Such an outrageous display of virulent nationalism as we have seen today makes me ashamed for every time I defended the Serbs going all the way back 1991. While I have been careful to balance my position on Kosovo’s independence over the past week, I can no longer hold my tongue. The Serbs who have attacked the US embassy in Belgrade are manifesting a form of nationalism which I can only describe as pitiable.
This once proud nation has fallen behind the curve of history. Such chest-thumping nationalism in the Europe of Regions smacks of medieval backwardness. Let the Kosovars and their lignite mines go. Serbia has other more precious resources to protect. Why preserve the Field of Kosovo? To remember the loss to the Turk? Again, such backward-looking nationalism not befitting the once and future great power of the Balkans.
Why do the Serbs blame America for their loss of Kosovo? Thousands of cascading decisions led the country to this point—no small number of which were made in Belgrade, Brussels, London, and Berlin. Burning the US embassy will do nothing to reverse that long trend line.
I take back my defense of Serbia as more ready to join the EU than Croatia. I take back my defense of Serbia as the victim of a neo-liberal war of attrition in the 1990s. I take back my defense of Serbia as a misunderstood and wronged nation. Those rioters have made it clear that we in the West have often understood Serbia and sometimes Serbia is simply wrong.
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19 comments:
If they were immigrant youth in Paris, would it be more engaging? Would there be a trangressive hipness that somehow isn't applicable to dirty chetniks?
Not wishing to appear defensive, I am curious about what your response was to the WTO demonstrations, the popular disturbances that erupted throughout the Middle East in the aftermath of the Dutch political cartoons, etc? Do you wish to retract that as well?
My reaction is twofold. That one thousand people participated in the attack of the embassy is very worrisome. That 150,000 people demonstrated peacefully is a good sign: I've seen demonstrations nearly ten times bigger than that protesting gay marriage or the Iraq war in Madrid. Putting it in perspective, remember the hundreds of thousands that mourned Djindjic in 2003, or that staged weeks of pro-democracy protests in the late 90s.
I don't think this is either about Kosova, the EU, or The Hague. It is tragically difficult to coexist after a civil war, or to stamp out nationalism. It takes at least a generation.
Robert has had very similar reactions to the other riots (Paris, cartoons) you have mentioned. On this point, his record is nothing if not consistent.
Mr. Diaz, I appreciated your remarks about the context in Beograd, especially with an eye towards perspective of those utilized violence agon those simply demonstrating. Following your subsequent cue, were the marginalized in France in the wrong ONLY by taking the streets? Or ihat it more likely the "lawless" behavior i.e the arson confrontations with the police etc? I fit is indeed the intensity, then there is accord. i share such belief.
-- However --
It did appear that Mr. Saunders was appearing a wee much inclusive in his stated reversal of position; somehow this incident yields an implacable unsavory verdict on Serbia and its wayward people
God knows I love consistancy with regards to records!
I am intolerant of all the violent protests you mention. I am so outspoken on this instance because I feel betrayed—not by the “dirty chetniks” you obliquely reference in your first post, but by the very Serbs who toppled Milosevic and tried to take their country in the right direction. They have allowed this to occur. Kostunica included—he is smiling as his country and the US embassy burns. And yes, I do take this personally. As you Mr. Faith are connected to Serbia, so am I. However, my connection grew a bit gossamer today as I watched the sanctity of the US embassy violated and then learned that someone inside has burnt to a crisp because of nationalism in Europe—a Europe that was supposed to be beyond this. I will thank you to call me Robert or Dr. Saunders—Mr. Saunders is my father.
Rereading all yet posted, I hazard a concern that I waspotentially (over) zealous -- perhaps miffed that all the world's denizens don't send an envoy to Davos. That's how affairs are concluded, no?
Oh, fuck your "sanctity".
I have meant no malice, just awe that you peddle an alleged advance upon events. I am beyond my means this evening (pivo) to contemplate the very affairs and sequence of structure but, in response, I consider myself rather Jeffersonian in the light that these strangely sterile spectacles (there were no Marines posted since the "handover" nor was the compound representively staffed) are good for the collective digestion of meta-states and our gold-standard goodwill.
It must have been in 2005, perhaps 2006 when I was first taken to the "Skeppet Vasa" (Vasa Ship) Museum in Stockholm by my Swedish sambo. I freely admit that as much a Europhile as I style myself, I am certainly stuck in a certain "bandwidth normal" of the middle range of Rumsfeld's "Old Europe." That said, I knew that my intimate guide was recounting the story, and I was touring a magnificent and meticulous restoration (physical, cultural, and otherwise), of Sweden's greatest naval gaffe. A tremendously top-heavy ship - commissioned by Gustavus Adolphus and burdened by too much gold-leaf and fusillade and lacking in sufficient ballast - that sank only minutes into the meager depths of the archipelago. Not for nothing, the ship was commissioned and rushed into service because the great king wanted it to join his Baltic fleet and pressed into the Thirty Years' War. The conflict where "national" concerns first eclipsed other communal bonds in the Europe of yore and dewy-eyed (early?) modernism.
