At the end of 2004, omens for the following year in the Balkans were bad. Spurred by the U.S. presidential campaign, the March pogrom of Serbs in Kosovo, and the increasingly abundant signs that the short, victorious war in Iraq was neither, the Empire turned its eye back to its Balkans "success" story. The triumph of Bush II in the November poll suggested for a moment that in 2005 things might work differently; that the Clintonian legacy of "nation-building" embraced by John Kerry was defeated.
A "New" Policy
It was not to be. Shortly after Bush’s second inauguration, the Balkanists in Washington launched a campaign to "finish the job." In the forefront was the International Crisis Group, with a report advocating the independence of Albanian-occupied Kosovo; the tune was picked up by legions of editorialists, lobbyists, and "analysts" all over the West.
Support for the ICG’s agenda grew stronger and louder as the year wore on. By April, former Kerry adviser and Clinton Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke resurfaced from obscurity to cheer the "new" direction Washington’s policy was taking. When the State Department finally announced its Balkans policy in mid-May, it was a copy-paste job from ICG reports and editorials. The job of overseeing its implementation was given to the Clinton-era Foggy Bottom spokesman, Nicholas Burns. After several months of preparatory propaganda, Washington swung into action in October, with the 10th anniversary of the Dayton Accords approaching…
Anniversaries
Many landmark events in the Balkans had their anniversaries in 2005. March was the sixth year since the NATO assault on Serbia and its occupation of Kosovo on behalf of the Albanian KLA. October was the fifth anniversary of the "revolution" in Serbia, financed and organized by the Empire.
In July, a propaganda frenzy preceded a media spectacle dedicated to a day 10 years ago when the city of Srebrenica surrendered to Bosnian Serb troops. Through relentless propaganda efforts, "Srebrenica" has become a synonym for "genocide," as Serbs stand accused of killing some 7,000 Muslim men – military personnel who refused to surrender – who fled the town. The fact that they gave safe passage, food, and water to the women and children left behind – hardly a hallmark of "genocide" – is ignored.
So is the real genocide that took place in the Balkans during World War Two, under the aegis of the "Independent State of Croatia" (NDH) and its sponsor, the Third Reich. In April 1945, hundreds of surviving prisoners staged a breakout from the notorious concentration camp of Jasenovac; of the 700 who set out, only 80 made it. The purpose of Jasenovac, along with the rest of camps and execution grounds in Nazi Croatia, was to kill not only Jews, but some 2 million Serbs within the NDH’s borders.
Today, the Empire invokes World War Two as its source of legitimacy, but resents and suppresses the inconvenient truths about it. Only the fictionalized "history" of WW2 makes it possible for Imperial propaganda to paint Serbs as Nazis, even as Washington’s staunchest allies in Europe are precisely the nations that were once allied with the Reich – whether out of political expediency or conscious choice.
This is why the 10th anniversary of "Operation Storm," which resulted in the expulsion or death of the remaining Serbs within modern Croatia’s boundaries, received little or no media attention in the West.
Promises and Threats
After years of direct threats and pressure produced defiance and resentment, the Empire changed tactics in 2005. There were still plenty of threats, but they were disguised as promises and "incentives," mostly concerning the (only theoretically, and remotely at that) possible membership of Balkans countries in the European Union and NATO. Vassal governments of the Balkans quickly outdid each other in groveling before Washington and – especially – Brussels. Particularly noxious examples of this have been the president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, and the foreign minister of its dysfunctional union with Montenegro, Vuk Draskovic.
Meanwhile, the "International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia" (ICTY) grew further into its role of the designated heavy. Although entirely unable to prove any of its sweeping charges against Slobodan Milosevic and the government of Serbia – whom it blames for starting all the Yugoslav wars and holds responsible for all the atrocities (real or imagined) that took place – the Hague Inquisitors have continued their pretense of serving justice by issuing more indictments.
In March, it accused Rasim Delic, former commander of the Bosnian Muslim army, for the atrocities committed by Islamic mujahedin against Serb civilians and POWs. Next up was Ramush Haradinaj, then "prime minister" of occupied Kosovo. In December, the Inquisitors finally captured Ante Gotovina, a Croatian general they hold responsible for war crimes during "Operation Storm." On the other hand, Delic’s predecessor, Sefer Halilovic, was acquitted during his "trial." So were two of Haradinaj’s henchmen, charged with running a torture camp. Haradinaj himself was released months ago, and was almost given permission to return to politics.
The greatest trick the Empire ever pulled in the Balkans was convincing its feuding nations it was on their side. In truth, though it sometimes tends to play favorites, the Empire has no friends, only servants and victims.
Enemies Within
Servants, unfortunately, it has aplenty. In Bosnia, it counts on Muslim nationalists who desire a centralized state they can dominate. In Kosovo, it is the independence-seeking Albanians. In Serbia, it draws them from the ranks of old Communists, who have now re-imagined themselves "democrats" and champions of "human rights," and sometimes even boast of their Jacobin heritage.
These "globalists," catapulted to positions of power and influence after the October 2000 coup, have thoroughly infiltrated both the media and the government. On the media end, the "human rights" advocates have shown themselves little more than peddlers of atrocity porn on behalf of their paymasters. Empire’s loyalists in the government are working on destroying all the remaining vestiges of liberty and independence. Today, they allow NATO free passage across Serbian territory; tomorrow, they will make sure there is much less of that territory the Alliance will have to traverse.
What Nightmares May Come
In this climate of propaganda, threats, empty promises, and quisling-dominated public discourse, the Empire set its "new" policy in motion. In mid-October, Nicholas Burns visited Sarajevo and spelled out that Washington really wanted Bosnia to be a "single, unitary state." Much centralization has already been implemented, thanks in no small part to viceroy Ashdown, who forced it onto the people of Bosnia (mostly Serbs, but also the reluctant and dwindling Croats) again and again. In November, on the anniversary of the Dayton Accords, Bosnian political leaders were "persuaded" to sign an open-ended document agreeing with further centralization.
On the southern front, the UN rubber-stamped the start of "final status" negotiations of Kosovo, and the Empire appointed Martti Ahtisaari of Finland to be the chief negotiator. The old Finn is a reliable trickster in Imperial service, partly responsible for the deal that enabled the 1999 occupation of Kosovo in the first place. He afterwards served as a board member for the ICG. It isn’t exactly hard to foresee the way in which the "negotiations" might run with him in charge. During 2005, Kosovo was sliding toward separation; in 2006, the Empire will try to make it final.
Under Imperial "peace," the Balkans has come to exist in a dimension of permanent twilight, where the bizarre, the absurd, and the farcical constitute everyday reality. Like the final death tolls of the Bosnian War, the truth is bent and twisted to serve political ends. For the Empire, there is no reality apart from what it creates, by force, and seeks to impose on everyone.
Whether real or imagined, the triumph of interventionism in the Balkans, which is a source of great pride to imperialists, has had a very tangible price. Not just in lives and property destroyed in its wake, but in the final demise of the American Republic, and its replacement by the American Empire.
