Well, if you want to consider the 21st century to have begun January 1, 2000, it would be a tough choice between Clinton and Bush, as Clinton’s last thirteen months in office were pretty hideous. More traditionally, though, we have considered the year ‘01 to be the actual beginning of each century. From that perspective, while Clinton’s last three weeks in office were no improvement over the rest of those eight years, the damage he managed to do in that time period was trivial by comparison.
But if any president in the next 92 years really wants to look worse than George W. Bush, he or she is going to have to work pretty hard at destroying the Republican Party; promoting the socialist agenda in the United States; aiding and abetting Islamic terrorism; planting “time bombs” in the economy that are set to go off after he or she leaves office; promoting tyranny against the American people; destroying our relationship with the one nation on the planet that has most in common with us and that has the strongest reasons to be our ally; and last, but certainly not least, supporting a criminal gang of Islamic terrorists in establishing a stronghold in the Balkans.
Destroying the Republican Party
In January of 2001, an historic event took place. Or so we thought. A supposedly conservative Republican became President with the backing of a conservative Republican Congress. What could have been better? Cut taxes, raise revenue, promote business growth, provide jobs, cut federal regulation, recognize States’ rights. But George W turned out to be no Ronald Reagan.
We got some temporary tax cuts, slow to take effect and all too quick to expire. Most notably, the draconian death tax, enacted right out of the Communist Manifesto, will spring back to life soon after Bush leaves office. And every Republican in Congress was told to be a “good Republican” and back the President’s plan rather than hold their ground and insist on something better - so such legislation passed.
George W let Ted Kennedy, one of the leading Senate Communists in all but name, write an education bill that firmly entrenched left-wing propaganda into our youth “re-education camps” - otherwise known as “public schools.” And every Republican in Congress was told to be a “good Republican” and back the President’s plan; so such legislation passed.
The list goes on and on. The end result is that Republicans looked more and more like socialists, and less and less like Conservatives, and - surprise! The party lost the Congressional majority that countless Conservatives had worked decades to achieve.
If George W does not get invited to speak at Democratic convention this summer, it will be a sign of the Democrats’ ungratefulness. After all, no one has done so much to bolster the Democratic Party since FDR!
Promoting a Socialist Agenda
You would think that allowing legislation that cuts taxes for a few years, only to bring them back with a vengeance, not to mention the “No Child Left to Grow Up Without Socialist Indoctrination” legislation, would be enough. But not for George W, he stood by passively and allowed a major frontal assault on freedom of political speech in the form of the McCain-Feingold Act. Yes, THAT McCain – he is an enemy of the freedoms that this blog seeks to protect. Under the new law, the leftist news media can say what they will, but all other will be under the gun of government-controlled censors. It’s ironic – and obviously no accident - that John McCain seems to be one of the three finalists to replace George W as America’s next dictator.
George W let pork-barrel spending run wild, and in doing so, he has betrayed the legacy of his party, and he has betrayed the principles of limited government embodied in the Constitution he swore to uphold. Thirty years ago, everyone knew that the Republicans were fiscally conservative and many leftists feared their rise to power would finally doom socialism in America. Would that it were so!
Twenty years ago, we had already seen some hypocrisy from a Republican-controlled Senate. Even so, Ronald Reagan’s veto pen had pretty much kept the GOP’s image intact, no matter who was in control of Congress. However, in this decade, little boy Bush did not even have the guts to veto his own Republican party’s pork-barrel spending. Now, there is no longer any major party in America that Eugene Debs would have hesitated to embrace. Thanks, George W!
Of course, if George W had ever bothered to read the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation that preceded it, he would have known that the primary task of the federal government is, and has always been, to secure the homeland. No, like a true socialist, this Georgie Porgie el presidente created a new bureaucracy to do the job that he had already taken an oath to do. Now we have a Department of Homeland Security, multiplying layers of bureaucracy, providing another arena for turf battles, and putting even more roadblocks in the channels of communications. Just try getting rid of that outsized and pointless boondoggle. No matter how well, or indeed how poorly, the DHS does its job – that department will remain in power. So we have more bureaucrats, more spending, more taxes to support it and more socialism, thanks to the present US dictator.
Aiding and Abetting Islamic Terrorism
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists flew four kamikaze missions against US targets. George W was either too stupid to notice that fact that the terrorists were Mohammedans, or he simply wanted to aid and abet their cause. But then, his family is in the oil business. If he forgets for an instant which side his bread is buttered on, they’ll remind him.
