From a BBC reporter in Belgrade:
Just over two years ago, a young Serb woman and her
friends joined other student demonstrators to protest on
the streets of Belgrade. There was a hope then of
democratic reform. Now such protests would be
unacceptable. Opposition to the government does exist,
but it is voiced quietly.
She says that Milosevic is now like God: "Serbs are all
together, with the Yugoslav army and of course with
President Mr Milosevic. So now you're not able to find
anyone to tell you he is a bad guy."
One Serb man had some
hopes for a life from the west,
but that has changed: "I am
Serb and they are bombing
my country and my people. I
cannot believe in all the
things the western media say
about the Serbian army
because I know some of the
people that are in the army
and in the police and I know
them as normal people, not
insane murderers who do
such things."
"I don't see any way out" says another Serb man,
"because two weeks ago we reached the point of no
return. Now it only has to be total destruction or
obedience and a pullback from Kosovo, which will never
happen. People are getting more and more fed up by the
day."
They are liberal, well-educated cosmopolitans. But the
pressure waves from Nato's bombs are felt by them in a
way that perhaps the Alliance had not expected, forcing
them to turn away from the western European and
American lifestyles they craved, to discover now a
Serbian identity.
Young people were once thought to be the foundations of
some future Yugoslavia, a modern democratic country
which would value their opinions. Their views may not be
popular in the Nato countries, but they are genuinely and
widely held: "My country, right or wrong."
news.bbc.co.uk
The irony is that while before the bombing there was a reform movement in Serbia and a genuine possibility that the Serbs themselves would replace Milosovic, now he is a firmly entrenched fixture. The NATO bombs have destroyed the opposition to him and united Yugoslavians to rally behind him.
At times, we Americans are among the most arrogantly stupid people on earth.
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