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"Clinton is going to discover, like Hitler, that he can occupy Serbia but that he cannot subdue the Serbian people."

Are we really so far removed
from dark days of World War II?

The Orlando Sentinel
April 15, 1999

Let me tell you about something that happened back in the dark days of World War II.

The German army, in 1941, stood astride of Europe, having defeated or compelled the surrender of every nation. From the borders of Russia to the Atlantic, from the English Channel and North Sea to the Mediterranean, the German war machine stood victorious.

It is no surprise then that when that machine rolled into Yugoslavia, the government surrendered. There was no chance to win a fight. Croatia became an enthusiastic fascist state and set up its own concentration camps to slaughter Jews and Serbs. Albania had joined the fascists and sent a division into Kosovo, where, at that time, Serbs were a huge majority. About 140,000 Serbs were killed.

The Bosnian Muslims, including their present leader, enthusiastically formed a Waffen SS Division.

So what did the Serbs do? Well, that's the magic. Within a few days after the Yugoslavian government surrendered, the Serb people rose up, overthrew that government and told Hitler's legions in effect, "No, hell, we don't surrender."
The above photograph is from
"Partisans and Guerrillas,"
Time-Life Books, series on World War II,
Edition 1978, page 85.

Our comment: Hitler crushed entire Europe by September 1941. His troops were rushing toward Moscow seemingly invincible. At this, very moment as he was on the very the peek of power, Hitler was defeated by the Serbs. Just look what united Serbs could do! Entire Montenegro and most of central Serbia was liberated! This kind of scene could not be seen anywhere else in the world in 1941: long column of defeated, captured German Nazi soldiers.

The prisoners are escorted through Uzice, central Serbia, by two anti-fascist Serbian guerrilla groups - Partisans and Chetniks - who at that time cooperated against the Nazi intruder.

This is one of the noblest examples of human courage in history. Here was a people hopelessly outnumbered who nevertheless preferred to die than to surrender. More than a million did die, but they fought the Germans so fiercely that the German invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed. Hitler later blamed his defeat by the Russians on this delay.

It is shameful, in my opinion, that the United States, in its postwar decline, led by sleazy people, is attacking the Serbs, who fought with us as allies, to assist people who fought against us as Nazi allies.

And it is moronic that people in Washington supposed that the Serbs, who defied the German war machine, would collapse and tremble at the feet of someone whose ill-planned, poorly thought- out campaign has already led to a human disaster for the very people he said it was designed to save.

And make no mistake, this president, famous for his bad judgment, by rejecting any compromise is committing the United States to ground war in the Balkans. The idea that this man, who spoke of loathing the U.S. military and who cowardly avoided the draft, is now willing to put American troops into war against a former ally is really disgusting.

Clinton is going to discover, like Hitler, that he can occupy Serbia but that he cannot subdue the Serbian people.

The American people should wake up and decide how many of their sons and daughters they wish to sacrifice for the sake of Albania, once a fascist state, once the most Stalinist of the communist states and currently the most corrupt and incompetent of the former communist states.

When Clinton sends troops into Yugoslavia it will be pointless to talk about an exit strategy. There won't be one. There isn't even one for the American troops stuck in Bosnia. North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials have said they will be there at least another five years.

Americans should also remember that not one single European leader in 1914 intended to start a world war. They simply found themselves trapped in a chain of actions and reactions and ended up in a situation not a single one of them had intended or wanted.

Clinton, accustomed to cheap, small-state hustling, is clearly out of his depth. He is playing a dangerous game and isn't sane enough to realize just how dangerous it is. Beware of God's ironic sense of humor. The century started with a world war ignited in the Balkans.

Let's pray it doesn't end the same way.

End quote.

Consider History Before We March Into Kosovo

by Don Feder
April 18, 1999

Excerpt:

... Clinton demonstrated his keen understanding of the Balkans when he told an audience that both world wars started there -- doubtless after Poland became loose from its moorings and drifted south.

Among the many things the president does not understand is the Serbs' determination. More than 400 years of being subjugated and slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks hardened their resolve and gave them a fatalistic outlook.

After the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary gave the Serbs an ultimatum. They ignored it. Austria shelled Belgrade and occupied the city for most of World War I.

That didn't stop the Serbs, who sacrificed 52 percent of their adult male population fighting the Central Powers.

In 1941, Adolf Hitler gave the Serbs an ultimatum. They responded by declaring war on the Third Reich. The Nazis bombed Belgrade and 17,000 died. Serb partisans tied down 37 German divisions and inflicted 700,000 casualties. In turn, the Serbs lost 1.7 million, including hundreds of thousands killed by Croat Nazis and Bosnian Muslims.

And now Clinton thinks Milosevic will throw up his hands after a few weeks of NATO bombing runs. But then, the president is used to dealing with Republicans.

When he at last realizes that the air war has failed, Clinton will reluctantly allow Republicans like Sen. John McCain to persuade him to send in the troops.

Blood and Guts Bill is hoping a ground war will be a reprise of Desert Storm. Albright forgot to tell him there's no sand in Kosovo, just lots of forests, mountains and boulders -- tough terrain to fight over.

The Yugoslav army includes 75,000 regulars and 150,000 reservists. Unlike Iraq's Republican Guard, they are highly motivated.

The Serbs are fortifying their positions in the province and moving in howitzers, tanks and other heavy equipment. If they are defeated in open battle, the Serbs are prepared to fade into the mountains and fight a guerrilla war, as they did from 1941 to 1945.

Why are we so eager to add our blood to that sodden soil? To stop a "humanitarian disaster"?

But the New World Order gang is indifferent to ethnic cleansing in the Sudan (which makes Kosovo look like a debutantes' ball), likewise the mound of skulls that resulted from tribal cleansing in Rwanda.

While NATO bombers roared through the night sky over Belgrade last week, Clinton feted Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji. What does he think Beijing is doing in Tibet, celebrating diversity?

Are we willing to recreate the Tet Offensive so Kosovar Albanians can have autonomy? An autonomous Kosovo would be dominated by the Kosovo Liberation Army, which former Secretary of State Alexander Haig calls "a gaggle of drug-dealing fundamentalist Marxist goons."

When Croatia and Bosnia declared their independence in 1991-92, local Serbs wanted a little autonomy of their own. The West flatly rejected that appeal. Constituting 75 percent of the Krajina region of Croatia didn't help the Serbs in the least.

During the war that ensued, 1.2 million Serbs were forced from their homes. Despite the presence of 30,000 NATO peacekeepers, no effort has been made to repatriate these refugees. Their haggard faces did not appear on the nightly news.

Not only is Kosovo the Serbs' historic homeland, the local Serbian minority was badly mistreated by Albanians both during and after Tito. In 1989, frail, elderly Patriarch Pavel, then bishop of Kosovo, was nearly beaten to death by Albanian youths in the streets of Pristina.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission found the Kosovo Liberation Army responsible for its share of mass graves. Will the addition of American headstones help the Serbs and Albanians buried there rest more peacefully?

Before we march into hell for a dubious cause, I trust the commander in chief will address the troops, telling them that just as he answered his country's call to duty in the '60s, he's asking them to sacrifice now, while in the background the Marine Corps band plays Phil Ochs' "The Draftdodger's Rag."

End quote.

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First posted: November 24, 2006