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The Serb Position (Ronald Hilton, USA, 03/27/99 2:49 am)
The Kosovo situation is seen through colored spectacles, either ethnic
or partisan (in this country, mostly Democrat or Republican). The post
of Hoover Archivist, now held by Elena Danielson, was once held by a
naturalized Serb, Milorad Draskovich. A very able and attractive person,
but he saw things through Serbian glasses.
At about the same
time, a Serbia specialist, Alex Dragnich, was a visiting scholar at
Hoover. An American of Serbian family, he too was extremely pleasant
and scholarly, known as a top specialist on Serbia. He had served
with the State Department in Belgrade. His hoped-for permanent
appointment at Hoover did not materialize. I suspect the feeling was
that Hoover was becoming too Serb-heavy. He returned to Vanderbilt, and
retired some years ago.
Now he has popped up again, and his
books are in demand. He expounds the Serb position mostly to pro-Serb
audiences. I was delighted to see him after all these years, wizened
but still vigorous. His position is that Milosevich is the villain,
but that U.S. policy is a mistake.
Several non-Serb WAISers, including John Wonder, take the same position. Tom Moore of the Hoover Institution writes:
"Of course, Milosevich is a monster, and should be tried as a war
criminal, but that does not make our policy sensible. We should never
have threatened to bomb Serbia if it did not agree to our terms.
Consequently we are bombing but bombing has never been successful by
itself. In Bosnia Milosevich agreed to Dayton because they were
beginning to lose the war with the Croatia. We have tried to change
Iraq by bombing without any noticeable success.
Bombing does
have the effect of making the people of Serbia rally round its
government and Milosevich. Even those who don't like him will support
him against the agressor -- the United States and NATO. Rather than hurt
Milosevich, we have strengthened his hold on power.
As a
consequence we are acting as the airforce for the Kosovars. At the best
we may wind up with any independent Kosovo, which we don't want. More
likely is the Serbs will continue to ethnic-cleanse Kosovo and drive its
people out into nearby countries, which will also be disastrous."
My comment: I can only say what Julius Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon: "Alea jacta est."
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