Belgrade’s Holocaust Memorial - one of several in a city populated by a people famed for their resistance to the Nazis
I am used to reading lies and vitriol about Serbs and Serbia but an article emailed to me today is one of the most racist, hateful and biased articles I have read in a serious publication.
The article is by Stephen Schwartz writing in Pajamas Media, a website I used to respect (mostly because of having superb writers like Victor Davis Hanson), but I am not so sure now.
Any friend of Serbia needs to read the article and respond to it forcefully. You need to comment, you need to write to the editor and you need to spread the word about it.
I want Mr Schwartz to rue the day he penned this disgusting and hateful piece of racist bunk.
This is my response to the article:
[Update: Pajamas media allowed me to publish a comprehensive response: Kosovo and the Myth of Serbian Depravity]
Serbs are an heroic nation who suffered 500 years of brutal Turkish oppression. They were allied with Britain, America and France in both WW1 and WW2. During WW2 they fought a heroic campaign of resistance against the Nazis. 250,000 Serbs were murdered in death camps by the Nazis and their Croatian and Bulgarian allies.
The arson attack on the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade and similar violence against other embassies was the work of a tiny number of well organised football hooligans whose numbers are dwarfed by the 500,000 peaceful protestors who thronged the streets.
Embassies are symbols of their countries - as are flags - and they are routinely attacked in civil disturbances or protests directed at countries. Serbia has rightly been criticized for failing to adequately protect the embassies, but similar attacks by Iranians, Pakistanis and others on US and Danish embassies were not denounced in the security council emphasizing yet again the anti-Serb bias in the US, EU and Security Council.
In the article Mr Schwartz draws attention to the murder of Bosnian children by Serb snipers in Bosnia nearly 15 years ago as sarcastic evidence of Serbian “bravery”. He states that Serbs “interpret diplomacy as aggression and attempted genocide”. That is Serbs as in YOU my dear Serbian friends. This man is accusing you of believing this. The irony is that faux diplomacy, backed by bombs, has indeed led to the attempted genocide of Kosovo Serbs who live in fear and are subjected to near constant attack from the Albanian majority.
Schwartz believes that the actions of a few hundred hooligans somehow rebukes the unassailable facts of the situation: that the bombing was both utterly wrong and completely illegal; that Kosovo independence contravenes International law and established precedent; that that Serbia is remorselessly bullied by the US and that Kosovo is a dangerous precedent created by a duped West in support of quasi-fascist Albanian Ethnic Nationalism.
Schwartz believes the Albanians are merely securing their freedom from Serbian fascism, yet since 2000 a democratic Serbia has never shown even a trace of aggression against neighbours or minorities, whereas the Albanians of Kosovo have repeatedly demonstrated their fascistic and nationalist tendencies in unrelenting violence against minorities and the large scale ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Gorani and Roma from Kosovo.
Schwartz claims Serbs do not change. He states it. How dare he parade his bigotry like this? Imagine declaring this of any people of country. It is hate speech.
Schwartz castigates the saner voices in US politics for their pro-Serbian stance. He accuses them of being “deniers”, cunningly invoking the idea of Holocaust Deniers and all the opprobrium wearers of that label rightly deserve. He claims that they (pro-Serbs) deny the reality of Srebrenica and Racak. That is not true. Srebrenica is undeniable and a horror that must neevr be repeated. Racak is hotly disputed and for good reason, the evidence is contradictory.
What pro-Serbs find galling is that all we ever hear is about Srebrenica and Racak, yet we never hear about the hundreds of massacres of Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia and Kosovo. How many Americans know about the massacre of Serbs in and around Srebrenica in 1992-1993? Go and read the UN document “Memorandum on War Crimes and Crimes of Genocide in Eastern Bosnia (communes of Bratunac, Skelani and Srebrenica) committed against the Serbian population from April 1992 to April 1993.” That and other documents detail the massive scale of crimes against Serbs by Bosnians and Croats in Bosnian. Schwartz does not see fit to mention the genocide of Serbs by Croatian Ustase in WW2 nor Operation Storm - the largest ethnic cleaning of the Yugoslav Wars - where 500,000 Serbs were deracinated. Mr Schwartz, like so many Serb haters, only every discusses one side and draws attention on to the crimes of the Serbs never the equally vile crimes AGAINST the Serbs.
