Posted on 03/09/2010 7:23:41 PM PST by Ravnagora
I am not defending Radovan Karadzic ("Karadzic blames Islamic militants for war," Web, Monday, and "Karadzic blames Muslims for killing," Geopolitics, Tuesday). However, there is a basis for his claim that Osama bin Laden's Muslim militants were active in the Balkan war. Instead of being honest brokers in what was a civil war, the Clinton administration, along with a willing media, successfully portrayed Serbian forces, including the Serbian people collectively, as the only villains.
In 1993, the government of Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic issued a passport to bin Laden at the Bosnian Embassy in Vienna, thereby enabling themaster terrorist to visitboth Bosnia and Kosovo on several occasions. In his book "Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad," professor John R. Schindler, formerly with the National Security Agency, made the following points: The Bosnian conflict has been misrepresented by the mainstream media, which has covered up the large role played by radical Islam and al Qaeda; bin Laden used Bosnia as a base for terrorist operations worldwide; and the Clinton administration, in collaboration with Iran, secretly supplied Bosnia's mujahideen, including al Qaeda, with weapons and supplies.
At the urging of President Clinton, NATO forces bombed the Bosnian Serbs in 1995. Yossef Bodansky, in his book "Offensive in the Balkans," wrote that the mortar used to bomb Sarajevo's main marketplace was designed and built with the help of Hezbollah. Mr. Bodansky wrote, "This callous self-killing was designed to shock the West, especially sentimental and gullible Washington, in order to raise the level of Western sympathy to the Bosnian Muslims and further demonize the Serbs so that Western governments would be more supportive of Sarajevo's forthcoming aggressive moves, and perhaps even finally intervene [militarily]."
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
LOL—I am not defending Radovan Karadzic, but I am defending Radovan Karadzic.
I remember at the time reading between the lines, it was clear the Serbs were no worse than the Muslims and I strongly suspect, the more innocent of the two.
Our, and Nato’s attack on Serbia was one of the worst things this country has ever done.
We attacked a friend in order to protect Muslim terrorist. The more I have read since the more I am convinced of that.
"Stella Jatras has years and years of experience with both the Serbs and the "Islamists". She knows both well, therefore is able to speak with authority. She is also a woman of integrity. She is neither Serb nor Moslem. She calls it like she sees it, and her "sight" is well informed and accurate. Political correctness does not cloud her perceptions. I like what Jatras has written a lot, but have to say that I also like The Washington Times for publishing her comments. Thank you, WT. The world may see Radovan Karadzic a bit differently as time goes on. If he gets through the Hague War Crimes Tribunal alive, unlike Slobodan Milosevic, I hope people become increasingly more receptive to what he has to say. He was fighting the war against the terrorists long before September 11th, 2001. He knew exactly what Islamic Jihad was really all about. And now he is being "tried' as a war criminal. There is something wrong with this picture. Stella Jatras is able to connect the dots. She was able to connect them a long time ago. She knows well who the "bad" guys are and who the "good" guys are. I know her personally. I'm proud to call her a friend. The woman does not lie. And she has nothing, absolutely nothing, to gain from telling the truth. And still she tells it. That's integrity."
All it takes to hoodwink many in the West is a portrayal of one group as a victim, whether or not anything is known about how two or more groups came to be in the particular adversarial relationship being portrayed. Ethnic conflict, and ethic cleansing, back and forth, had gone on in the part of the world for several centuries. And, of course, the Muslims in the Balkans aligned themselves with the Nazis in WWII.
The Muslims were portrayed as victims and the Serbs as aggressors, or ethnic cleansers, and most Americans never understood the conflict in any more depth than that. And still don’t.
I hope more accurate histories are available, or will soon be available. Americans and Euros need to take a more in depth look at that conflict, and they part the West played in it.
That makes about as much sense as me observing that the Serbs alligned themselves with Communists after the war.
aligned, whatever
Other claims by Karadzic:
Mr Karadzic told his trial at The Hague that Sarajevo, where some 12,000 people died in 44 months, was “not a city under siege” by Bosnian Serb forces.
He said claims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were based on “false myths”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8545188.stm
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
Groucho Marx
Lol, coming from you, nothing is surprising. And all groups in the Balkans aligned themselves with the Communist after WWII in Yugoslavia. Either that or they kept their heads very low and out of sight. I don't think it was a voluntary association.
No, she’s pointing out some facts about his accusers.
Straight to the personal, I see. Very well then, you’re too stupid to see the fallacy in your reasoning. Making excuses for it is simply lame.
Right, she’s blowing smoke.
It would make more sense to point out that the West sold out Mihalovich, so that means the US and Britain aligned themselves with the Yugoslav communists and left the Serbs with no other choice.
The truth is a be-atch, huh?
Just keep smoking that creeper.
As opposed to you? LOL!
Poor, misunderstood Serbs unable to commit genocide without consequence ping.
Yeah, some folks earn their reputations.
But! But!
You’ve made your bed.
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