Who is to say what it is that stirs that most “ancient” of modern concerns – nationalism. It’s been asked why pursue, why preserve the Kosovo Polje (I actually like “Field of the Blackbirds”) – well, why not? Does not defeat, does not the struggle also remind, often as much as victory? What of the Alamo or am I being too facetious? After all if all the issues raised in the self-produced John Wayne were resolved then he wouldn’t have blown up the chapel/hospital for the wounded as his final Davy Crockett act. But the issue that seems central to the original note here is “Why the US?” No doubt the cesarean birth of independent Kosovo has been managed by a thousand cuts and the most important of them likely came from Germany – rather than the US – with that nation’s recognition of Croatia and Slovenia in the early 1990s while pressuring the rest of the EU, on either side of the fresh minting of the Maastricht Treaty, to do the same. I understand that such a reference might first seem on the shoulder of the outside, but was it not the “favorable” response of/from the EU that pushed the separatist political urges of (a disintegrating) Yugoslavia? And no doubt it has been the EU who – taking a page from the US in state-building and the spread of “democracy” – has been pushing for recognition of an independent Republic of Kosovo in violation of UN Resolution 1244, but their army comes armed with squared pocket kerchiefs and briefcases rather than humvees and machine guns. In other words, do you wave flags against Germany since it has been locked in the cage of Europe (to paraphrase de Gaulle) - Who takes issue with the accountant really? It was the US who, under the Butcher of Belgrade – Wesley Clark – that bombed the Chinese Embassy, a primary school, and lord knows what else. The EU might have offered velvet while cutting with a scalpel but it was the US who provided the hammer and concussion for which there are still broken windows, cracked walls, and shattered foundations. I look not to absolve Serbia in all this but only to raise the point that such a seemingly blind reaction to an attack on the American Embassy as something unexpectedly untoward here is frankly strange, as is the demand that a people who only just became a nation eclipse that sentiment.
I ended a class on 20thCentury Europe last week by telling my students that we might be in line to watch the unfolding of the final chapter of WWI in the coming weeks. I think that might still be the case. Let us see what unfolds and while I might wish it otherwise I think I at least half understand why the attack on the American Embassy – do you really not Dr. Saunders?
-fp
"Does not defeat, does not the struggle also remind, often as much as victory?" Beautiful, and true.
I must disagree on your blaming Germany's recognition of Croatia. I never understood this argument, and it still puzzles me today. I didn't buy it when I was 13 years old, when I knew nothing and could barely understand the afternoon news, and do not accept it today, after some studying and some aging. I've read that this was part of a "Drang nach Osten" to control Middle East oil, and of Europe's orchestrated effort to undo Yugoslavia's experiment in market socialism. That argument may be contrived, unsubstantiated, or perfectly valid, but you really must do away with simple rules we have all agreed on with regards to chronological order: namely, that 1990 comes before than 1991.
As Borisav Jovic (at the time Serbia's member of the Yugoslav presidency and Milosevic's number two)wrote in his diary, on June 1990 Jovic, Kadijevic (top JNA), and Milosevic, agreed to "expel them (Croatia and Slovenia) forcibly from Yugoslavia, by simply drawing borders and declaring that they have brought this upon themselves through their decisions" (this is a fairly well-known quote). More detailed account confirms that by the spring of 1990 the command of the JNA had ceased to believe in a unified Yugoslavia and was working "for the defense of Serbia and its national interests in Croatia, full control over Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the peaceful exit from the Yugoslav state of those Yugoslav nations that so wished."
Of course, in September 1990 Serbia promulgated its new constitution, recognizing Serbia's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, and then went on to repudiate the authority of Yugoslavia, the formation of its own independent forces, and all the talk about how the strong dictate the course of the events to the weak, and so forth.
Croatia declared independence after all of this, in June 1991. Germany said that they only recognized Yugoslavia and supported its unity. The Serbs continued to speak of a Greater Serbia that included the Krajina, and in November 1991 the JNA attacked Vukovar. It was THEN, in December 1991, that Germany recognized Croatia's independence, in spite of the opposition of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.
I know what Parenti and Chossudovsky say about this, and, frankly, it is not well sourced and makes very little sense. You really have to twist yourself into a very particular kind of scapegoating pretzel to believe this one.
In response to the Feral Professor:
I know why many things have happened in the past that does not mean I have to like it or keep my mouth shut. I am fascinated by the tacit defense of yesterday’s actions that I have witnessed on this blog. Will burning the US embassy help one Serb in the future? No. Will it harm a single Serb (or more)? Yes. If you are all as pro-Serbian as it seems should you not look to their interests?
Robert, with all respect to your people and your country, this Serbian anger is more than justifiable and reasonable.
Taking out 15% of someone's territory is the real reason for WAR, not only for street demonstrations and small-group embassy attacks.
US foreign policy and closed-door mason plans are responsible for what is happening these days, and in the past 100 years.
Serbians and all other people who are attacked should defend, and every man staying aside and thinking with his own head should distinguish at all time bad from good.