Schwartz goes on to state his most outrageous lies: that the Serbs sold out the Jews in WW2. He repeats the half-truth that Belgrade was the first “judenrein” city in Europe. He completely omits the fact that it was quisling pseudo-government that made that declaration. That a massive Serbian partisan movement fought the Nazis so hard that Hitler called the Serbia “The Cauldron”. He does not mention that 250,000 Serbs were killed in Nazi death camps along with ten of thousands of Jews and Roma. He does not mention that the Bosnians has their own SS division - the Handschar Division (see Hitler and the Mufti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6OK1Pi3xV8 ) - manned by Bosnian Muslims and commanded by Croatian Ustase Nazis. He completely fails to mention the fact that numerous Nazi hunting and Holocaust memorial organisations have acknowledged and praised the Serbian people for their part on helping save Jews from Nazis.
He makes the ludicrous claim that the Partisans were mostly non-Serbs! This is a bald lie. He goes on to defame the Chetniks too, again offering neither argument nor support for his claims. Mr Schwartz loves to talk about Serbs slitting Bosnian throats, but what does he has to say about this video confession of a Bosnian Muslim soldier cut the throats of Serbian children, after raping them in front of their dying parents. See it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZbp1PIkbAk
Schwartz then goes on to attack the Serb lobby in the US. He describes Serbs are “troglodytes”! since when did it become acceptable to describe entire nations as using words like this? He mocks the Serbs contributions to the WW2 war effort.
He then goes on to claim of Serbs (aka YOU) that “Serbs hate Muslims because Muslims wash before praying”. There you have it. No modifier. No conditionals. Bald, nutty assertion. Where does he get this? An unnamed Serbian “Theologian” said this once. Does this mean I can take the ranting of Jesse Jackson or Michael Moore or a street corner loon and make claims about ALL Americans now? Did you know that ALL Americans thing Europe is a country? Evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o31GDLgDyD0 . Additionally, US Americans have no maps and “The Irak” needs our help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww .
Mr Schwartz then goes on to state a series of lies, biased speculations and pure hate speech against Serbs and Serbia. As usual, it is free of evidence or logic.
He castigates the violence and asserts it is proof of Serbian rottenness, that the rioting is “Serbian statesmanship”. He ignores the riots and anti-US violence across the world. He seems blind to the frequent and much more deadly Albanian riots in Pristina, where UN and US property has been destroyed, hand grenades thrown and people killed.
He decries Lawrence Eagleburger - brilliant statesmen and experienced diplomat - as a Serbian apologist because he is merely neutral, and acknowledges that whilst the Serbs are not blameless, they are in no way responsible for the mess in Kosovo. He states that Eagleburger ” appeared surprised by the embassy attacks” when the opposite was true. On CNN Eagleburger explained that the attacks were inevitable and expected when you subject a people to bullying, aggression and bombardment.
Schwartz once again insults Serbian culture and civilisation by denying its links to Kosovo, and saying hat the mass rapes in Bosnia (carried out by all sides) and bombing of Dubrovnik (a crime carried out by the Yugoslav National Army NOT Serb, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Dubrovnik ) as examples of Serbian culture. I have never, ever met a single Serbs who does NOT deplore the crimes carried out in their name.
Why are the actions of armed forces of Yugoslavia suddenly Serbian actions? What about the Bosnian and Montenegrin and Kosovo Albanians soldiers who advanced to attack the surrounding area and occupied Prevlaka, Konavle, Cavtat? Are people of the USA to be judged on the actions of their armed forces too? Is Abu Graib American culture Mr Schwartz? My Lai? The illegal and unjustified bombing of Serbian civilians in 1999? The US support of Operation Storm? Is this American “culture”?
