Disagree, ma.
First of all I don't believe Handke's stance re the Serbs is political -- I think it is sincere, personal and a matter of conscience.
Has any one here actually read up on the German "Greens", at whom Handke leveled his most devastating charges? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Green_Party ? They are the most liberal of the mainstream German parties! He didn't blast the German Conservatives -- he blasted the German Liberals!
Second, I've read the book that started all of this. It is not political either, it is personal. It moved me, and if it moved me, it has likely moved others.
Handke's name has brought new blood to the the thread and that is a good thing, irrespective of their political positions on the Balkans when they arrive. Maybe they leave with the same ideas, maybe they don't. Conservativism is as uniform as the media would like you to think, either.
While it's nice for the Balkan regulars to sit here and hone our knowledge of the details of the Balkan wars and politics, it doesn't really accomplish anything for anyone other than us. Getting others interested does accomplish something. It makes a portion of American history, re Clinton and the NATO Bombing, more comprehensible and multi-faceted than just the "good guy/bad guy scenario" that the media has been feeding them for the last 15 years. And that knowledge is a good thing for Americans in this war on terror and a good thing for all concerned.
The media knows that the greater American public is incapable of understanding a multi-dimensional issue such as the Balkans and the Clinton regime understood this all too well.
PR firms really went full steam ahead with the propaganda blitzes knowing full well that the general public would be generally ignorant of Balkan affairs and could easily manipulate public opinion by mapping rudimentary knowledge of WWII to the Balkan conflicts so that the masses would be awe struck (equating Serbs with Nazis etc). Its all about playing up to he public mental model of conflicts, everyone knows the boiler plate WWII stuff, use that as the base model and voila, instant monsters in the public consciousness!
The general public was a blank canvas for the media to paint a picture upon and the success of this black and white strategy along with use of a broad brush would have made Hurst green with envy. Its really not that complex of a strategy, I mean look at all the MSM outfits, they use this tactic all the time. The play on the public ignorance is their greatest weapon.
You don't want to taint yourself or your organization with any affiliation as it does come back to be lingering. Which is why the Serbian Church where I live is outcasted by many for their past affiliations.
Honor and Principle, honor and principle. Know what I mean, Vern?..:)
Socialists/Communists blueprint their attacks on anyone that attacks an institution backing their political ideologue, boka. It does not matter if it's liberal, middle/road or conservative, they will side with anyone that 'supports/ed' the Slobo dictatorship. i.e America is hated by all socialists so of course he'd jump on the Serb bandwagon to spite my country, America.
Whether he is humanely sincere or as I believe, he is politically sincere, he lost a friend and fellow ideologue in the old Serbian communist system.