Check out Hitchens' opinion. This passage partly evokes the sentiment of Robert's initial post: "It's a shame, in retrospect, that it took us so long to diagnose the pathology of Serbia's combination of arrogance and self-pity, in which what is theirs is theirs and what is anybody else's is negotiable."
http://www.slate.com/id/2184997/pagenum/all/#page_start
Now I actually regret writing the original blog because it pales in comparison to Hitchens' erudition and insight.
Yeah, the Serbs have done it again and just when we thought that they got civilized, democratized, integrated, cultivated, Europeanized and blah blah they screwed it up AGAIN…well as some of us know, things do not go so smooth in the Balkans, right?
OK, so what do I think about all this. Well let me start with a question to all of you: would you rather look upon the Serbian-Kosovo situation through HDTV color set or a cute 60’s art deco black and white TV set?
If you choose the first option you will perhaps open a door to yourself to walk the walk of the average Serbian and understand what might be behind their resentment over the Kosovo situation. Why people have mixed emotions when you talk to them about past, present and future to be events.
Furthermore, you will find out that the majority of Serbian people do not share and want to have anything to do with what has taken place after the demonstration in Belgrade. That being said, you have to understand the deep division between Serbian political leadership as well as within Serbian people on how to deal with new realities.
As the Feral Professor has pointed out about a nation’s past, even if that is a hurtful part, it is in fact a part of a nation’s history and in the case of Serbs, Kosovo in fact plays a very significant, yet hurtful part.
On the other side, no state will sit still and watch how their sovereignty, territorial integrity and international reputation (if such still exist in the case of Serbia) are being undermined, especially if International Law is on their side. As in any transaction, if you want something you have to give or get back something else in return. In this case, Serbia is not getting anything and losing a lot.
As I like to bring nature in my thinking, here is one analogy: in some cases even the best cow in the pack is known to kick its own milk bucket (despite being usually obedient), so why it is so outrageous for what has happened in BG the other night. Now don’t jump right now and think that I don’t condemn what has happened in Belgrade (even though some of us would not mind a free pair of sneakers), as I said before, I do but I am saying that this was expected and I think there is more to come. As some theories say, it is quite normal for a person or a state to mimic animal behavior as a part of a learned process. Once hurt, an animal will know who means harm and who doesn’t. So, then why shouldn’t Serbs feel betrayed by the International Community (Western Part at least) and try to react the best they can to protect what is theirs (I don’t mean by this to go around BG and burn the buildings but to build relations with those who can understand their pain e.g. Russia, China etc. even if that comes with the price tag vis-à-vis Oil and Gas industry).
Now to go back to my original question, if you choose the black and white version of our TV you would not be able to see shades of colors that maybe the other side deserves something back if they are to lose so much.
So, bottom line is, we can chase a tail as a dog does and still stick to zero sum game approach or let loose and remember that fluidity of EU borders let people to be first and foremost European and then Albanian, Serb or XYZ, which is an ultimate goal of all of ex-Yugo countries and look on this as an opportunity to advance this region closer to EU and peaceful resolution of their grievances.
To recap, it is wrong what has taken place in BG but it is more scary to think what can come out of this US experiment with Kosovo independence and what kind of message we are sending to the rest of the conflict zones throughout the world.
Regards to all
Dear Dr. Saunders,
I can’t believe that you are applauding to Hitchens’s article and this kind of shallow fabrications of the facts about the Serbian History and their relation to Kosovo as well as bashing of Serbian and Orthodox people.
Is he real when he was asking this??? And you agree with this?
“You should, second, ask if you know of any case comparable to the Kosovo one, where a national minority was so long imprisoned within an artificial state.”
I realize I am being a real academic pendant here, but one can neither agree nor disagree with a question (only its answer). That being said, I know of many cases of national minorities who are trapped with even more “artificial” states than Serbia (up until Kosovo’s [second] declaration of independence). A short list would include the Kurds, the Palestinians, the Rusyn, the Basques, the Catalans, the Gagauz, the Berbers, the Qaraqalpaks, the Romansch, the Sorbs, the Sami, the Hmong, and about 100 indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation. A longer list would include hundreds of national minorities from Africa, Asia, and Europe. My response to what I think you asking is that I believe that states that draw their inspiration from ethno-nationalism (the principles of jus sanguinis) must realize the two-edged nature of such politics. Greece, Russia, Israel, and other nation-states that embrace the ‘law of blood’ must learn to be wary of unintended outcomes. On the great Eurasian-African landmass, only the Koreas can lay claim to anything resembling ethnic homogeneity. All other states need to beware when playing in the fires of ethno-nationalism.
Canadian General comments on Belgrade riots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnlAbfpycws
Something to help counter the anti-Serbian propaganda :
Canadian General comments on Belgrade riots
Thank you for the link.
As Hitchens said, however, the appropriate Kosovo analogy with Israel is not Jerusalem, but the Occupied Territories.
I want to point out two things: 1) the bloggers posting comments as anonymous users are free to do so but the rest of us have skin in the game because our names are associated with our comments; 2) the very notion that I have put forth "anti-Serb propaganda" as one commenter implied is ridiculous. Personal opinion is not propaganda.
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