Schwartz states that the Serbs “tried to expel two million Albanians from their homes in Kosovo”. They did no such thing. They tried to suppress an insurgency. The KLA frightened their own people into fleeing. There were no massacres then, it was war - war started by Albanian terrorists. The talk of massacres and Bosnian style mass rape was all lies. Perhaps research from Israeli scholars will help convince Mr Schwartz? Read about how NATO framed the Serbs and how Albanians oppress Serbs: http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/freezer1.htm and http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/kosovo.htm
Mr Schwartz ends his tirade by saying “The whole world knows who the aggressors were in ex-Yugoslavia”. Not quite Mr Schwartz, they known the Myth of the Balkans wars. They know the simplistic propaganda supported version of Serbs as bad guys, everyone else as victims. They THINK they know what happened, but history is revealing the truth. Yes, Slobodan Milosevic was an ethnic nationalist out to save his communist are by adopting nationalism. But so was the Father of Croatia Franco Tudjman. They were all rotten: Slobo, Tudjman, - all murderous, lying, self-serving nationalist scum. Yet it is only the leaders of Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs called to account. Only their record is examined, their crimes publicised, their wrongs highlighted. Of course everyone THINKS they know what happened because they have been fed the usual media pap. Unfortunately for people like you Mr Schwartz, Iraq has made the people of the world much more cynical and wise to US lies and deceptions. Mere claim backed with “Trust me” or “Read my lips” no longer works. You and your kind - Lying hate-mongers - and dying off. Schwartz is a sentimental radical nationalist exactly like the thugs who attacked the US embassy. They are brethren and identical except Schwartz espouses freedom and hotdogs whilst the hooligans of Serbia are about Kosovo and Rakia.
America’s embassy in Belgrade is not burning. Your is flying again. The hooligans who rioted and looted are being rounded up. A minor incident is long over.
Serbs are now well on their way to a prosperous and peaceful future in the EU. It is Independent Kosovo that is likely to rot as the black hole of Europe, not Serbia. It has nothing but mafia money and aid, which is nit enough to sustain it. It is true it is a hub for slave trading women, arms selling and drug trafficking but even those “earnings” tend to find their way to Swiss bank accounts or the shops and bars of London.
Mr Schwartz and his snide tirade deserves to be answered fully. I would like to dance on the ashes of his career and reputation. Help make that happen by circulating this rebuttal to everyone you know.
45 Comments
You could have not been any clearer. Thank you very much for posting this. Schwartz is trash. I love Serbia and the Serbian people.
I am so tired of all those so called intelectuals like Schwartz. He reminds of former serbian politicians actually.
…and like above…you could have not been any clearer.
I am Serb, and I am ashamed that we have hooligans and bad politicians, but which country doesnt? Maybe Andorra or San Marino?
As CEO of Pajamas Media, I would like to say we are aware that Schwartz’s piece is controversial. We are currently soliciting a reply article. Our policy when we publish controversial material is to have it answered on our own pages. PJM does not itself take a stand on these issues and, of course, rejects racial bias of any sort.
Give me a break. Anyone who does not think the serbs are bastards has obvioulsy had thier head in the sand for the last 100 years or so.
Serb apologists are in the same boat as those who say “radical islam is a problem, but most muslims are not radical.” Those people miss the point–when a group committs outrageous acts again and again, sooner or later we have to face facts.
No need to worry, YOU SERBS WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS.
Thank you for posting a reply to Pajamas hateful, racist article regarding Serbia. Like everybody else, Serbs have both good and bad qualities. Their good qualities are that they are a very nice open people. They’ve got a beautiful country with great food, hospitable people and an ancient culture that includes exquisite paintings, literature and jewelry, among many other things too numerous to mention now.
Thanks for writing this. I have never read anything more vile and sleazy in my life. The slander against Eagleburger, the charges that anyone who sees things the Serb way is bought off, the garbage about Kosovo not really being Serbian, it made me sick. And the hatred of Serbs was breathtaking. I had been neutral in the Kosovo thing but now I am squarely with the Serbs. I lost all respect for Michael Totten for posting that POS on Instapundit along with the fact-free spewings of Hitchens. I am now a non-reader of his. But I will continue to read this site. This garbage out there against Serbs must not be allowed to stand. I never knew I would be against my country, but I have to be. It pulled a fast one, possibly on the underhanded influence of people like Schwartz. Viva Serbia!