So George W sidestepped the issue. He declared war on “terrorism” rather than on the terrorists themselves and their hate organization, which we allow to masquerade as a religion. Make no mistake about it, Islam and religion, as the rest of the world defines religion, have nothing in common. You don’t see Baptists hijacking planes and flying them into buildings. You don’t see Jains strapping on suicide belts and walking into places were they can kill innocent civilians. You don’t see Hindus killing people for having left their faith. You don’t see Buddhists blowing up trains in Spain. You don’t see Jews getting all bent out of whack because someone makes a political cartoon that includes Moses.
But you do see followers of Mohammad doing all these things, and other heinous things besides. And it happens often. George W. had a golden opportunity to expose Islam for the hate organization that it is now, and has been for 1400 years.
Yet, he praised Islam after 9-11. Instead of interning the enemy, as FDR had the courage to do during World War II, he invited one of them to pray with us right after the horrible event. It should surprise no one that the imam he invited, Hamza Yusuf, turned out to be no moderate at all, but a radical Wahhabist convert who played George W for all he’s worth. And then there’s George W’s other friend, Imam Hassan Qazwini, closely linked to various Islamist organizations in the US.
He even aided and abetted the relatives of Osama bin Laden in their efforts to leave the US, post 9-11. We must agree with our liberal friends on one thing they often say – though not for the reasons they claim. George W. is, in fact, a terrorist, because he aids and abets terrorists.
Economic Time Bombs
1389, the primary admin of this blog, has a degree in economics, and she would not allow the following data to be posted on this blog if she were not 100% certain that it is true. High taxes discourage economic activity. It’s the working poor, those of modest income, those who are in debt, and most of the middle class, who really suffer when taxes are high. When taxes are low, economic activity is stimulated and those at the bottom benefit the most from those opportunities. (Politicians like to talk about “soaking the rich” – but when was the last time a poor person hired anybody? And anyway, rich people will never pay that much in taxes, no matter what you do. They are comparatively few in number. Moreover, they are mostly smart people and that is why they are rich!)
Bush could have insisted that his tax cuts, especially the estate tax cuts, must remain permanent. He did not. After all, “we can always do that later.” Well, later came and no one has been in a tax cutting mood. Income taxes will increase. Estate taxes will revert to what they had been, back in the day when you could still get something for a dollar or so. Tax shelters and estate planning will prevent the rich from losing anything. Middle class families, especially small businesses and family farms, will suffer, as they always do when taxes go up.
Historians don’t always understand economics, so they may even make George W look as though he was a “good president” for the economy. But unless someone steps to the plate, which seems mighty unlikely, economic woes are soon to follow.
Anti-Semitism
We’re tired of hearing the widespread myth that “the Jews” control the media and American thought, and that, because of their influence, US policy is highly pro-Israel. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The US is no ally of Israel, not by any stretch of the imagination. Israel had no problem caring for itself before America supposedly became its “ally”. Witness the way Israel defended itself in 1948, 1967 and 1973. American became its “ally” and convinced it to give back territory. (Note that Israel never asks the US to give Texas or California back to Mexico.) Anybody with normal powers of observation can figure out that, ever since the Carter Administration, it’s petrodollars that have been doing the talking.
Israel is a tiny strip of land surround by Islamic states. Only 7/24 vigilance and sheer determination to survive secures this Jewish homeland. The Arabs have many countries in which to live. Yet, a number of these Arabs have been camping out in Israel – mostly in the hopes of a better economic future than what was available in Muslim-controlled lands – and calling themselves “Palestinians.” Well, the Romans did start calling Judaea “Palestine” and anyone living there when it was called that – including Christians and Jews, had they thought in those terms – would have had every right to call themselves “Palestinians.” But that cannot make “Palestinian” an ethnic identity any more than living in New York City could create an ethnic identity of New Yorkers.
Yet, George W still insists on squandering tax dollars on financial aid to the Palestinian terrorists, who are our enemies. He even supports providing them a terrorist base so they have a safe haven from which to kill more Jews. Calling it a “homeland for the Palestinians” is like calling the area around Auschwitz a homeland for the caretakers of a concentration camp.
Make no mistake about it, support for a Palestinian “homeland” is vile anti-Semitism, and serves as proof that George W is every bit as anti-Semitic as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Anti-Patriot Acts
It is clear to anyone who has at least half a brain, or who has any reading comprehension ability at all, that radical Islam has declared war on the US. Osama bin Laden’s fatwa against the US was in the news well before 9-11. And there was no question about what he meant – none at all. He meant to destroy us, and his followers still mean to do exactly that. And the only way to change their minds is to defeat them.
