Posted on 07/24/2006 6:44:49 AM PDT by Valin
Podgorica, Montenegro: IT WAS a Balkan love feast!" said James Lyon, regional expert for the International Crisis Group, about Montenegro's independence celebration beginning on July 12. In a notoriously fractious part of the world, the festivities drew Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Albanians, and even some Serb politicians, as the Montenegrins breathed an enormous sigh of relief at their divorce from the Belgrade regime.
Montenegro has fewer than 700,000 people, a tormented history, and plenty of challenges. But it also has magnificent assets: beautiful mountains and beaches, and basic amity between its Slav Orthodox majority and its Muslim Slav and Albanian minorities. Both of the latter voted overwhelmingly, in a May referendum, for the country's exit from its dysfunctional marriage with Serbia, which dated back to the end of the First World War.
If anything symbolized the unhappy relationship of Montenegro with the Serbian mafia state, it was the humiliation of the last team to represent a conjoined Serbia and Montenegro in the soccer World Cup. Argentina rolled over the team like a tank, 6-0, on June 16, devastating the demoralized sportsmen from a country that had ceased to exist.
On the ground, Montenegro is prospering. New businesses are burgeoning, and the tourist trade is beginning to revive after years of stagnation caused by the fall of Titoite communism, the Balkan wars, and gross corruption. President Filip Vujanovic of the Democratic Party of Socialists has led the world's newest republic into the United Nations, which admitted Montenegro on June 28. The date was significant: the anniversary of the legendary defeat of Serbia at the battle of Kosovo in 1389--and the anniversary as well of the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by a Serb terrorist in Sarajevo in 1914, which touched off the First World War.
Montenegrin independence also has loud echoes in neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Kosovar Albanians joke that Serbia is like a Nokia cell phone: It keeps getting smaller and smaller. The proclamation of Montenegro's freedom means that the full political independence of Kosovo very likely cannot be prevented, notwithstanding bluster by extremist Serb politicos and noise from Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Chinese Communist bureaucrats, and other enemies of capitalism and freedom.
The main lesson to be learned from Montenegro's success in extricating itself from the Serbian swamp is that neither it nor the other success stories emerging from the former Yugo slavia--Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia--allowed their political processes to fall under the control of the "nation-building" operatives of the United Nations. Slovenia and Croatia won their liberty by their own blood, and have run their countries rather well since then, without submitting to the oppressive assistance of the global "humanitarian" bureaucrats. Macedonia underwent a short war between its Slav majority and large Albanian minority in 2000-2001, but has also managed to rebuild its economy without international meddling.
By contrast, Bosnia-Herzegovina remains very far from economic rehabilitation, with unemployment at a steady 40 percent; and Kosovo, which formerly exported electrical power to its neighbors, still undergoes energy and water cuts for days at a time--seven years after the liberation of the province by NATO. Kosovar independence is necessary for the territory to accumulate state debt and attract foreign investment. But it is also important psychologically, because the international caste that now makes the final decisions in Kosovo (about such matters as maintenance of the energy grid) insists that reconciliation between the Albanians, who constitute 92 percent of the population, and the Serbs, who exploited and murdered them for 87 years, must come before privatization of major enterprises.
The pattern should sound familiar. Unfortunately, the Bosnia-Kosovo model of nation-building has now been exported to Iraq, where the demands of brutal Sunni extremists, representing a minority that also formerly ruled by abuse, are considered by many foreign officials more legitimate than the needs of the Shia and Kurdish majority. Bosnians have begun to turn away from their former affection for the United States, incited by bad news from Baghdad, but Kosovar Albanians proclaim their love for Americans to any who will listen.
Bosnians and Kosovars often allege that the fate inflicted on them by the U.N. and other international bodies reflects Western European anxiety about Islam in the Balkans, but it would be more accurate to attribute the failure of nation-building to the U.N.'s prejudice against free enterprise. All the international bodies responsible for the future of Bosnia and Kosovo--the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as well as the U.N.--are dominated by Russian, Scandinavian, and even British officials who evince a deep nostalgia for socialism and a profound suspicion of entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the way forward for Kosovo, Bosnia, and Montenegro is clearly marked by the enthusiasm of small business owners, hard-working peasants who own middle-sized parcels of land, and investors in new technology.