Mr. Harris speaks for Americans and he and I will have the last word — you will see.
So you’re going to “respond forcefully” and “make me rue the day?” How, you cowardly fool? Going to try to burn my house down? Bring it on! Your Serbian admirers tried to kidnap me in Kosova and guess what, I am alive, Kosova is independent, and the Serbs have again shown the world what they are. You couldn’t have done me a bigger favor than to write this garbage, which puts you in the same class as defenders of al-Qaida, and as far as I am concerned you should be treated the same way. All of America is against you except for idiots and crazies.
YOUR FRIENDS ATTACKED MY COUNTRY’S EMBASSY. THE ATTACKERS WERE NOT ALBANIANS OR MUSLIMS. THEY WERE SERBS ENCOURAGED BY THEIR SEWER POLITICIANS. YOU REFER TO THE FLAG AS MY FLAG WHICH IT IS, AND WHICH REVEALS THAT YOU DO NOT CONSIDER IT YOURS. GOOD, BECAUSE IT ISN’T!
You are so ignorant you don’t even know the name of the SS division. It was called “Handschar,” not Hansard, and it was THE ONLY UNIT IN THE GERMAN MILITARY TO MUTINY AGAINST ITS OFFICERS. By 1944 its members had nearly all deserted and joined the Partisans. You can’t even be bothered to look up MY LAI. But My Lai was an exception. Serbian massacres are the rule. You can’t even spell Izetbegovic. What, did you take this down over the phone from some Serbian outhouse? Oh, I forgot, Serbs haven’t reached the outhouse stage of civilization yet. You don’t even know who the Gorani of Dragash are. They never fled Kosova; they have their own school system and bus service to heavenly Belgrade. Nobody molests them. BTW, they are Muslims.
Here is a quote from the great Serb theologian, the same “saint” Nikolaj Velimirovic Zicki I referred to in my article, about washing:
“European inventions’ [among which Velimirović lists the telescope, the microscope, railways, the steam engine, submarines, aircraft] ‘have led humanity to the brink of destruction, to spiritual darkness and into a dark decay unknown in the history of humanity. This is because Europe has directed all its inventions against Christ, whether in line with its own heresy or persuaded by the Jews we do not know.’
‘Pursuit of cleanliness has turned into a mania for cleanliness. Unfortunately, here too the Yid [Čivutin] is involved … Plumbing, plumbing, plumbing! Baths, baths, baths! Cleanliness, cleanliness, cleanliness! And everyone tired out with washing and cleaning themselves externally.’
‘All modern European principles have been made by the Jews, who nailed Christ to the cross: democracy, strikes, socialism, atheism, religious tolerance, pacifism and universal revolution. These are the inventions of the Jews, or their father the Devil. All this with the sole aim of humiliating Christ and placing on Christ’s throne their Jewish messiah, unaware to this day that he is Satan himself, who is their father and who has bridled them with his bridle and whips them with his whip … It is surprising that the Europeans, who are a Christian people, have surrendered themselves completely to the Jews and now think with a Jewish head, accept Jewish programmes, adopt Jewish hatred of Christ, take Jewish lies as truth, endorse Jewish principles as their own, tread the Jewish path and serve Jewish aims … The most important thing is that Christian Europe has become a servant of the Jews, has rejected the Father of light and recognized the Devil as its father in thought and deed….’
You must be so proud!
You should leave Israel out of this because Yad Vashem, an institution you doubtless never heard of, just honored Albanians for saving Jews in the second world war. That Serbian “monument” looks like toilet paper covered with metal.
Where did Albanians destroy U.S. property in Kosova? Name an example. You can’t because it is you that is the liar, not me.
Eagleburger, that sellout, is neutral and then defends the Serbs? You can’t even write a consistent sentence. You admit Serbian crimes in one paragraph and then try to deny them in the next. Possession of a computer does not make you smart. In your case it seems to have you dumber than you must have been before.