In World War II, after the Empire of Japan perpetrated an act of war on the US, Japanese-Americans who remained loyal to the Emperor of Japan, and other Japanese-Americans who wished to remain on the West Coast, were watched very carefully. Many were interned. Those who were decidedly in support of the Japanese war efforts were even held as foreign enemies. We won the war and very few of them bothered to complain. They knew what was at stake and they were willing to help the US war effort in that fashion.
FDR never even thought of stripping all Americans of their basic rights and their financial privacy. But George W has done exactly that. Much as I detest FDR, I have to say he was a better man than George W in this regard.
The Holy Land of Kosovo
George W promised to remove US troops from the Balkans, and to honor the treaty with the Serbian people that ended the 1999 Kosovo War (a/k/a the Kumanovo treaty or UN Security Council Resolution 1244). Did he keep his promise? No way! Camp Bondsteel is still alive and well. The Serbs should have known better than to trust the US to honor a treaty. Ask any American Indian. Once you disarm, withdraw, or abandon your struggle in any way, the tendency is for the US to keep whatever the other side gave, and to keep on doing whatever it had been doing. We had expected George W to be a man of character and to keep the agreement with the Serbs. But clearly, little boy Bush has no character.
According to the Kumanovo treaty that ended the 1999 Kosovo War, the Serbs had the right to move their forces back into Kosovo to protect their church property and to protect their people who had been abandoned when the KFOR peacekeeping troops took over that war-torn Serbian province. The Serbs were willing to fight to the finish, perhaps to the last living person, to keep Kosovo as part of their homeland.
When the Clinton Administration had so depleted the American conventional arsenal that the security of US interests elsewhere had been severely compromised, Clinton and company finally agreed to Slobodan Milosevic’s original terms of peace. For some reason, the same wonder weapons that allowed the US to devastate Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1991 Gulf War were making little, if any, dent in Serbia’s commitment to keep Kosovo as part of Serbia. Yet, the dumb-dumb son of the earlier President Bush, who claimed to be a Christian himself, never could understand that Christian people of Serbia were very committed to keeping the most important part of Serbia as part of Serbia.
Well, yes, it may be hard for anyone who is not a Serb to understand the importance of Kosovo to the Serbian people. Kosovo is the place where the Serbian people pledged themselves and one another to serve the Lord. That is not a familiar concept these days! It may even be impossible for anyone who is not an Orthodox Christian to understand it fully. However, it would be liking telling any Christian—be he Roman Catholic, Protestant or anyone else who adheres to the traditional definition of the faith, as agreed upon in the Seven Councils—to preach the Gospel, but to leave out the part about God walking on Earth as a mortal man and the part about Jesus Christ rising from the dead. There simply would be nothing left.
Kosovo is Serbia. Those words are embedded in the heart of every Serb I have ever met, and trust me, I have met many of them. To a Serb, Serbia is Kosovo – just as, to a Serb or any other Christian, the Gospel message is our Lord coming to Earth as a mortal man and Jesus Christ having risen from the dead.
Yet, because of George W’s love for the pseudo-religion, or rather, the expansionist totalitarian ideology, of Islam, George W recognized the claim of radical Mohammedans that Kosovo should be torn away from Serbia and placed under the rule of a criminal gang of thugs who were nothing less than the local branch of al Qaeda.
The Friend of Terrorists
Clearly, George W. Bush prefers Islam over Christianity. He prefers helping al Qaeda to honoring his oath of office and his pledge to uphold the Constitution. He is obviously working on behalf of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, both in the Israel and in the Balkans. In siding with terrorists, he has become one himself.
So, we must agree with our liberal friends on this one point – though our reasons are, of course, very different. We at 1389 Blog consider George W. Bush to be every bit as much a terrorist as those nineteen quasi-human wastes of protoplasm who flew hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
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Category Link: Articles by CzechRebel on 1389 Blog (Note: To page back through the archive of older articles in a category link, please scroll down and click the ← Previous Entrieslink at the bottom of the page.)
Thanx to the despicable Willie Cl*tman, who bombed the Christan Serbs in order to curry favor with Arab-Muhammedans, the Balkan-Mujaheddin will now move towards the final solutionFor now, we run these articles again:
Why are the Serbs - whom apart from the Jews were the major victims of the Holocaust during World War 2 - being cast as the perpetrators of genocide while the real perpetrators of genocide - the Islamofascists loyal to Alija Izetbegovic - are being cast by the corporate media, the US, NATO and EU governments as “the victims”?
