July 13, 2012
NEW YORK – Most people don’t know, or have forgotten the horrors of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
Not a leading New York Rabbi, Arthur Schneier. Last week, he was the sole invited speaker as 520 newly discovered or identified bodies of Muslim victims were buried at Sarajevo’s cemetery.
Rabbi Schneier rightly termed the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia by Serb soldiers and paramilitary thugs as “genocide.” Jews know the smell of genocide.
During the mid 1990’s, the world turned its back on the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia. The UN would not call it genocide because that would have demanded military intervention. Most shamefully, the Muslim world also closed its eyes as up to 160,000 Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered, starved and tortured in Serb-run concentration camps. At least 10,000 Muslim girls and women were gang raped, some in special rape camps.
Instead, the west readily accepted the lie made by Serbs and their rightwing western supporters that the slaughter in Bosnia was the result of “ancient Balkan feuds.” It was not. All wars create crimes. But the Bosnian crimes were mainly the result of a rebirth of Nazi ideology and racial hatreds in ex-Yugoslavia, whipped up from 1987 by the Serb demagogue, Slobodan Milosevic.
In 1988, I wrote warning that Milosevic would create disaster in Bosnia and Kosova, the Albanian-majority region of southern Serbia. I was denounced in Belgrade and declared an enemy of the Serbs. In truth, I had always been an admirer of Serbs as courageous, intelligent people. But the Serbs that Milosevic rallied were the scum of the gutter, criminals, racists, brutal pig farmers, fanatical priests.
As I look back on Bosnia, I remain revolted by the inaction of the Muslim world and the hypocrisy of the British and French governments. Two Turkish Army divisions could have ended genocide in Bosnia. But its anti-Muslim generals did nothing. Other Muslim nations offered soothing words and some cash. At least Iran tried to get arms to the Muslim-Croat forces.
While addressing a world Muslim conference I said, “if the victims in Bosnia had been Jews, the Israeli armed forced would have been there promptly and brought the Serb war criminals Milosevic. Karadzic, and Mladic back in a cage.
France had been an ally of Serbia for a century. It quietly sabotaged efforts to rescue Bosnia’s Muslims, fearing a tiny Muslim state might somehow inflame its own large Muslim population. Paris quietly armed Serbia. Britain’s Conservatives were even more anti-Muslim than the French.
I interviewed Lord Owen, the chief British so-called “peacemaker.” He played a key role in thwarting action against Serbia. As I listened to his elegant lies and evasions, my blood boiled.
Seventeen years ago this month, Serb forces, led by Gen. Mladic, stormed the supposed UN security enclave at Srebrenica. Cowardly Dutch UN troops tasked with defending its Muslim refugees refused to fight. A senior French general vetoed air strikes against Serb forces, claiming the request was made – on the wrong form!
A senior Canadian general was secretly paid by Serb groups in the US to misinform Congress and the media that much of the killing was due to Muslims. He was finally exposed as a fraud by American journalist, Roy Gutman.
Up to 20,000 Muslims are still missing. Serb forces destroyed many bodies, or bulldozed, dug up, and re-buried bodies. Many were thrown down mineshafts or dissolved in acid. The criminals were covering their tracks. That is why 520 newly found bodies were only buried by their families this week.
Unfortunately, the world, particularly Muslim world, has forgotten how America finally saved Bosnia’s Muslims – and later those of Kosova – from total genocide. US Jewish groups raised hell in Washington, pressuring President Bill Clinton to act. When Americans finally saw the horrors of Bosnia on TV, they demanded action.
In one of its finest moments, America used its power to rescue a tortured people and halt genocide in a region where the US had no strategic interests. Sadly, the ensuing invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq quickly obscured America’s admirable role in the Balkans.
Today, little Bosnia remains in permanent mourning, a broken nation, haunted and traumatized by the horrors of the war.
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copyright Eric S. Margolis 2012
America is the world’s largest profiteer of war, and machinery for the fabrication of stories, facts, numbers and nationalities of the victims. All for profit, benefit and geopolitical positioning. Since the genocide of the Native Americans, the Vietnam War, the destruction of Yugoslavia and the bombing of Serbia, the war in Iraq and so on. America is to blame for all the misfortunes of the world. You killed millions of innocent people. This is clear to every inhabitant of the planet Earth who lives outside America. For you will open a special circle of hell, believe me on this.
I think America was decisive in its objectives, while the rest of Europe could not form a common policy which resulted in many needless Muslim deaths. America did save many lives in this war with the added benefit of building Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, the second largest American military base in Europe. This facility has been criticised in recent years for use as a detention facility. I doubt Christians are held in the detention cells. Sounds like a PR and geopolitics win for America.
Eric,
Thank you for this timely article. Much attention is being made by the Olympic committee claiming they didn’t want to offend Muslim Olympians by remembering the Munich athletes who died at the hand of terrorists who happened to be Muslim. I think that is a bunch of rubbish. I know of no Muslims who would have protested any such thing. I live in a city that undoubtedly has the highest concentration of Arab Muslims outside of any city in the Middle East. Not one of them that I have spoken to has the attitude expressed in the headlines. I would be ashamed if Muslims protested and I support the Palestinian cause 100%, but not some of their more nefarious actions.
America’s action in Bosnia, was indeed one of our finest hours. Our most honorable military action since WWII. I disagree with much of our foreign policy especially our blind unquestioning support for the Israeli holocaust being perpetrated against the Palestinian people. And make no mistake, it is a holocaust. It’s just being committed over a longer period than what the Jews of Europe suffered, but murder is murder.
The 4th or 5th strongest military in the world is claiming to be the victims of aggression by home made rockets and small arms. The kill ratio is 16:1. This is not a war, it is a massacre. America came to the rescue of the Bosnians, thank Allah, but turned its back on the Palestinians. The Palestinians have the right to defend themselves and even to retrieve the thousands of square miles of land stolen from them.
That was the America of two decades ago… they have been somewhat tarnished since… just like my Canada of two decades ago…
Their actions were likely to ‘box in’ the Soviets and to make headway with the surrounding Balkan states… based on American activities, I have great difficulty in seeing them for anything other than ‘grabbers’… taking advantage of anything to profit American business…
As much as i disagree with america’s foreign policy this is one of the times they got it right. Unfortunately you never hear of it in the world press. I guess being the world’s policeman has its ups and downs eh.
Why did they blow their reputation? They had to right so many wrongs of the past like the ones committed in Vietnam. This episode does not make up for it. And now with Afghanistan and Iraq, just to mention those two, their reputation seems irretrievable. The US made a faustian pact with the devil and there seems to be no revocation possible.
You said it correctly Eric, “Jews know the smell of genocide”. Comforting to know that some people will call it what it is. Sad to see the cowardly, inaction on part of the muslims on two fronts
1. Failed leadership to recognize the crime
2. Failure by muslim people to still stay quiet and not THANK the US for ending the war
Yes Yes, Iraq/Afghanistan/Sudan/Pakistan/Iran wars by US are not looking good, but then again, who really has their hands clean?