“Prevlaka, Konavle, Cavtat?” These are all Croatian territories that were plundered by Serb and Montenegrin bandits in 1991 and before. You know nothing at all about these topics. Prevlaka was under Montenegrin control and yet you accuse Montenegrins of pillaging it. You have obviously never set foot in the country,
YOUR SERBIAN ACCOMPLICES HAVE MADE SURE THEY WILL NOT GET INTO THE EU, WHERE THEY DO NOT BELONG, ANY MORE THAN PUTIN’S RUSSIA OR LUKASHENKO’S BELARUS.
So PJM folded and is going to get someone to write an answer? Who? Who, Putin? Sorry, Milosevic and his cronies Saddam (who provided Serbia with oil during the Balkan wars) and Arafat (who invited Milosevic to Bethlehem in 2000) are dead. Maybe you can channel them. That will be hilarious. Bush and Condi will answer it for me, as you will soon see.
Cite sources for mass rapes on all sides on Bosnia. You can’t. 60,000 Muslim women were raped by the gallant Serbs.
Yes, the children were killed by snipers in Sarajevo 15 years ago. That makes it OK? If not for the gentle Serbs, the kids, some of whom were Serbian but whose parents did not want to go wallow in the so-called homeland where their Bosnian dialect would make them have to live in the gutter, would be grownups now. Do you at all regret that more than a thousand children could not live through those 15 years? Then you should go to Serbia and live with the pigs you love so much.
How is it hate speech to point out that Serbs have not changed since 1992 but not hate speech to describe all Albanians as drug dealers, Islamists, and terrorists, the way the Serbian canines bark daily? Troglodyte is mild. It is also accurate. If you are not living in caves you belong in them with your soulmate Bin Laden. BELGRADE CHEERED ON 9/11. EVERYONE WHO CAN READ SERBIAN MEDIA KNOWS THAT.
As for Kitten, since you hate your country, I’m sure there’s room for you in Serbia.
Stephen Schwartz, who does not hide behind screen names.
Allelujah!!!
I finally realise! All Germans are Nazis! All Muslims are terrorists! All Americans are Rednecks! All British are drunken hooligans!
Come on Mr Harris and Mr Schwartz! Get a life and please focus on something more healing for your soul!
GET LAID!
This is a response to Stephen Schwartz, who commented above:
I am delighted you wasted your time coming here to screech at me.
You have paraded your ignorance and bigotry both on Pajamas Media and here. There is no need for me to devote much more time humiliating you any more.
I have already responded forcefully in a debunking and demolition in the comments of your article (and here). As for making you rue the day you submitted your hate piece, there is no implied physical threat, just a statement of mission: That you will one day come to regret it. Ends are ape chosen, Schwartz, but the means are mine.
You mention Al-Qaeda and equate my defending the Serbs against your slanders with defending that organisation. Apart from the patent absurdity of the charge, it exposes the kernel of your error: You are exactly like those people denounce all Muslims for the actions of Islamists. The people attacked the embassy - mostly football hooligans - are the scum of the country, the lowest element, detested by the vast majority of Serbs. They are no more representative of Serbs than Al-Qaeda is of Muslims. The same is true for the murderous Serbian militias of Bosnia. The Milosevic regime literally opened the prisons and unleashed the worst of the country on the people of Bosnia. The actions of those Bosnian Serbs does not represent Serbs in Serbia today any more than Islamists with their mass slaughter represent Muslims.
If an 18 year old Serb is guilty of crimes committed in their name when they were 2 years old, then every Muslim on this planet is guilty for the outrages committed in their name on a daily basis across the world. Of course neither is guilty, except in your fevered mind.
Here in the West we utterly reject the notion of “sins of the father”, collective punishment and guilt by association. You, however, seem to think that these are applicable to Serbs (but not to your people). It is not just your hatred that bothes me Mr Schwartz, but your flagrant hypocrisy.
I am glad to see you admit in writing the existence of the Bosnian SS division. I suppose you are on the verge of admitting the existence of its Albanian counterpart too (which did NOT mutiny against its officers).
