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The mujihadeen links to Bosnia via Croatia were often times reported contemporaneously by the Serb media.

Of course, at the time, they were just dismissed as "Serb propaganda".

Thank you for these beautiful and informative posts, K! Please keep them coming.

Correct and well said.

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.

I hope not. I really do hope Mark considers the issue a little more, as I believe he has been misled on many points.

Very true. Tito's own policy was called "Weak Serbia, Strong Yugoslavia" for Heaven's sake!!!

Mark,

When the latinos in California decide they want their own "Aztlan", arm themselves, and declare California their own independent state... will you condemn US troops who move in to try to restore order as "nationalist nutjobs" who are "attacking" California?

A lot of south Chicago should be bulldozed, too. :)

How about the accusers? Mr. Cohen here starts off by blaming Serbia for the creation of Yugoslavia, ignorant of the most basic historical facts that Yugoslavia was predominantly a Croatian/Slovenian movement.

How about Milosevic's "infamous" speech in Kosovo in 1989? Have you ever actually read it? Did you read the excerpt posted above? It is about that farthest thing one can imagine from being a "nationalist" rallying cry. Yet it is repeated ad nauseum as such.

What do you think of those basic historical untruths?

Less than 2 weeks of confused sporadic fighting and only a handful dead... hardly a "war".

Considering the anarchy caused by their unilateral secession, things could have been much uglier. Yugoslavia should in fact be praised for quieting the situation as quickly as it did. I doubt other nations could have handled the situation any better.

Each of the families being moved from Gaza will receive average compensation of between $200,000 to $300,000

That money should be put to use to help those here at home instead.

Please add me to your Orthodox ping list!

How many billions did we just give for the withdrawl of those 8,000 people from Gaza?

Seems that money would be better spent at home right now...

The media gives the impression that one day Slobodan Milosevic woke up and decided to unleash paramillitaries on Serbia's peaceful co-inhabitants, but that is hardly the case.

Slovenian & Croatian secession started the war, an important point that is quickly forgotten. So Serbs do have a point too...

The author is completely misinformed on this point.

"Yugoslavism" (preceded by "Illyrianism"), was largely a Croat driven idea. Serbia did not so much aspire to create Yugoslavia, as Croats & Slovenes aspired to join a common south-slavic union where they hoped to be on a more equal footing, rather than constant second class citizens in Austria-Hungary.

Of course Serbia, after the enormous price she paid in blood in WW1, was happy to accept the former Hapsburg territories as compensation. So there was a problem with perceptions from the beginning, as one side initially saw the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" as emancipation, while the other side saw it largely as reparations.

From the Serb point of view, they were being generous by accepting their wayward slavic cousins in a common state on an equal footing, considering that Croats & Slovenes, being Hapsburg subjects, had fought against them in the war. But it proved a dissapointment to Croats & Slovenes who wanted a very loose federal structure, something that would give them quasi-independence. Croatia's pro-nazi Ustasha regime during WW2 would seal the bad blood.

I will agree with the author, however, that it was a mistake for Serbia to accept Croatia & Slovenia into Yugoslavia.

Well, yes, that is true. But they really started ramping up their program after Tito died in 1980.

This was just the culmination of what Albanians were doing to Serbs in Kosovo since the 1980's.

"Yet even Pat suggests this is the fault of this President? Are all of you almost as sick of him being blamed for everything as I am?"

I am sick of people apologising for Bush's negligence of the subject. During the Clinton era, this board was full of people howling about illegal immigration. Now we've had 5 years of a Republican President and Congress... and nothing has been done!!! Surely, in this day and age of terror, securing our own borders needs to be a top priority.

The travesty continues...

Yeah, and the cat she's holding is cute too. :-)