Why was Naser Oric - the Islamofascist commander of Srebrenica and perpetrator of a massive genocide against Serbian men, women and children in Srebrenica from 1992 to 1995 - given only a 2 year sentence for this monumental crime against humanity and allowed to walk free from NATO’s Scheveningen ICTY prison: the former Nazi SS dungeon for patriotic Dutch resistance fighters against the Germans during World War 2 in The Hague, Holland?
‘I’m not sure whose side to root for in the ethnic Albanian, Kosovo-Serbia morass—there are killers on all sides—and today’s news from Kosovo leaves me with mixed feelings: Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.’
May as well join the Koz Kidz, Charles, what’s the difference?
If the Lizard King doesn’t know which way to root that means the Lizard Army is rooted, no?
A Lizard comment:
‘They seem to be very pro-America.’
America enabled them. Just because they wave American flags means exactly nothing. Now just go there and wave some Muhammad cartoons, and watch them love you…
Strong American support for the independence of Kosovo is detrimental to Israeli interests. The US position is based on the view that a solution to long-standing conflict can and should be imposed on the parties by outside powers. In addition, the new state’s creation seeks to award part of a nation’s territory to a violent ethno-religious minority; futilely hopes to curry favor with the Islamic world through appeasement; effectively gives a fresh impetus to the ongoing growth of Islamic influence in Europe; and denies the fact that the putative state’s leaders are tainted by terrorism, criminality, and well-documented links with global jihad. Most importantly, it betrays a cynically postmodern contempt for all claims based on the historical rights and spiritual significance of a land to a nation. (More…)
Balkans For Dummies— Or for Those of Us Deceived by the US Media
Part I – Divorce, Yugoslavian Style
By CzechRebel
It is about religion, stupid!
During the 1999 Kosovo War the media—inspired by the Clinton Administration was trying to convince the public that an ethnic struggle in Kosovo was pitting Serbs against Albanians. For reasons that no sane man can imagine Clinton and company had picked the Albanians over the Serbs and called in the Luftwaffe and other NATO air forces to bomb the Serbs.
But the news that actually came out of Kosovo made little, if any, sense. Newspaper would always feature a town where the Serbs and Albanians got along very well. Sometimes the Serbs would be offering their Albanian neighbors weapons to defend against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a bin-Laden-sponsored terrorist organization allied with the Clinton Administration. (In those, days most people had not heard of bin Laden and almost no one had ever heard of al Qaeda, so the media cheerfully endorsed American efforts to aid and abet them in their jihad against the Serbs.)
So, why would some Serbs and Albanians get along as great neighbors while other Albanians would join the KLA and fight against the same Serbs? It defied all ethnic analysis. So who are these people in the Balkans anyhow?
Let not pretend the author is familiar with every different subgroup in the Balkans, or even in Kosovo. However, it would be a good start to examine the major religions or the area.
The Jews
According to the Bible, God started his revelation to mankind through the Jews and so we shall start with them too. World War II was pretty rough on the Jews, but Hitler did miss a few. Not all of the Balkans Jews made it to Israel either, so we have a few over there. To our knowledge they are not much different than Jews the world over. Just remember that they are there for later reference.
The Early Church
If you read Romans 1:16, you will see that Paul admonished Christians to take the Gospel message to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. Some Bibles don’t translate it literally and use the word “Gentile” instead of “Greek.” However, one of the first major conversion stories taking place outside of the Greek-speaking world or Roman Empire was the mission to the Slavic people of Saints Cyril and Methodius. To this day, the alphabets used in Russian, Serbian and several other Slavic languages is known as the “Cyrillic” alphabet in honor of St. Cyril.
Today, the Early Church is commonly known as “Eastern Orthodoxy” or “Orthodox Christianity,” but if you think of it as anything other than the Early Church, you will have a lot of trouble understanding the Balkans. (We can understand if you would rather stay confused, you will be in good company.)
The Orthodox Church was the only major religion in the Balkans for many years. 98 percent of Greeks are Orthodox. Since the New Testament was written in Greek, it is pretty hard to argue that anyone else has a better “interpretation” Scripture than the Greeks. Nearly all Serbs who have any religion are Orthodox as well. It is also popular in Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia and other nations and provinces in the Balkans, including—believe it or not—Albania.