You claim My Lai was an exception , yet we see that armed forces across the world commit atrocities and the US army is NO exception. Does Operation Ranch Hand ring any bells? Need I mention Iraq?
Additionally, in your beloved Bosnia, both the Croats and Muslim committed massacres and other atrocities against the Serbs and even each other.
You mention the Gorani people - who I know well are Muslims - but that does not protect them from the Albanians (who are only nominally Muslim)) They are under constant attack from Albanians. If you had even spent one day with them you would know this perfectly well.
Why quote on some Medieval bishop to try and “prove” that Serbsa re somehow dirty. I mean here you are at it again, selecting the very worst statements from a single medieval theologian and tout this somehow representative of Serbs or Serbia? Firstly, he was reflecting what was commonly thought to be true by ALL medieval christian theologians. The famous description as lice being the “pearls of god” stems from the common belief at the time.
You, rooted as you are in your obsession, are desperately attempting to slander your enemy with only to be frustrated by people like me who keep revealing your bias and ignorance through counter example and comparison. You are like some street corner loon announcing that “Those filth Serb puppies eat faeces!” whereas all hungry dogs sometimes engage in canine coprophagia. The problem is that general ignorance and anti-Serb bias means that people are very receptive to the intellectual faeces you offer disguised as reasoned analysis. Mr Schwartz would you like me to find you some of the disgusting passages of the the Hadith to prove my point?
You mention Israelis honouring Albanians for “saving Jews in the second world war”. It does not surpise me at all. Albanians are good, corageous and hospitable people. Funny how you missed the Serbs awarded the “The Righteous Among the Nations” title last year. It is the highest honor the state of Israel awards non-Jews, for helping save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. The Israeli Ambassador to Serbia, Arthur Koll, made the award. You might also wonder why Israel is such a massive investor in Serbia? It is because they Israelis know full well who did what in WW2 and the Serbs are acknowledged paragons anti-fascist virtue.
You asked me to cite examples of Albanians attacking the UN (which includes US). Here you go: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28197557.htm . How about those Kosovo Albanians trying to attack blow up Fort Dix in New Jersey? Now that is a big fat THANK YOU AMERICA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Fort_Dix_attack_plot
I salute Mr Eagleburger, being one of the saner Americans to comment on this topic. My point - perfectly understandable to those with IQs over 60 - is that by merely being neutral and fair he is seen to be pro-Serb. When bigots like you attack and take a fanatical position, neutrality and fairness are the best defence. Mr Eagleburger and I share the same outlook. We are fully cognisant of Serb crimes but but we are unwilling to accept the lies and distortion about an already maligned people. You hope the Serbs will be consigned to 100 years of punishment for the crimes of some Serbs, yet you completely exonerate their enemies whose crimes whilst slightly less onerous were not much so.
Mr Schwartz if the Serbs deserve 100 years for their contribution to the wrongs of the Balkan Wars, why are the Germans, Turks, Belgians and others - nations responsible for real genocides - perfectly acceptable members of the community of nations? Oh I remember now, that old Schwatzian double standard! I suspect your name will become an eponym for extreme hypocrisy, joining the likes of Robert Fisk (fisked) and Robert Bork (borked) .
You seem to believe that Serbia will not get into the EU, yet I know for a fact that getting Serbia into the EU is one of the EUs most pressing goals. Serbia will be a full member by 2014 at the latest. Mark those words.
I am glad to hear that PJM are going to have someone answer your hatchet job. I hope they utterly humiliate you. Should be straightforward. In fact it is almost unfair, like fighting a drunk.
As for mass rape in Bosnia, ALL SIDES engaged in this vile crime. Here is but one source of hundreds that shows all sides were using rape as a weapon: http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Rape-Against-Women-Bosnia-Herzegovina/dp/0803292295
As for your claims about children killed by snipers in Sarajevo 15 years ago. Firstly, thanks to your catalogue of lies and exaggerations I cannot accept any figures you give without citation. That said there were no doubt snipers killing civilians in Sarajevo. This is a war crime and utterly unacceptable. What possible relevance to contemporary Serbia do the actions of renegade Bosnian Serbs have? None. Additionally, war crimes and enormities were carried out on ALL SIDES. What is much more relevant is who is sniping and killing civilians today? The answer is Albanians. They are murdering and sniping at Serbs in Kosovo on an almost daily basis. In Serb enclaves across Kosovo, Albanian snipers regularly take pot shots at the Serbs from their villages below. Drive by shootings are common - the victims often children (here is one example: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040607/ai_n12780174 ) .
