Bob, if the US troops go in and remove every latino in the local government and replace them with Anglos from out of state, dynamite their churches, close the schools, shut down the major businesses, surround the towns with armored vehicles & then shell them or shoot a few civilans before moving in and giving the populace 30 minutes to start walking to the Mexican border--to include those who've lived there for generations, then murder those who don't move fast enough; then yes, I'll condemn US troops. And until that starts happening, your analogy is distinctly imperfect.
You're putting the cart way, way before the horse.
Here are some quotes from Milosevic's "infamous"speech where he was allegedly whipping up Serbian nationalism:
Today, it is difficult to say what is the historical truth about the Battle of Kosovo and what is legend. Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today, more than in the past, members of other peoples and nationalities also live in it. This is not a disadvantage for Serbia. I am truly convinced that it is its advantage.
Yugoslavia is a multinational community and it can survive only under the conditions of full equality for all nations that live in it.
Equal and united people can above all become a part of the civilization toward which mankind is moving. If we cannot be at the head of the column leading to such a civilization, there is certainly no need for us to be at is tail.
etc...
Please, read the entire speech and tell where he was advocating all this alleged Serbian intolerance? It's complete bullshit.
If you consider the geopolitics, it's also completely illogical. Why would Milosevic & Serbia want to destroy Yugoslavia? Since the early 19th century when the first small portion of the fledgling Serb state won its independence from the Ottomans, one of the chief foreign policy goals of Serbia was to unite all its countrymen in one state. Serbia had that in Yugoslavia.
It's illogical. Think about it. One the one hand, critics (wrongly) condemn Yugoslavia for being "Serb dominated". On the other, the condemn "Serb nationalism" for destroying it.
You can't have it both ways.
As is your answer, Mark. Your answer implies that the Serbs just picked up one day and decided to do all these condemnable things out of a clear blue.
Now, if southern California seceded (illegally) and started firing non-Latinos simply because they are non-Latinos (as was the case in Tudjman's Croatia -- Serbs were fired from jobs for being Serbs and not Miloshevich's supporters), or if they actually committed atrocities against the non-Latinos (as the Croatians have done), and glrofied those who did (as Croatians have done), then your hypothetical answer would have to be modified.
If the Latinos of Souther California started to attack sheriff deputies, police stations and army units, as was the case in Kosovo and Slovenia, your answer would have to be modified.
If the Latinos of Southern California organized "Latino Liberation Army" and began to systematically terorize non-Latino population, your answer would have to be modified...
We did not just wake up one day and decided to attack Iraq. Something led to that decision (right or wrong, regardless how you see it now), and something led Serbs to react to illegitimate secessions, and armed terrorist rebellion on their own territory.
This does not mean that individual commanders or soldiers did not break any laws or commit murders -- that's a given for the Serbs as it is true of all the other grop in the Blakans and the world, and -- yes -- incluidng us.
No side is clean or morally pure. Your problem is that you peddle this perverse lie that Serbs committed wrong as a matter of policy and not individual decisions.
Bob, if the US troops go in and remove every latino in the local government and replace them with Anglos from out of state, dynamite their churches, close the schools, shut down the major businesses, surround the towns with armored vehicles & then shell them or shoot a few civilans before moving in and giving the populace 30 minutes to start walking to the Mexican border--to include those who've lived there for generations, then murder those who don't move fast enough; then yes, I'll condemn US troops. And until that starts happening, your analogy is distinctly imperfect.
You've just described to the very last detail the behaviour of the Croatian state in 1991. I don't know if that was your intetion, though...