Posted on 05/08/2008 1:08:33 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BELGRADE, Serbia - The head of an ultranationalist party leading the polls going into Serbia's elections doesn't like to be compared to Slobodan Milosevic. He says the late leader wasn't hard enough during the Balkan wars and paved the way for losing Kosovo.
"Milosevic was a communist, then a socialist, but he was never a nationalist," Tomislav Nikolic, the leader of Serbia's far-right Radicals, said during an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.
Two years after Milosevic died while on trial by a U.N. tribunal on genocide charges tied to the bloody breakup of former Yugoslavia, Nikolic's party could use Sunday's parliamentary elections to regain the power it shared with Milosevic in the late 1990s.
Opinion polls give the Radicals a slight lead over a pro-Western coalition led by President Boris Tadic heading into an election that will determine whether Serbia moves toward the European Union and the U.S. or seeks closer ties with Russia.
Milosevic was widely vilified in the West for the actions of Serb forces and was pressured into signing peace deals. But nationalists at home denounced him for what they considered weak wartime tactics that lost Serb-populated territories in former Yugoslavia.
"I was very critical of Milosevic. He had stopped short all Serbian actions, which benefited our enemies," Nikolic said, referring to the ethnic wars in Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. "I would have done many things differently. I would have gone all the way."
He also blames Milosevic for the loss of Serbia's Kosovo province, a territory with an ethnic Albanian majority that declared independence Feb. 17 with backing from the U.S. and other Western powers.
After a relentless NATO air war campaign, Milosevic ended his crackdown on Albanian separatists in Kosovo in 1999 by signing a peace accord that put the territory under U.N. administration.
"Milosevic handed Kosovo to the United Nations, but he knew that that was a road to Kosovo's independence," Nikolic said.
If he does win power, Nikolic said he would never hand over the most-wanted Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives -- former political leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic -- to the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Interesting that they call an ultranationalist a “far-right” candidate.
I think I like this Tomislav Nikolic.
GO SERBS!
Note the exact words.. the guy is saying being a communist and or a socialist is a good thing. He's a leftist.
He actually makes a very good point. Milosevic was not that effective in dealing with Serbia’s enemies. He didn’t intervene militarily in Bosnia - which would have easily given the Serbs the victory. He pretty much betrayed the Serbs in Krajina. And he pulled his forces out of Kosovo when Russia began pressuring him to make nice with the United States.
I have never seen much of a difference between statist facism and statist socialism - they are both oppressive totalitarian political ideologies.
I think you are misinterpreting his statement. He is just describing Milosevic’s political journey. Milosevic started out as a communist then after the fall of the Soviet Union he defined himself as a socialist. However, while he fought to protect Kosovo he never was a strong nationalist who was willing to use the full might of Serbia’s army to win the Yugoslav wars.
I won’t slam you. I think you’re right.
I agree, but then again, I think Franco was ahead of his time for dealing with the commies.
OK perhaps.. thanks.
Thanks. I was getting worried there for a minute. I thought maybe my evil side was posting. lol
I think Franco was ahead of his time for dealing with the commies.
I agree.
Thank you. I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking that.
And just think, if McCain had gotten his way, we’d have gone into Kosovo with ground troops and done even more damage.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, insists the United States should be preparing its troops for a ground war in case that option became necessary. McCain was one of a number of members of Congress traveling to Brussels and Aviano, Italy with Defense Secretary William Cohen in the next three days to meet top NATO leaders and visit U.S. forces involved in the operations.
http://www.alb-net.com/kcc/index24-1.htm
March 25, 1999
‘’These bombs are not going to do the job,’’ said Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Republican who was a naval pilot in the Vietnam War. ‘’It’s almost pathetic. You’re just going to solidify the determination of the Serbs to resist a peace agreement.
‘’You’d have to drop the bridges and turn off the lights in Belgrade to have even a remote chance of changing Milosevic’s mind,’’ he said. ‘’What you’ll get is all the old Vietnam stuff, bombing pauses, escalation, negotiations, trouble.’’
Mr. McCain, who is expected to announce his candidacy for President next month, said the Administration was caught with unpalatable alternatives — bombing, which he said ‘’has never worked without ground forces,’’ and the use of ground forces, which he said had little support on Capitol Hill or in the nation as a whole.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E6DB1F38F930A25757C0A96F958260
Wow, thanks, AuntB, we narrowly missed a bullet on that.
Chalk up another reason why we won't be voting in this presidential election.
I'm so damned disgusted with our his being the GOP nominee. Makes me just want to vomit.
Just pinging you to this article as I think you and the rest of the Balkan ping group would find it of interest.
I think guys like us are a dying breed.
And gals. ;)
I'm glad I'm in my mid 50's. More of my life is behind me than in front. My pop fought in two wars to pass to me a great country. I've come up very short compared to him when passing it to my kids and grandkids.
I agree, a dying breed.
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