Now, nothing much has changed in Orthodox Church since the First Century. Yes, as of the Fourth Century they have a Bible in written form, and have been promoting lay reading of it every since. Yes, they have had several Church Counsels to clarify things, however, the core beliefs of the Orthodox Church are more or less the same as Roman Catholics and most Protestants. (It’s those details that split up Christianity much more so than core beliefs.)
The Roman Catholic Church
Until 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church considered the Roman Church to be just another Orthodox Church. True there were a number of disagreements on minor issues, but nothing major. If fact, the only issue that made the Great Schism a necessity is an issue of Church leadership. Our Roman Catholic brothers in Christ recognize the Bishop of Rome, as Pope and the earthly head of the Church. Our Eastern Orthodox brothers in Christ recognize Jesus Christ alone as only head of the Church, earthly or otherwise.
If you draw a line where the Roman Empire was divided at the time of Constantine, you will divide the Balkans between an area that is mostly Roman Catholic and one that is mostly Eastern Orthodox. (It is not an exact border, but it is pretty close.)
The Habsburg Empire, or Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was a dominant force in the Balkans until World War I, was heavily Roman Catholic. Italy, which has a history with Albania also has brought Roman Catholic influence to the Balkans.
Islam
During the time when the Eastern Roman Empire (a/k/a Byzantine Empire) was still a strong force in the Balkans, Christianity was the major religion. However, as the Turks invaded, they brought Islam into the area.
Until the 1990s, when Yugoslavia began to break up, few of us in the West realized how many Muslims lived in Europe. Most of these Muslims are ethnically European and speak the same languages as others in their locale, so it is hard to tell them from their Christian neighbors.
Others
While you can find outpost of Protestants, Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and the like most everywhere, we are not going to try to go into all the tiny minority faiths that exist in the Balkans.
Suffice it to say that there will not be many Protestants where there are few Roman Catholics. What so many people tend to forget—even those with fairly extensive religious training—is that there never was a Reformation in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The decentralized overall structure and organization of the Orthodox Church does not lend itself to the corruption that existed in the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. Besides, it is a little hard to tell someone that he should read the Bible and try to find something wrong with a Church that has always encouraged Bible reading and repentance.
We are not saying that no one in the Balkans ever leaves the Orthodox Church and becomes a Protestant, but is rare. Likewise, it is a rare event when someone leaves Islam for a Protestant faith, but that decision can be deadly as Islam endorses the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam for another faith.
Ethic Stripes Merge with Divisions of Faith
Who Are the Albanians?
No one is really sure. Some Albanians like to consider themselves descendants of an ancient people that were scorned in the ancient world. A group of illiterate, unruly and unkempt people known as the Illyrians lived in the Balkans during Greco-Roman times. We have no idea what happened to these people nor do we know much about them, as they left no written records. They could not; they had no written language.
We harbor no ill will for the Albanian people. We doubt that the Illyrians actually have any relationship to modern Albanians, and we believe that Albanians are insulting themselves when they look to the Illyrians as a source of heritage. (To any and all Albanian readers, no offense is intended!)
What we do know is that the Albanian language is unique. There is no similar language, which leaves scholars puzzled as to their origin.
The Communist regime in Albania was harsher than that of neighboring Communist Yugoslavia, and religion was ruthlessly suppressed. After so many years of Communist rule, it is difficult to say what percentage of Albanians have any religious faith. However, the majority of Albanians who are religious are Muslim. The next most common religion amongst the Albanians is Eastern Orthodoxy. The Albanian Orthodox Church is a fully autocephalous organization, which means that it is completely independent of (though in communion with) the other Orthodox Churches. The third most common is Roman Catholic. Before Communist domination, it was estimated that as many as 65 to 70 percent of Albanians many have been Muslim, as many as 20 to 25 percent Orthodox, and the remainder nearly all Roman Catholic.
Who are the Croats?
The Croats are Slavic people. Many of them sided with the Axis Powers during World War II, and Hitler helped establish the short-lived nation of Nazi Croatia. While it is a little-known fact that such a nation ever existed, we have met people who were born in Nazi Croatia. However, many Croatians bravely resisted Nazi occupation and who were some of the brave unsung heroes of World War II.
The Croats speak a Slavic language almost identical to Serbian. In fact, before the breakup of Yugoslavia, the two languages were considered one and called “Serbo-Croatian.” Religious Croats are almost all Roman Catholic.
Who are the Serbs?
The Serbs are also Slavic people with a long history of being different from the Croats. One theorist has even speculated that the Serbs and the Croats were two peoples from a different part the world who migrated to the Balkans in tandem, yet as distinct people. While the theory may be interesting, we have seen no evidence to show that they are any different than any other Slavic people who have descended from a common clan that once spoke a common language known as Slavonic.
