Ron,
One thing that made Abraham Lincoln great was his ability
to find the core of an argument. In so doing, he would
find the truth of the matter and act upon his conviction.
The question of what kind of man Milosevic is the current
topic in question. Who is he? Why does he do the things
he does? What motivates him? When I made the comparision
of Slobodon and Abraham, I made it with the knowledge that
both had faced the same trial, that is the breakup of their
nations.
Yugoslavia is (was) a multiculteral republic created of
six republics, Serbia, Slovania, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia,
and Montenegro. Created out of the ashes of WWII by a
guerilla fighter of Croatian and Slovanian decent, Tito
kept a strong lid on the ethnic nationalities with a form
of soft communism and independence from the Soviet Block.
After the death of Tito the Republic began to crumble due
to rising nationalism, and the encouragement of some Europ-
ean nations such as Italy and Germany which had many reasons
for wanted to see Yugoslavia "Balkanized". There was a vote
for independence by all the Republics in 1991. Unlike our
constitution which held no provision for states leaving the
union, the Yugoslavian Constitution actually allowed any
or all of the Republics to leave if all six Republics voted
their consent. The vote went:
Slovania OUT
Croatia OUT
Bosnia OUT
Macedonia OUT
Montenegro IN
Serbia IN
Technically, any Republic that tried to leave would be
violating the Constitution. Slovania mobilized its militia.
Milsosevic sent in the JNA (Yugoslavian Army) to put down
the rebellion just as Lincoln sent the Army to reinforce
Fort Sumpter. The battle lasted only a few days before
Milosevic made what I believe would be his big mistake. He
held a meeting of the cabinet and stated that since there
were practically no Serbs living in Slovania, they might
as well let it go. Of course that only inspired the Croatians
to break away. Milosevic met with Franjo Tudjman (President
of Croatia and indicted war criminal) and tried to get him
to remain within the Union. However, Tudjman had his own
ideas which was to bring back the "Ustaza Republica", a NAZI
puppet nation from WWII that built the Jujenuk death camp
that killed 350,000 Serbs, many Jews and Gypsies. That flag
of Croatia? It might as well be the swastika of the Weirmacht.
Fact: The first death in the Yugoslavian civil war
was a Slovanian pilot, shot down by a Slovanian antiaircraft
battery.
Fact: The first acts of ethnic cleansing were conducted by
Croatians against Serbs in Croatia.
For reasons that I just don't understand, Milosevic and the
Serbs have been held accountable for all the war crimes and
attrocities that have occured. For some strange reason, the
media seems to have totally forgotten the brutal civil war
between the Muslims and Croatians of 1993-1995. The also
seem to have forgotten that Bill Clinton gave 200 million
dollars in weapons in 1995 to Franjo Tudjman and the Croatian
military ethnically cleansed 250,000 Serbs from Krajina in
1995. Bill Clinton gave the tools to several now indicted
war criminal Croatian Generals. Would that not make him an
accomplice in crime????????????????????????????????
Anyway, enough. My own solution would be to have continued
the arms embargo (which Clinton broke) and let the Republics
slug it out. Eventually the war would have ended...but now
it is just a relentless nightmare...paid for by our tax dollars
and our compliance. Don't ya just feel groovy?
-John |
