The recent conflict with Yugoslavia disturbed me greatly. The United States had no business getting involved with this whole mess. Let me give you a little historical perspective. The Balkans have had ethnic tensions and problems for about the past thousand years. These ethnic groups have NEVER been able to get along. After World War II, when this region fell under the control of the Soviets, it was led by Tito, an enigmatic leader who is still popular to this day. Tito basically did his own thing, even though he was supposed to answer to Russia. But because he ran Yugoslavia so well, the Soviets basically left him alone. In fact, Yugoslavia at this time was the most efficient of the Eastern European countries. Tito even managed to sort out this ethnicity problem, and people lived relatively harmoniously for the first time in a long time.Well, fast forward to the beginning of the 1990's. Communism collapses, democracy wins, everyone's happy, right? Wrong. America, thinking once again that it can solve all the world's problems, recognizes the individual provinces of the former Yugoslavia as soveriegn nations in their own right, EACH ENTITLED TO AUTONOMY. In plain english, this means we're gonna go bomb anyone who infringes on another territory. This was a bad mistake for a number of reasons. By establishing clearly defined borders, tensions began to flare again for these ethnic groups. If they had just stayed "Yugoslavia", a lot of this crap wouldn't even be happening! This is simplifying things greatly, but I ain't no history professor, alright?
I thought it was especially hilarious that the U.S. played "Yugoslavia" in the World Cup last year when we don't even recognize that as a country. Or maybe my sense of humor is weird.
Anyway, to sum it all up, the U.S. needs to keep their nose out of other people's business. We are not the world police, and no one WANTS us to be the world police. This is not another Hitler-type situation. If it was that would be different. And for the U.S. to hide behind the mask of NATO is even more disgusting. NATO wouldn't be supporting this if the U.S. didn't want it. It's not like France has a big beef with Milosevic. We are already the most hated country in the world, and this doesn't help matters much.
UPDATE 7/26/99...I got an email the other day from someone from Belgrade who is currently living in the United States. His views on this topic are pretty interesting, and I'd like to share them with you:Couple of thing about old Yugoslavia. I was born in 1980 - the year Tito died. He was a very controversial man, although the whole country loved him, and i mean REALLY loved him the tools that he used to fight his opponents could hardly be described as gentle ones. He surpressed all religious beliefs (it was almost illegal to practice any religious customs). Another interesting thing is... all the borders right now were set by him to be the state borders in old Yugoslavia... right now they are all separate countries. As you said old Yugoslavia was one of the most progressive countries in the world. Its military was the 4th in Europe, the tourism was blooming, industry too - Yugo , ha ? :)
I heard Clinton talking during the bombing that Europe has to be united and that Milosevic's nationalism is what caused the end of Yugoslavia. That is the biggest bull I've ever heard. I hate Milosevic, I wish someone could assassinate him ( 90% of Belgrade feels the same way too, but 100% think that Clinton and Bush should be killed too ). The USA and western european countries ( and especially Germany ) helped EVERY separatist movement in Yugoslavia, and I am pretty sure that without their involvement Yugoslavia would still be together. Well all of the leaders of former Yugoslav states right now were once in Tito's communist party and that tells a lot about their loyality and personality... When Slovenia declared independence the only country that recognized their independence at first was Germany - Slovenia was their ally during WW2 , and Hitler was cheered in Ljubljana - the capital of Slovenia. It was similar with Croatia ( Ustashe were Nazi movement during WW2 that killed as many as 1,000,000 Serbs in concentration camps ) . A lot of that was back during the war with the Serbs in Croatia , and it is very interesting that NATO didnt seem to notice that the fleeing of 600,000 Serbs from Croatia to Bosnia and Serbia could also be called ethnic cleansing or exodus (the words that have been used to describe MOST of the Serbs during the Kosovo thing). Au contraire , western countries helped Croats and NATO bombed some of the Serbian defense back then too. If the Serbs wanted to get brutal they could have conquered Croatia in a few days - the Serbs from Croatia didn't receive almost any help from Serbs in Serbia. The similar thing happened in Bosnia, massacres and killings on both sides, but why did the Serbs kill more Muslims? because they could. If Muslims had the weapons they would go to conquer London. It's not that the Serbs were suddenly violent , those 2 nations lived together for 50 years. How can one side suddenly be aggressive and violent and the other peaceful ? Anyways, after that... 2 lost war in Bosnia, and Croatia( crisis in Slovenia was only couple of days long), Yugoslav economy back to zero. Milosevic's popularity in Serbia was dangerously decreased. He was never popular among educated people, he never had the majority in Belgrade (where most educated people are) and the protests and demonstrations began in 96. They were organized by students from Belgrade Universities and lasted about 4 months (the longest demonstrations ever), about 100,000 were walking down the streets, daily, some times that number was up to 500,000. Most of the schools didnt work , Belgrade and all major cities were in chaos. Of course, police tried to fight the demonstrators, most of them were sent to jail. My parents were involved in the demonstrations too... But anyway it was the first chance ever for Serbia to get rid of Milosevic's mafia (yes, it is a mafia - I have a lot of proofs for that) and the only time Serbian opposition was together with one goal - get rid of lunatic. And you know what happened ... none of the western countries supported demonstrants one penny!
Simple conclusion ... Milosevic is USA's man! And they can talk whatever they want about him being Hitler... the only reason he is still in charge is because of the USA and western countries actions over there. They never wanted him to be off his throne!
OK, I probably didnt make my points in most of the things I wrote but I just got up so thats kinda like an excuse... and trust me, my father has been very close to Milosevic's people and he knows a lot more than you and me do... he was offered a position in Milosevic's party, a new appartement, a car... he refused it ... he doesnt have a job right now!
Well hope I told you something you didnt know :)Milos