Montenegro and Macedonia have bigger problems with Serbian Christians than with Albanian or other Muslims. The Serbian Orthodox Church continues to control the properties of the Montenegrin and Macedonian Orthodox believers. Balkan Muslims express support for the autonomy of the non-Serb Orthodox, no less than for their own religious freedom. Feeble Serbian lobbyists in Washington and elsewhere try to portray Balkan Islam as jihadist, but the truth is obviously otherwise. Local Sufis, for example, express greater resentment of Saudi-backed Wahhabi infiltrators than of Serbs. The Wahhabis have duped young people into joining their death cult not only with the promise of religious education and self-improvement, but also with bribes to induce men to grow Wahhabi beards and women to cover themselves completely in the Saudi manner.
Montenegro still has its problems. A local Muslim figure noted to me that constitutional rights for the small minorities--Bosnians (13 percent of the population), Croats, and others--remain unsecured. This is a cause of anxiety for one in four Montenegrins, lest ethnic demagogy reappear.
But Montenegrin president Vujan ovic will hold the new country's first general election on September 10. So far, there is every indication that new borders, a new flag (red with a black eagle resembling that of Albania), and a new, clean ballot will lift Montenegro out of the black hole into which it was dragged by Serbia, and in which Belgrade seems stuck for at least another generation.
Stephen Schwartz is a frequent contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
what is his FR name? FR mail if you wish.
The Serbs are the "good guys" Clinton, as usual, got it wrong.
The Muslims should have all been sent back to Turkey where their ancestors came from or to which they ancestors has turned coat.
"There you will find, what has become mostly true, what Islam has in store for Christianity in the Balkans."
What Islam has in store for the Balkans is what Islam has in store for the entire non-Islamic world - ALL Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, you name it.
All non-Muslims had better wise up, unite and crush this snake before it strangles all of us.
Sorry, but I seriously doubt that the West has the will to live. You've got to start with that.
What can we do?
"Montenegro and Macedonia have bigger problems with Serbian Christians than with Albanian or other Muslims. "
----
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!
Montenegrin FSB financed goverment is busting their asses on Serbian media advertising vacations in montenegro, lowering their prices organising lottery and hole shtload of stuff to get back Serbians to vacate in Montenegro!
My neighbour went there lest summer, and he said that landlady from seaside Montenegro called hime five times to ask if he is omming tjis year, and if not, does he knows someone that will.
Their Tourist capacities are ruined cause Serbians are going to Greece, Bulgaria, Even turkey.
Except for Rossian mafia held hotels at seaside, that simpley collect mobney and transfer it to Russia, montenegro hawe downfall of 50% in tourist income.
I AM proud that Suleyman Ahmad got PO'd at me!! Other pro-Serbian Freepers should be proud as well, since he singled me out as an example of all of us.
Of course, he completely misunderstood the point of my screen name. As anyone who reads my posts on non-Balkan subjects knows, I am an American Lutheran who is a member of a Serbian-American community, and thus an honorary Serb. So my screen name has nothing to do with fascism, hate, or anything else negative--quite the opposite.
However, islamist propagandists spew lies that Serbs and anyone else who supports them are are "haters" and "war criminals", while trying to distract the public from jihadist atrocities!!!!
As for Montenegro, it is a parasitic and an outllaw country that has been living off of Serbia for too long. If anything they did Serbs a favor.
Good for you!
I think that it all has to start with those of us who do have a will to live recognizing that much of European/North American culture has no such will to live.
When we see people giving up around us, it is easy to give up ourselves. By keeping an "I will survive" attitude, either it will be infectious and catch on with those around us, becoming politically meaningful -- or it will mentally prepare us and our children for individual survival during the inevitable Muslim onslaught, whatever form it takes (probably immigration and cultural intimidation, as we see in Europe.)
That is certainly part of the problem, George.
But, historically, if Serbs, Croats, and Muslims start killing each other, it is always been because someone outside of Yugoslavia is egging them on, exploiting whatever problems there are between them and exacerbating them. Wars have never ever been a spontaneous event in this part of the world. That isn't to say that the actual combatants aren't responsible, but they are being cheered on and manipulated for some endgame by someone else. What we are seeing today is not "an accident" -- it is the way it was supposed to work out.
