Chris wrote:
>Elias has altered the title of the forwarded article, and that for a start
>is significant.
I do not think I have altered the title to indicate something different than the context.
>The war was conducted in an imperialist way and should not be repeated.
The
>argument over alternatives is important.
>However the war was not against Yugoslavia but against Serbian bourgeois
>nationalism in alliance with fascist groups relying on Christian Orthodox
>racism against muslims, with a plan to impose an apartheid solution, if
>necessary also in Montenegro and Macedonia.
No, I do not agree with you Chris. As I have said before, If Milosevic did not exist the US and NATO would have to invent him. They have more or less admitted it by saying that they put the rod in Rambouillet so high knowing that it was impossible for Milosevic to accept it. They desperately needed a war to control the Balkans, tell the Russians how much they count and also inform the world that the UN is a spent force. The only one that counts from now on is NATO (read USA) and nothing else. Before the war the average Yugoslavian was as much of an Orthodox Christian as an average Englishman. The war however, made a lot of them turn to religion both in Yugoslavia and outside of it. Clinton tried to make it appear that he is trying to avoid a wider war between Orthodox and Moslem countries, particularly between Greece and Turkey. He refered to these countries three times until the greek president made the sarcastic comment that he did not know that one has to bomb Yugoslavia to avoid a war between Greece and Turkey, between Christian and Orthodox countries. I am not sure what you are refering to regarding an apartheid solution. I do know however, that right now Kosovo is the only ethnically pure region in the Balkans thanks to the effort of NATO. Apartheid has been imposed by NATO and they are the ones who now "help" the Serbs, Goras and Romas leave Kosovo to avoid KLA and Albanian attacks. Again I do not know what is this Christian Orthodox racism against moslems. None of my moslem friends, the majority of which are Arabs, would agree with you. And as one of my Palestinian moslem friend said to another guy who made the same comment :" are you refering to the help the Greeks , Christian Orthodox people, gave us Moslems in Beirut back in the early 80's when everybody else, Moslems and Christians alike, has forgottten us and we were going to be slaughtered by the Israelis?" Is this what you call Christian Orthodox racism against moslems? Shall I remind you that George Habash, the leader of the PFLP, is orthodox? The same goes for the vice premier of Iraq, Tazis.
Now, if you are refering to Yugoslavia only and not to Christian Orthodox people then I have to tell you that in Yugoslavia there was intermarriage between Serb moslems and Serb orthodox but not between Goras (Serb moslems) and Albanians. It is wrong to assume that the war was about Islam and Orthodoxy. However, it has been rationalised on these grounds and this kind of rationalization seems to have been accepted by some people. In the demonstrations here in Ottawa against the war, there were Bosnian Moslems participating.
>I hope Elias, writing from a Greek background, will disassociate himself
>from any anti-muslim racist bias.
Chris, I do not think that I have shown any anti-moslem bias and thus there
is no need for me to disassociate myself from imaginary things. Perhaps you
have never understood the opposition of the Greeks against the war. Of
course the news media always made a point to refer to Greece and Yugoslavia
as two Orthodox nations but whenever they mentioned France and Italy they
never bothered to say that they are two Catholic nations. It seem to me
that this is racism.
Let me make this statement, it perhaps help you understand how the Greeks felt about the war. If NATO were to have bombed Turkey because of its treatment of the Kurds, far worse than that of the Kosovo Albanians by Yugoslavia, the Greeks would have taken the side of the Turks and would have condemned the Americans and NATO. Would that mean that the Greeks are pro moslems and pro Turks? Of course not.
>There is a significant bourgeois Serb nationalist lobby in Canada
organised
>around the christian orthodox church, and the fact that they have got an
>article in Canada's leading Conservative paper is no doubt the resultant
of
>many forces.
Come on now. The Serbs have no lobby in Canada, they are as disorganized as an ethnic group can possibly get and they had a very hard time trying to put very mild anti-war ads in all the leading newspapers. I have first hand experience. One can easily write a couple of articles on the way freedom of the press works in Canada, particularly when a group is trying to publish a paid ad agaist government policy like the war.
>Chris Burford
elias
and from all religions I prefer the 12 gods of Olympus. They had one for each occasion, from war making to drinking to fucking. And Zeus, their CEO in modern parlance, was roaming around the plains of Greece looking for his next affair.