Posted on 06/12/2007 1:23:23 PM PDT by joan
The Diocese of Lansing has been struggling for years, even before Lansing's economy tanked 18 months ago. Our Refugee Services has always had to make do with the bare minimum. For a lot of incomers in this area, that isn't such a hardship--we get a lot of Cuban refugees, and we have a very large population of Hispanics willing and able to help them out. Lansing was really a cruddy choice of a city in which to place Bosnians, or anyone fleeing Yugo as it fell apart. There just isn't a Slavic community here, nothing appreciable, and most of the Muslim pop here is Arabic or American (as in Black Muslims). Those two Muslim factions, incidentally, hate Bosnian Muslims like poison.
The family I was assigned came here with almost nothing. They paid for their international transport, with CathChar more or less acting solely as a coordinator. They had one suitcase of clothes--not each, just one. Our local RefSer set them up in an apartment and Suleman, the husband, began work within two weeks. Our diocesan budget is so tight that RefSer wasn't a tremendous help for them, just made sure they had the bare essentials. They had one four-quart pot for cooking--you know the huge pots that you use to cook pasta in? If Sena, the wife, wanted to cook a box of mac'n'cheese for her kids for lunch, she had to use the big ol' pot. She never complained, though, and I tried to pick up where RefSer left off--getting them more cookware and tableware, bed linens, towels, etc. The family paid for everything like that, I just introduced them to the joys of thrift stores.
I can certainly understand how the spending goes awry in other diocese--the more $ you have, the less you seem to notice where it's going, sadly. Some of the more liberal diocese have members who go out of their way to coddle Muslims--the Catholic version of a self-loathing liberal Jew, I guess. We certainly have a number of that contingent around here--this is a very liberal town. You hit the nail right on the head when you stated we love Muslims and hate Christians--I cannot, for the life of me, understand that mindset, especially since it is so prevelant among folks calling themselves Christian. Oy vey, what is this country coming to?!
Serbia chooses to side with Putin’s Russia.
Serbia is not the West’s friend, but rather, an enemy.
WHAT ?
"Serbia was using the inherited remnants of the Yugoslav Army and Air Force to stomp on its neighbours and prevent them from being independent...once again, Serbia chose to side with Russia, not NATO or the West...in fact Serbia tried to shoot down American boys in the 90s - remember that US pilot who had to hide on the hillside while the Serbs tried to track him down with dogs?"
What you now identify as Serbia WAS the inherited remains of Yugoslavia - before we pushed it into the "Former Republic of Yugoslavia" category.
Its 'neighbors' in this instance were either states within that republic (Macedonia), former states within the earlier version of Yugoslavia (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro), or (finally) an integral part of Serbia itself (Kosovo). By the time NATO (Not the UN) intervened only Montenegro and Serbia remained and Kosovo was an integral part of Serbia but contained a majority muslim population due to unfettered Albanian immigration.
(You might want to note this as it relates to the SW USA today).
"Independence" for Kosovo meant substituting population via decades of illegal immigration and ethnic intolerance by muslims. It also meant surrender of major elements of the economy and historic Serb heartland.
"Side with Russia"?
I presume you refer to the fact that Russia was the only intervening nation that attempted to limit our assault on Serb property by cutting in ahead and holding the Belgrade airport?
And my fave: "... in fact Serbia tried to shoot down American boys in the 90s". Just what would you expect when the sky is full of "American boys" dropping bombs on your trains, power system, communications system, and, oh yes, civilian population??
That only one US aircraft was shot down, and that the Yugoslav Army pointedly avoided combat, speaks volumes about that phase of "the 90s".
And you wonder why Serbia might hold a bit more faith in Russia than in the US and NATO?
Other way around, cc! Russia chose to back Serbia, because we attacked and abandoned her. It was an immensely stupid choice on our part.
"Serbia is not the West’s friend, but rather, an enemy."
And who just tried to attack Fort Dix? Kosovo Albanians! And who shot up a Utah shopping mall and killed 8 Americans? A Bosnian Muslim! And, who, in 1978 planted a bomb at the UN, and who in 1976 hijacked TWA flight 355 and planted a bomb in Grand Central Station that killed a NYC Police Sgt and seriously wounded another officer? That right it was Croatian Nationalists!
We don't "negotiate with terrorists", we give into them! The way we have behaved so far, if you want the US as a friend you have kill Americans first, then we will love you, praise you and back you against your enemies. But if you save Americans, instead of killing us, then you become "our enemy". It's lunacy!
And you are as crazy as the rest of them, canuck!
This 1999 open letter from the late Richard L. Felman Major USAF (Ret) makes pretty clear who “our friends and enemies” are. There is a book coming out this September, called “The Forgotten 500” by Gregory A. Freeman, that is about these men:
An Open Letter To Our Troops In The Former Yugoslavia
From Over 500 MlAs Saved By The Serbian People During WWII
From Richard L. Felman Major USAF (Ret)
President National Committee of American Airmen Rescued by General Mlhailovich, Inc.
P.O. Box 17478,
Tuscon, Arizona 85731
During World War II, we were in the Army Air Corps list as “Missing in Action” in the very same area you are now serving. If we may, we would like to relay to you a frank, soldier-to-soldier message about our personal experience while there - something which politicians who sent you there have not told you and something which you have not read or seen in the anti-Serb media.
In 1944, the members of our committee were flying bombing missions out of Italy over Southern Europe. During that time over 500 of us were shot down over enemy-occupied Yugoslavia and saved from certain death by the Serbian people. Ours was the greatest rescue of American lives from behind enemy lines in history but has been kept under wraps all these years because of pressure from foreign sources.
