This guy has an encyclopedic mouth.
> Right now, there are two choices in the Balkans--imperialism or anarchy. To
> stop the violence, we essentially have to act in the way the great powers
> in the region have always acted: as pacifying conquerors. The kind of moral
> solution that many yearn for is one that the Romans and the Austrian
> Hapsburgs knew well how to provide, one motivated by territorial
> aggrandizement for their own economic enrichment, strategic position and
> glory.
Oh yeah, great models. The Imperial Romans ruled by divide and conquer -- i.e., fostering wars -- and then slaughtering peoples wholesale in a manner that has since been come to be thought of as "Balkan" but back then was just considered normal war. And the Austria-Hungarians did a great keeping the peace in Sarajevo, oh yes.
Arguably, the most peaceful, tolerant and successful empire in the area was the one he's constrained by his anti-islamic ideology from mentioning, namely the Ottoman. And second would be the Byzantine Empire -- which was, of course, Orthodox.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com