Space Tycoon
03-11-2006, 06:49 AM
I can't say I shed any tears for the bastard... (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4796470.stm)
Just to add something here. There's a lesson here, for those who advocate "striking hard" against "Islamic Fundamentalists" and "terrorists." No-one struck harder than Slobodan against these forces, and he still lost. Not only the war, but he lost the support and respect of his people.
We haven't discussed the Balkan Wars much here. It is not a subject that lends itself to compromise or easy generalizations. At the time, I was very much in favour of the UN bombing campaign against Serbia. Looking back, I have had the occasional second thought. I don't like being ambivalent about a given issue. It bothers me. I prefer to take one side or another, and defend it. But who are the goodguys here? Everyone was killing and evicting everyone else over there. The Serbs simply did it better than everyone else.
While we certainly prevented further genocide against Albanian Muslims, what has really been accomplished since then? Kosovo is a nightmare right now. Serbia is still shattered. And while we are all very proud of our moral victory in Yugoslavia, the same damn thing goes on in the Caucasus while we do nothing.
I guess this is another example of the US winning the war, but losing the peace. al-Qaeda and other criminals have established a presence in Kosovo, raising fears of mass-casualty terrorism in the Balkans which could reignite another war in what has been called the "powderkeg of Europe." There are still a lot of Serbs who will defend Milosevic, and who even deny war crimes took place. This isn't that far removed from Holocaust denial, imo.
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Just to add something here. There's a lesson here, for those who advocate "striking hard" against "Islamic Fundamentalists" and "terrorists." No-one struck harder than Slobodan against these forces, and he still lost. Not only the war, but he lost the support and respect of his people.
We haven't discussed the Balkan Wars much here. It is not a subject that lends itself to compromise or easy generalizations. At the time, I was very much in favour of the UN bombing campaign against Serbia. Looking back, I have had the occasional second thought. I don't like being ambivalent about a given issue. It bothers me. I prefer to take one side or another, and defend it. But who are the goodguys here? Everyone was killing and evicting everyone else over there. The Serbs simply did it better than everyone else.
While we certainly prevented further genocide against Albanian Muslims, what has really been accomplished since then? Kosovo is a nightmare right now. Serbia is still shattered. And while we are all very proud of our moral victory in Yugoslavia, the same damn thing goes on in the Caucasus while we do nothing.
I guess this is another example of the US winning the war, but losing the peace. al-Qaeda and other criminals have established a presence in Kosovo, raising fears of mass-casualty terrorism in the Balkans which could reignite another war in what has been called the "powderkeg of Europe." There are still a lot of Serbs who will defend Milosevic, and who even deny war crimes took place. This isn't that far removed from Holocaust denial, imo.
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