Neocon--
To push this, without prejudice, a little back towards the Balkans, let's note that the Serbian national consciousness finds its roots a lot further back than WWII. JBL's post, while informative, downplayed the history that Milosevic cites to justify Serbian claims in favor of the more immediate, uanalloyed evil of Fascism.
As I understand it, the Serbs are still smarting over their defeat by the Ottoman Turks in the 14th(?) century. This was the time of Serbia's cultural and political apogee, and their loss in Kosovo to the Turks set in motion a long decline; the transformation of Kosovo to a majority Muslim populace had begun. (Also, I think the Albanians themselves have some ancient claim on the territory as well...anybody surprised?)
I think Ms. Breshnev's palliatives are meant for our ears alone -- the not so subtle elision from Kosovar Albanian to former-Nazi plays on some of America's most powerful impressions of itself -- while Milosevic tells an equally compelling, but different, tale at home. His harks to "Serbia's historic heartland." So if Ms. Breshnev wants us to understand the current conflict in light of WWII, she should remind us as well that many Serbs understood WWII in light of the past six centuries. And that's how many understand Kosovo today. Milosevic forever creates, courts, and counts on this understanding of Kosovo.
All this of the top of my head from background reading, so no link. If someone has the time, please do a search on "The Field of Blackbirds," which was the site of Serbia's capitulation to the Ottoman Turks. If anyone finds any errors, or has information that I missed, please post here as I'd be happy to read such.
ian
If this history has been posted here before, or if everybody knows this stuff already from some other source, I apologize for wasting pixels. Just seemed to me that, if indeed we do need to be reminded of WWII, our knowledge of the middle ages likely requires a refresher, too. I know mine does. |