You call all Serbs pigs. You are the sort of person who uses the N-word too I suppose, since hating an entire ethnic group is perfectly acceptable to you. For the record, I love many of these Serbian “pigs”.
Finally, please answer succinctly who exactly are these “Serbs” you keep refering to? Is it the people of the Republic of Serbia? All Serbs? Who? Please explain how these “Serbs” are supposed to have “changed” since 1992.
When people mention the drug smuggling, people trafficking and Islamist operations in Kosovo it is to draw attention to the disaster that has been inflicted on the people of the region by NATO’s illegal bombing of Serbia after been fooled by the terrorist KLA. No one calls Albanians pigs or troglodytes. That sort of bigoted language is used only by idiots and extremists like you.
You Mr Schwartz and the Embassy attackers are fellows. You have EXACTLY the same mindset: chauvinistic, bigoted, ignorant and hate full. You are as pig ignorant and as rabid as each other and you deserve each other.
Across the world idiots cheered 9/11, including Israelis, Palestinians, Pakistanis and probably Albanians. I was absolutely outraged by that, as were all decent people. Whilst deploring any of that, I can understand it, particulalrly here in Serbia. The US and its allies illegally bombed Serbia and in the minds of SOME Serbs 9/11 was fitting revenge. Oddly enough 9/11 was carried out by people who think like you, and cheered by people who think like you.
Almost directly accross the road from your damaged embassy are the destroyed hulks of Serbian government buildings attacked in the 1999 bombings. When you think of your outrage at your embassy being stoned and the curtains of the ante chamber being set alight, just imagine the fury and hatred of spending 100 days under unjust and illegal bombardment. Twice as many Serbs were killed in those bombings than on 9/11. Keep that in mind next time you rant about 9/11 and Serbian “pigs” [Note: You are not exactly a beauty yourself are you Mr Schwartz? See for yourself folks]
Anyway Mr Schwartz, you are on my radar now. Expect more from me in the future.
So you are “here in Serbia?” Well, that’s pretty interesting. I’m on the radar of something called Limbic Nutrition run by a coward in Sranjia who doesn’t use his own name? What a terror! You display real Serb-style courage. And everyone knows Serbian radar is about as efficient as the Yugo car!
You have yet to answer anything I wrote except to sputter about hatred of Serbs. Well, I am sick of hatred of Albanians. Someone came on talk radio the night before the great victory at the embassies in Belgrade and said all Albanians were savages. So if Albanians are savages and the KLA were terrorists, Serbs, except for the few that defended Sarajevo like my friends Jovan Divjak and Mirko Pejanovic, are pigs. You are welcome to love pigs, but remember, they eat human flesh. You and your gang have gotten away with slandering Albanians for years. Every fact I cited is unchallenged truth and I have the right to consider the apostles of filth as swine.
Since you are an expert on the Waffen SS, I am sure you know that their largest group was Dutch. They far outnumbered a few misled Albanians. The most important allies of the Nazis on the Russian front were Finns. But you knew that, of course.
By the way, did you bother to attend primary school? “Saint” Nikolaj Velimirovic Zicki, who I cited on the topic of cleanliness, was not a medieval person, except in the manner that most Serbs are medieval in their mentality. He lived in the 20th century, as I noted in my article. How else would he know about the modern inventions he denounced?
So you know about the Gorani of Dragash? Why don’t you explain to your readers who they are and what language they speak — a topic on which I happen to be a serious scholar.
You twist around to pat yourself on the back for your supposed victory in demolishing me, which is like a schoolyard loudmouth pretending to be an athlete. Nobody ever heard of you or cares about you.