The Serbs may speak almost exactly the same language as the Croats, but the Serbs use a Cyrillic alphabet much like that of the Russians, while the Croats use the same Latin alphabet as we do in English, with the addition of accent marks. (The Cyrillic alphabet may look a little cumbersome or intimidating at first glance, but if you ever study Slavic languages, you will quickly see that the Cyrillic alphabet works better for representing the sounds of Slavic languages.)
Notice a pattern here? Some Serbs and Albanians get along very well and all Serbs are—as some Albanians are—Eastern Orthodox. Gee, the Western media never connected the dots, but could it be that the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans get along with one another while the Muslims and Orthodox Christians do not?
Who are the Slovenians?
The Slovenians were the first who sought to break off ties with Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They are also a Slavic people and have traditionally been Roman Catholic.
Who are the Bosnians?
Trick question! Anyone who lives in Bosnia can call himself a Bosnian. It does not matter whether he is a Serb, a Croat of a Muslim. However, the Western media has led us to believe that only the Muslims of the Balkans are “Bosnians.” That is very misleading, because it gives the false impression that no one else belongs there! Bosnia is a place that is not named for any specific people.
OK, So Who Are These Bosnian Muslims?
For the most part, Bosnian Muslims are descended from Serbs who converted to Islam when the Turks ruled most of the Balkans. They tend to have very Serbian surnames and many of their customs are close to those of the Serbs. Bosnian Muslims speak the same language as do the Serbs and the Croats in Bosnia. One woman from Belgrade told us that, from their point of view, Bosnians all have the same accent. She likened it to the “Hillbilly accent” of Appalachia.
Another important ethnic group in the Balkans are the Roma people. We have called them “Gypsies” for centuries, but the conventional wisdom considers that word a pejorative. So, the common trend is to call them “Roma.” But that term is confusing for some; the natural reaction is to think or Rome and Italian people, or perhaps Romania, when we hear that word. (More on the origins of the Roma here.)
The Roma people are scattered throughout the Balkans and other parts of Europe. They blend in particularly well in Serbia and seem to be part of the Serbian landscape. (For instance, Marija Serifovic, the winner of the Eurovision 2007 song contest, is Roma.) But this is not the case where radical KLA Albanian Muslims have taken control. To them, the Roma, the Serbs and the Jews, or for that matter, anyone other than Albanian Muslims, might as well be one people.
Yes, there is a whole litany of other ethnic groups in the Balkans. In Yugoslavia alone there are a number of different remnants of earlier populations. For example, there are still Turks and Germans living there, as well as small distinct tribes, especially in the hill country, We cannot list them all, much less discuss them.
Why Did Yugoslavia Break Up?
The real question should be: why was Yugoslavia put together in the first place? Yugoslavia was an artificial country put together after World War I. It was much like Czechoslovakia. Neither country existed before the 20th century began, and neither was to survive the 20th century intact.
Slavs and Slaves
Both Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had another thing in common; the majority in both countries were Slavic people. Prior to World War I, the only two places in Europe where Slavic people had the opportunity to live without being under the rule of someone else’s major empire were Russia and Serbia. The rest were under foreign domination.
Slavic people did not enjoy a very good image in Western Europe and North America. To this day, we have Polish jokes as a remnant of days when all Slavic people where considered inferior.
How inferior where they? So inferior that the English word “slave” is based on the Slavic word “Slav.” It means glorious in most Slavic languages; however, in English and other western languages, it meant, “these people may have white skin, but they are only fit for use as human chattel.” (Very loose translation, but you get the drift.) The Serbs, for example where slaves to the Turks before Columbus sailed to America. Many remained in bondage to the Turks until the end of World War I. That is twice as long as any African people were enslaved in North America!
Serbia, being free for a number of years prior to World War I, was ready to have other Serbs who had been part of the Hapsburg and Ottoman Turkish empires to join them in their independent and self-governing nation. However, the victorious World War I Allies had considerable clout in the destiny of 20th Century European people. The Czechs, who longed for independence from the Hapsburg crown for centuries “decided” that they just love to share their newfound independence with their Slovak neighbors who had been in a similar situation. It made a lot of sense to their cultures and heritages were similar.