Croatia and Slovenia would never have made a move without Germany's backing. Bosnia would never have made a move without the backing of a ME patron, notably Iran. Montengro also had Western backers, including Germany. And the Kosovo Albanians, besides the US, their backers are the Albanian mafia and the Saudis.
Everyone else was rehearsed and prepared for this break-up. The Serbs were not. There are no right moves for them, no right people to lead them. They have been left up the river without a life preserver or a paddle! God help them!
I visited Yugoslavia in 1990 for a vacation (not Slovenia and Croatia) it was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. What a shame all those people had to die. Did Tito keep them all together through fear?
Schwartz is a Moslem convert.
He hates the Serbs for daring to resist the mad moon-rock cult that he has cowered to.
A Jew who converted to Islam? Okay, I have heard deerything now.
"Did Tito keep them all together through fear?"
Yes, and with backing of the US. It was in US interest to keep the country together, but no one ethnic group was singled out more than another for this treatment. It was just that some had more of a seperatist movements than others and wound up in jail more often.
The Croat seperatist movement had been going on a long time by 1991. Back in 1976, a plane from NY to Chicago was hijacked by Croat seperatists.
"September 10, 1976 – Terrorist Zvonko Busic, his wife and three other Croatian terrorists, as a result of concerns about the plight of Croatia within then communist Yugoslavia, hijack a TWA jetliner from LaGuardia Airport, bound for Chicago and re-routed to Paris, seizing 86 passengers. There were no weapons aboard the plane, but genuine explosives were left behind in a Grand Central Station baggage locker in order to create the impression that there were weapons on the plane. Bomb Squad Officer Brian Murray tragically lost his life attempting to deactivate the bomb."
Three moderate Croat businessmen in the US were also murdered by this same group of hijackers. Today, Julienne Busic, one of the hijackers is part of the Croatian government. She is an American who justifies so conveniently what she did that killed a man, that it is scary to me. http://www.asi-mag.com/editorials/busic.htm Do I believe her shoot out in the streets of Paris story? No. Yugoslav agents tracking her all over the world to kill her? Give me a break! Yugoslavia wasn't rich enough or stupid enough to send out that kind of dragnet for her and her husband.
But the point is that it took a while, but the Croat separatists finally found a backer in Germany.
Schwartz/Ahmad's background is non-religious Jewish AND Christian.He became a Sufi muslim under the influence of "Bosnia" and the Albanians; he's sort of a "human rightser" muslim.
See http://www.islamicpluralism.org/articles/2005a/vibesinterview.htm
So he represents an extreme form of the "Three Abrahamic faiths" movement. Other members of that movement are soft on radical islam and tend both to be anti-Israel and against authentic Christianity, which sees the Incarnatiion as God's unique way of saving the world and uniting our humanity in the life of the Trinity.
However, very few Jewish or Christian members of the "Three Abrahamic faiths" movement convert to islam--not even horrible "human rightsers" like James Carroll. And Schwartz/Ahmad is a muslim with a visceral hatred of Orthodox Christianity, and who spews propaganda for Balkan jihad, "Greater Albania", and "Bosnian" subversion of Europe and beyond.
Thank you HS. It just gets worse...Schwartz seems to be a self-styled crusader for the religion of hate. A truely lost soul. Need we say more? Or need we pray for him?
A raghead in disguise...? Now, they will absolutely target the Christian citizens with aim of integrating Montenegro into Albania and as planned, Kosovo heading to the dream of Balle Kombetar, and the Greater Albania. They had this planned in 1999, and with our help I'm afraid. The formation of up to eight or nine rebel groups, affiliated with the former KLA and Albanian Mafia. Also linked with TMK/KPC and the current political leadership in Kosovo. hmmmmm? See any pattern here? Once kosovo becomes independent, Macedonia and Southern Presevo and Chameria will be targeted.......for independence as set by the example in Kosovo. Watch, for Volvadina, and Sandjak to start rattling their political strings and demonstrations. It's so easy to predict, a first year Political science major could write a one page essay.....for his/her first graded assignment.
Hmmmmmm, a raghead without a rag....or a sheet.
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