[Tarsk]

I guess Mesic just purchased a one-way ticket for Croatia marked "Pariah" and "Poverty".

Could any right-thinking person in all conscience blame the "vengeful antifascists" considering the enormity of the crimes carried out by Croatian Nazis? In a perfect world it might have been considered rough justice but what justice exactly did the Nazis allow their victims? No, they got exactly what they deserved and perhaps a little bit less. That Croatia now is honoring these men and women of evil just goes to show how little that nation has changed since the end of World War II and how it should be kept at arms length by the West until it has honestly and truly turned its back on such a wicked and terrible past.

Serbia as a fundamentally decent nation will be rehabilitated in fairly short order. It will be many, many decades, if ever, before Croatia enjoys a similar happy fate.

[wideawake]

This sounds a little hyperbolic.

First of all, let's use correct labels.

These Croatian soldiers weren't necessarily Nazis any more than the average rank and file WWII German soldier was a Nazi.

Additionally, these "anti-fascists" were most probably the pro-Communist irregulars loyal to Tito.

These Croats were probably fighting to defend their country from a Communist takeover, not to defend their government's cowardly collaboration with the Nazis.

Don't buy the left's rhetoric hook, line and sinker.

[Seydlitz]

By "Croatian Nazis", do they mean the Ustashe or Croats in the Waffen-SS? I assume it must mean Ustashe as relatively few Croats served in the Waffen-SS. The only major Croat Waffen-SS division was "Karstjaeger", and that unit served mostly on anti-partisan duties in Italy (another division, entitled "Kama" was planned but never formed). Most Croats who joined the German military served in 300-series Wehrmacht divisions.

The Ustashe were a brutal and nasty bunch of thugs. However, Tito and the Communists did go a little nuts when it came to revenge killings.

Not a happy history, the former Yugoslavia.

[swarthyguy]

Oh, all those poor misunderstood Nazis. They meant well and were all good family men, understand. They just came under the sway of the evil Nazis, but weren't really Nazis themselves, y'know.

[xJones]

It's just possible (/sarcasm) that the Croat Nazis (Ustashi) needed killing, I'm not sure about the civilian Croats. But they knew what had gone on and knew that the non-Nazi Yugoslavs would be coming after them for their terrible crimes. JASENOVAC

[Cicero]

In the first place, the Russians murdered millions of ordinary people after the war under the charge that they were "Nazis." These included conscripts in the various armies who had no choice but to put on uniforms.

In the second place, Croatia was the meeting ground of two abominable invasions: Nazis from the west and Communists from the East. Why should Nazis be singled out for hatred while many Communists are still in power today in many Eastern European countries?

I'm not defending all of the Ustache leaders. But these countries were victimized from all sides, and the Communists were fully as bad as the Nazis, if not worse. Over the course of the twentieth century, Communists killed many times more innocent people than the Nazis did.

[Alberta's Child]

Two of the former Yugoslavia provinces (Croatia and Slovenia) dropped out of the news years ago.

There's a reason for this -- they have become two of the most stable, thriving regions in eastern Europe since the Iron Curtain collapsed. The next time you are in a clothing store, pick up a few leather belts and pairs of shoes -- see how many of them are now made in Croatia instead of Italy.

The U.S. has no business judging European nations like this for what occurred there during the 1930s and 1940s. In most cases these people had to choose with one brand of socialism (nationalist socialism, or Nazism) and another (global socialism, or Soviet communism).

The fact that they picked a different poison than the U.S. did doesn't make them any worse than us.

[Alouette]

The current government of Croatia is a strong supporter of Israel.

[Alberta's Child]

Serbia as a fundamentally decent nation will be rehabilitated in fairly short order.

And the one time the United States dealt with this "fundamentally decent nation," we decided instead to bomb their cities on behalf of a rogue nation of Islamic narco-terrorists.

So what the hell does that say about us?

[Duramaximus]

Here in this country we also honor those who savage personal freedoms. Case in point: the Klinton library.