Serbs, Croats, Slavic peoples of Muslim faith, Slovenians and other Slavs living south of Hungary had less in common. However, they “decided” that a nice big Yugoslavia, a land of the southern Slavs, might be nicer than smaller independent Slavic nations, especially from the viewpoint of fending off foreign incursions. While past migrations and geography might have made it more difficult for those smaller nations to agree on their actual borders, the seeds of much future destruction were sown at that time.
Breaking Up Yugoslavia and Forming a New One
As soon as the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia during the Second World War, the glue that held the first Yugoslavia disappeared. Many Croats and nearly all of the Islamic people in Southern Europe sided with the Axis powers. Pro-Communist Partisans lead by Josip Broz Tito and anti-Communist Chetniks lead by Draza Mihailovich (please don’t confuse that name with the name Milosevic) made war against the Nazis, and sometimes each other, throughout the Balkans. In addition to their battlefield heroics, the Chetniks saved hundreds of downed Allied flyers including over 500 American airmen.
While the Partisans were Communists of every ethnic stripe, including many Serbs, the Chetniks were nearly 100% Serbian. To this day, Mihailovich’s status amongst Serbian Orthodox Christians, especially those living outside of Serbia, is nearly that of sainthood. Winston Churchill considers his worst mistake of the war was withdrawing his support from Mihailovich and giving it to Tito. After the war, Tito came to power, captured Mihailovic, tried him on some trumped-up charges, and had him executed. The West did nothing to support this hero who had saved so many American lives and who had also played a vital part in tying up the Nazi war machine.
But, after the war, Tito and company put together a new Yugoslavia. Tito felt that a strong Yugoslavia meant a weak Serbia and vice versa. So, Serbs were forced to hide their identity and call themselves “Yugoslavian.” Of course, under Communist rule, church involvement of any kind was discouraged. So, the Serbs were hit with a triple whammy. First, their beloved war hero was executed. Second, they were told not to call themselves “Serbs.” Finally, they were discouraged from participating in their Orthodox faith, which was part and parcel of their ethnic identity.
Many Croats needed to hide their former Nazi ties from the Tito government, but the U.S. spared any Nazi Croats in their custody, as they were consider necessary to help combat Communism. The other minorities were not as greatly affected after the war. So, the world got used to a mosaic Yugoslavia that made studying World War I history difficult, as hardly anyone knew where Serbia actually was.
The Tito Regime
While the hardcore Western position was “the only good Commie is a dead Commie,” there always seemed to be an exception for Yugoslavia. Maps of Europe divided nations into those aligned with the West and those aligned with the Communist bloc. There were two exceptions; Albania, considered to be aligned for a time with Communist China, and Yugoslavia, which was purported to be Communist but somehow neutral in the struggle between Washington and Moscow.
For decades, American folk propagandist Paul Harvey would sing the praises of Tito on a regular basis. Mr. Harvey claimed that Tito, and only Tito, had the wisdom to keep the ethnic peoples of living together in harmony. It is funny that Mr. Harvey did not have the same praises for Fidel Castro, who used some of the same brutal tactics that Tito employed. Perhaps Castro just wasn’t brutal enough of a dictator to make Mr. Harvey’s list of great leaders. Having interviewed a number of both Cuban expatriates (including former political prisoners of Castro) and immigrants from the Balkans who lived through the Tito era, Tito was far worse than Castro. Ever hear of Castro imprisoning someone for calling himself a “Cuban”? Well, if one of Tito’s people would have caught you describing yourself as “Serb,” a cell could very well have been waiting for you.
Death of Tito, Birth of Violence
It did not have to be that way, but too many outside forces wanted to take advantage of a post-Tito Yugoslavia. Seeds of discontent were sown everywhere in Yugoslavia. The Slovenians were the first to opt out of Yugoslavia. Located on extreme northeastern part of Yugoslavia, its geographic importance was minimal. However, it opened the door for a complete breakup of the entire Yugoslavian state.
In 1992, Bosnia became a hot spot. Unlike Slovenia, Bosnia was in the heart of Yugoslavia. While there was no clear majority, the Bosnian Muslims were a significant portion of the population. (Remember, these are descendants of members of other ethnic groups, primarily Serbs, who had long ago converted to Islam. So they look much like other European people.) The Serbs represented a significant portion of the population, as well. While the Croats were a smaller portion of the population, the were, however, much closer to the part of Yugoslavia that is now called “Croatia.” While their percentage of the population may have been the smallest, they lived closer to the “center of gravity” of their own ethnic group than did the Serbs. Unfortunately, too many Serbs living in Serbia tended to look down on all residents of Bosnia, including their Serbian cousins, in much the same was as too many Americans belittle Appalachian-Americans - as merely a bunch of “Hillbillies.”
