have on the security of our people on the ground, particularly the Canadians. Anyone with a Canadian flag on his sleeve was immediately associated with my reputation as a 'rapist and murderer of Muslims' in Bosnia."
His book was not sold in the United States. You could only order it from Canada. The only books you could buy in the U.S., were all anti-Serbian, such as "Zlata's Diary," in an effort to compare it to the Diary of Anne Frank. Zlata travelled first class to the US with her parents and stayed at the best hotels. Not exactly the Diary of Anne Frank.
They are as violent as anyone else out there.
However the Serbs have had and do have the most motivated military in the Balkans.
In Serbia if you can't go to the army then there is a doubt that you can't have a wife and father children.
ANY SERB HERE FROM COUNTRY SIDE SAY IT AIN'T SO!!! :))
Since early 20th century their military has been more professional due to French influence and name a war they haven't been in it. There is a large number of Serbs in the French Foreign Legion.
As we all know they kicked off WWI.
But go to Serbia and they as pleasant as anyone else.
In a restaurant a waiter in Serbia is more pleasant than one in Macedonia (although I had couple unpleasant experiences with morons).
The football club supporters are the most militant and worse than British hooligans.
A lot of time they do irrational things out of stuburness than anything else. If you say this is Black they say is white and don't waste your time to convience him.
I can say the Serbs are just normal.
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