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Bob,

Please don't presume to lecture me on intellectual honesty:

The SDS conducted, in November of 1991, a plebiscite which was restricted to their own membership, i.e., Bosnian Serbs, as to whether they wanted to stay as a part of Yugoslavia.

Based upon the results of this referendum, Karadzic et al declared that those areas wherein more than 50% of the vote was in favor of staying with Yugoslavia were now part of the Autonomous Serb Republic of Bosnia.

On the other hand, the Bosnian government conducted, in March of 1992, a referendum which was open to all, (the SDS boycotted, surprise surprise) which posed the question:

Are you for a sovereign and independent Bosnia and Hercegovina, a state of equal citizens, the peoples of Bosnia and Hercegovina -- Muslims, Serbs, Croats, and members of other nations -- living in it?

Results showed that of the ~3.15 million eligible voters in Bosnia (this includes the boycotting SDS membership) 63% supported independence. When you count only votes cast, 99.7% supported the referendum.

So on one hand, you have an exclusionary vote that the Bosnian Serbs "won", vs. a Republic wide, all inclusive vote which the Bosnian Serbs chose to boycott as they knew the JNA would be able to settle the forthcoming dispute in their favor.

You are attempting to compare apples and oranges, Bob, and that's not intellectually honest, is it.

THE REFERENDUM ON INDEPENDENCE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
February 29-March 1, 1992

Your "apples and oranges" all taste like the same bitter grapefruit to me, Hoplite. If the RS's vote was "exclusionary" because it did not include the entire parent entity (all of Bosnia), then so was the Muslims' referendum on Bosnian independence because it did not include all of Yugoslavia.

You condemn the RS for not getting permission from the rest of Bosnia prior to secession, but are fine when Bosnia split from Yugoslavia without the latter's consent.

No, Hoplite, that is not very intellectually honest at all.