Well-organized Muslim propaganda bombarded the West while Roman Catholics Croats, Eastern Orthodox Serbs and Muslims fought a three-way religious war against each other. American, being a land that has grown weak in faith, was quick to see it as an ethnic struggle. Since the Croats had some Roman Catholic support—including a fake appearance of the Virgin Mary—they were able to create some positive propaganda of their own. The Serbs, having few fellow Orthodox Christians in the West, very little money to invest in promoting their own image, and only moderate support from Serbia proper, got almost no sympathy in the West.
That Cyrillic alphabet did not help either. Too many of us remember seeing Cyrillic letters on Russian signs during the Cold War, and we still don’t get warm fuzzy feelings when we see any people using a similar alphabet now.
Ending the War in Bosnia
In 1995, the Dayton Accords were signed creating two new entities, a Republic for Bosnian Serbs and a new country for both Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats - not as independent states, but as parts of yet another artificial, foreign-imposed federation. Neither the Muslims, nor the Roman Catholic Croats were too happy about having the same country, but after three years of a three-way war, it was about the best they could hope for. Not everyone is too happy with the Bosnian Serbian Republic either, as it has been forbidden to join the rest of Serbia.
The man the West considered instrumental in shaping the Dayton Accords was Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic. Funny, how quickly the US turns on its friends. Not that we are equating the two, but remember what happened to Draza Mihailovich?
Wrapping Things Up
Hopefully, this will clear up some of the confusion about the Balkans. This is only Part I. We will continue. In future articles, we plan to address the Kosovo War, early Balkans History and other issues. We will read all feedback and may tailor future articles to what we read in that feedback.
That said, be advised that we do moderate comments and we do enforce our comment policy. So if your purpose in commenting is to hate on the Serbs, the Jews, the 1389 Blog team, or anybody else, your comments will not be put on public display - and don’t expect us to waste our time explaining why!
If this article seems a little one-sided and simplistic, GOOD! What you have heard about the Balkans in the American media has been extremely pro-Muslim and made to seem overly complicated. Had the truth been known, American foreign policy relating to the Balkans would have been considerably different for the past 60 or even 70 years. Learn the truth and spread it. It is never too late to change course.
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Bill Clinton is responsible for the murder of countless civilians. His administration, the biased media, and the liberal left have hidden this fact from the American people. The shameful attack on Kosovo is one of the most important - yet least understood - events in modern Jihad. It is imperative that the truth is exposed.
The video below talks about the Clinton lies in regard to the Kosovo War. The first 2 minutes and 25 seconds are about Jesse Jackson receiving the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, and second only to the Medal of Honor. After that, Savage disputes all the lies the Clinton Administration told about the Kosovo War:
More on the Kosovo War and Clinton Lies:
Mr. Clinton says he wants peace through war, and has attacked a nation that is no threat to America or to any of its neighbors. The conflict in Kosovo has arisen because Slobodan Milosevic (like Joseph Tito before him) failed to secure Yugoslavia’s border with Albania. The resulting strife helped each of them centralize power. Worse than the deliberate obscuring of facts about the history of this conflict is that NATO’s attack has silenced the democratic critics of Milosevic and caused all Serbians (and increasingly, all Slavs) to rally to the defense of their embattled nation.
From 1960-90 Tito turned a blind eye as an influx of Albanians drove Serbs from Kosovo. The immigration was pushed by the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha that had reduced Albania to current penury and made it a pariah among nations. Since Hoxha, Albania has lacked government in any real sense. The main powers there have been the Saudis and Iranians. Its economy has consisted of arms and drug smuggling and a series of ruinous pyramid schemes and lotteries. This sordid history is available but ignored by major western media and governments who have abandoned national interests for a global agenda that finds ready allies in radical and expansionist Islam.
Do the Clintons - or someone working on their behalf - also pay “trolls” to disrupt the activities of legitimate bloggers who raise issues that could make the Clintons look bad?
Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, is substantially correct, but I would go much further and say that there was no justification for the anti-Serb policy even during the Milosevic era.
And to all those who dare to claim that Kosovo “independence” is inevitable, I have this to say:
NO WAY! The Albanians in Kosovo are mostly not native to the province, having infiltrated and/or invaded from Albania at various times during the past century - most notably by having participated in the Nazi occupation of Serbia.
To allow them to remain in Kosovo is to ratify and to reward the evil deeds of the Third Reich and of the Communist regime that followed.
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