February 22, 2008 5:45 AM

Hmm...methinks perhaps these folks are unhappy?

Man, it must SUCK to be a Serb these days. Your country is still considered a pariah by most of the international community. Political events are still strongly influenced by Right-wing nationalist wingnuts. Worst of all, your economy is in the toilet, and if not for the criminal underground in Serbia, things might be far worse. When I was there, the underground flourished in spite of the UN embargo. Shops were full of consumer goods…and it wasn’t because they came in legitimately. The Serbian criminal underground is ruthless, resourceful, and well-established. They’re also largely responsible for the Serbian economy not having completely collapsed during the UN embargo.

Ah, but I digress….

To add insult to injury, Kosovo, the ancestral home of Serbian cultural and historical mythology, has declared it’s independence. Yeah, payback a b—-h, ain’t it? After decades of keeping the Albanian majority in Kosovo under their thumb- brutally when necessary- Serbia has once again shrunk in size. At this rate, before much longer “Greater Serbia” will be roughly the size of a picnic table. Samo sloga Srbina spasava, indeed….

Riots in Belgrade only serve to illustrate that many Serbs still don’t get it and they probably never will. Far too many Serbs still see themselves as victims. Too many Serbs will tell you with a straight face that America and the West are anti-Serb and are actively seeking to destroy Serbia and all she stands for. They’ll tell you that all Serbs are peace-loving people, and that all they want is to be left alone. Right; and denial is more than a river in Egypt.

I’ll agree that most Serbs I ran across are thoroughly decent people. They feel misunderstood, and to a degree I suppose they are. The reality is that when many in the West think of Serbs, they think of illiterate thugs with brass knuckles and a willingness to remorselessly kill for Mother Serbia. How many other nations would tolerate-indeed, even encourage- their own to spend their weekends “hunting Muslims” in Bosnia. That’s no exaggeration. When I was in Belgrade, several people told me about this inhuman “hobby”. I suppose when you consider a class of people to be subhuman, killing them off for sport is no particular cause for alarm.

If Serbs truly want to be considered a full member of the international community, all they have to do is lose the national paranoia and live by the same rules the rest of the civilized world lives by. It’s their choice. If they cannot, or will not, display the wherewithal to control the lawless, Neanderthal elements of Serb society, they will remain an internation pariah- and deservedly so. It’s their choice.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 22, 2008 5:45 AM.

Today's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us was the previous entry in this blog.

One swung furiously and blindly; the other never had a glove laid on him is the next entry in this blog.

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