While we were there, those of us who were wounded were given whatever medical supplies they had even at the deprivation of their own troops. If there was one piece of bread in the house, or one egg, it went to the American airmen while the Serb went hungry. If there was one bed or one blanket, it went to us while the Serb slept on the bare ground. No risk of sacrifice was too great to insure our safety and well being. One experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding us. To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning flesh. One does not forget such things.
The most incredible part of our rescue was that before each mission, our bomber crews were briefed by the highest levels of American intelligence that if shot down over Yugoslavia, we were to stay away from the Serbian people as they were collaborating with the Germans and “cutting off the ears of American airmen” before turning them over. Only after we were shot down did we find out the amazing thoroughness with which the truth about the Serbs was being distorted.
Further compounding this deception is the fact that while the Serbs were our allies in WWII, Croatians and Muslims (who we are favoring today) were allies of the Nazis, shooting at us and responsible for killing many of our fellow American fliers. In view of the lies we were told about the Serbs during World War II, we could not help but wonder if our foreign policy there today is the same anti-Serb bias we
encountered 52 years ago. Could our career diplomats sacrifice former friends and reward former enemies in the name of political expediency???... Could it be because in the world community there are over one billion Muslims and only 9 million Serbian Orthodox Christians with the same proportionate power in the global economy??? Could it be because the Serbs have no oil wells and no unlimited oil money?
Could it be because the Croatians and Muslims outspend the Serbs 50 to one on lobbyists, media firms and campaign contributions??? ... Could this be why, “atrocities” are manufactured to make the Serbs look bad while gaining sympathy for their opponents???... Could this be why the Serbs are branded “aggressors” in land they have lived on for over 600 years???... Could our policy have something to do with the fact there are 540 members of Congress, none of whom are Orthodox Chistians???... Could the State Departnent’s bitter bias, against General Draza Mihailovich, the anti-Communist guerrilla leader who saved us, be based on the fact he was a Serb???
Could these be the reasons the State Department has covered up the truth of our rescue all these years and opposed our petition to express gratitude for saving over 500 American lives (a petition which is supported by the 8 million veterans of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Air Force Association and which has been approved by the United States Senate.)???... Could it be these are the reasons the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has also denied our petition by saying to us there are “ethnic groups in Yugoslavia” who oppose it???...
Are we mad???... You can bet your next month’s paycheck that we are mad! We did not leave our families, risk our lives and watch our buddies get their arms, legs and heads blown off so that “ethnic groups in Yugoslavia” could tell us what we could or could not do in our own country.
Now that the spring thaw has set in, temperatures and tempers will start to rise in the volatile area you now find yourselves. All we ask is that in your dealings with the local people you be made aware of the eyewitness experience of your fellow comrades-in-arms. By speaking out now we have nothing to gain except a burning moral passion to tell the truth, a sworn duty to protect our national honor, a patriotic desire to express heart felt gratitude to those on foreign soil who save American lives while they are fighting in defense of our glorious country.
Now that you have been sent to foreign soil and asked to risk your lives we feel you should know the truth and not be “suckered in” by the rhetoric of highly paid public relations firms, foreign lobbyists and self-serving politicians who know absolutely nothing of the region’s history.
We might also add that had it not been for the Serbian people, Air Force General Donald J. Smith, our chairman and one our rescued airmen, would not have survived the war and been able to dedicate 40 years of honorable service to his country.
Had it not been for the Serbian people, technical Sgt. Curtis “Bud” Diles, another of our airmen, would not be alive today in Dayton, Ohio, enjoying retirement with his 4 children and 12 grandchildren... There are hundreds of us with stories just like those.
Some of the greatest testimony to the many sacrifices made on our behalf is the many thousands of American children who are alive today solely because the Serbian people saved over 500 of their grandfathers during World War II. Some of them could very well be serving with you today in Bosnia.
(I was one of 3 rescued American airmen who returned last year to the former Yugoslavia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of victory in Europe with the people who saved us and to visit the cow pasture that served as a landing strip from which we were rescued. The most moving experience of our sentimental trip was being cheered by over 50,000 Serbs who gathered at a mountain top to welcome us and who kept chanting “USA, USA”).
As American military men, we have a proud tradition of “duty, honor and country” to uphold and a fierce sense of loyalty to those with whom we fought side by side in combat. We never forget their kindness nor do we return their battlefield sacrifices for us by bombing their women and children. The Serbian people helped us when we were desperate and in trouble. Now that the situation is reversed we can do no less.
Please keep these untarnished truths in mind as you now serve our country and all it stands for, and may God bless you all as we pray for your safe return.
You’re correct and it’s my memory that is faulty. These are conversations I had in 1996, and as I have stated, the conversations were carried out in very broken English. I’m certain that Sena would have said Tito—I doubt she would have got the name of the dictator wrong, since she lived under his rule.
My husband remembered the name of the Bosnian woman I worked with—Sena. I think it was actually spelled “Sejna” or maybe even “Sejina.” I still can’t recall what their surname was.
So what?
In WWII, China and Iran were also the US’s allies. Should they be given a free pass now too, because of what happened way back then?
WWII is irrelevant. Stick with modern history, please.
Which is: Serbia chooses to side with Putin’s gangster regime in Russia, not NATO or the West.
It’s not hard to see which side Westerners will feel more sympathetic to.
For privacy issues, it wouldn’t be right to give out their surname without their permission anyways.
Iran was and is an ally of the Bosnian Muslims. Iranian arms and fighters were used by the Bosnian Muslim army - a bunch of super creepy men, according to grellis who saw them up close.
That’s very true and I can’t believe I didn’t consider it!
The US and NATO backed the wrong horse in the Yugo mess. History WILL show that, no matter how the media tries to cover it up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.