Milos's last stand

[Hakki Alacakaptan]

I was awed by Milos's epic performance today, punctuated with lethal blows
against the complacent prosecution, which acted like there was no separatist
guerilla in Kosovo prior to the Serb attack, that NATO did not act as the
guerillas' air support with copious "collateral damage" as in Afghanistan,
and that Kosovo had somehow become a separate state. "How dare you speak of
the border between Kosovo and Serbia," said Milos, "Kosovo _is_ Serbia".
Under UN SC Resolution 1244 of 1999, Kosovo remains a Serbian province and
its current protectorate status is strictly de facto. The prosecution must
be singularly feeble to think Milos would somehow overlook that.

My awe turned to disgust when I looked at how underreported Milos's defence
was in the Press. Many of the stories are supposed to be about Milos's
speech but they manage to cram the 4 hours into 2-3 paragraphs and devote
the rest to what the judge or the prosecutor said. Amazingly, the Russian
press, which I though would carry a fuller report, seems to have given it a
total pass.

Milos was undoubtedly a mass murderer but his defence is on a par with
Castro's - what he lacks in Castro's humanism, he compensates with his
superior logic. Pointing out that the prosecution showed that there was
widespread support for Serb actions in Bosnia and Kosovo, Milos said "Our
citizens stand accused, citizens who lent their massive support to me (...)
My conduct was an expression of the will of the people."

That's what I call going down in a blaze of glory, a fighting Serb to the
end.

I trust LBO'ers can spot the nuance between buying the Jared Israel line and
admiring the flawed but brilliant mind and courage of a criminal.

Hakki