I am broken hearted not to have movie-star looks. Maybe PJM can get Britney Spears to write an answer to me — her mentality and morals are a little higher than yours. Or maybe you can get Ceca to do it — I bet you love her! BTW, the photo of me is copyrighted, but why should you care about stealing others’ property? It’s the Serbian way!
What I expect from you is hot air, empty threats, and other meaningless Serb-style bluffing. Like I said, bring it on! But I won’t waste any more time on you. I expect Bush and Condi will do a good enough job on your gang. You are pretty poorly educated — you don’t seem to know that troglodyte is a mild descriptive of these people.
Serbia will get into the EU in 2114, not 2014, but that’s still six years away and you have a lot of atrocities left in you before then.
Stephen Schwartz, waiting in public and at home for any brave Serbs who come around for what they deserve — a report to DHS on them.
P.S. No Albanians cheered 9/11 — rather, 5000 went to the U.S. Diplomatic Office in Kosova to volunteer to fight in Afghanistan. And only one Kosovar was involved in the Fort Dix case — one out of two million people! About the same as the percentage of the U.S. population that agrees with you. In Srbosmecistan where you belong.
I live and work in Serbia Mr Schwartz. Perhaps that is why I know so much more about this part of the world than you do?
You are a fulminating loon. You do not even deny your hatred of Serbs anymore. You are also completely blind to your double standards, hypocrisy and contradictions.
Albanians are not savages and Serbs are not pigs. Both the slanders are just that: Slanders. Mere name calling, gratuitous insult and provocation.
Every claim you made was either unsupported, grossly distorted, a bald lie, an exaggeration, out of context or pure fiction.
I am not expert on the Waffen SS but a cursory examination of the facts told me all I needed to destroy your attempt to slander Serbs by implying their were Nazi minions when the exact opposite was true. You forced me to mention the fact that Bosnians and Albanians (and Dutch and Finns) all had their own SS Division, but the Serbs did not.
I had never heard of this putative saint you keep quoting. He was probably as crazy as you. I do not read that sort of nonsense. It seems you are the only one who does. I can find literally thousands of absurd quotes and statements by Muslim, Catholic and Jewish theologians. Does this tell me anything about Jews or Muslims or Catholics? Shall I take the words of Al Sharpton or Jimmy Carter or Noam Chomsky or Michael Moore or Fred Phelps as representing all Americans? If not WHY NOT?
If you are an expert on the Gorani, how did you miss their abuse at the hands of Albanians? How did you miss the fact they are desperate for autonomy and have eve begged the Bulgarian government to help them? All minorities in Kosovo are being brutalized by Albanians. Since you are commenting from afar, and you are blinded by prejudice and hatred, you have no clue about any of this.
Regarding your photo, I merely linked to it as I found it ironic that a man with your visage saw fit to describe others as pigs. If you had even a passing understanding of the internet or copyright law you would understand that it was out of respect for their copyright that I did not display your photo on my site. Hyperlinking is completely acceptable, but hey, what do you know about those “intarweb tubes” anyway.
As for hot air, I will do MUCH better than that. I will be the one to answer your article on PJM. So look out for it. Its going to sting Schartzie
By the way, can you offer evidence that a single Serb cheered 9/11?
Your last paragraph is the finest example of your hypocrisy. You wrote “only one Kosovar was involved in the Fort Dix case — one out of two million people!”. So here you defend your beloved Kosovars by appealing to the fact that it is an unrepresentative sample yet you denounce the Serbs - all 7 million of them - for the actions of 200 rioters? How is it that not pure, simple hypocrisy?
limbic 2 - schwartz 0
haha! limbic dont waste anymore of your time with this fat fool. me thinks that Serbian bully back in grade school really messed with his psyche
I want to congratulate with Mrs Schwartz for his reserachings and the force of arguments!
I think the hate of the serbs is a consequence of bad moves made by politicians in the past, and that’s the only form of life this people here ever known. I can see everyday messages of hate on TV, at school, supermarket, embassies, everywhere…it’s better being Radiko Mladic’s, Karadxic’s. Milosevic’s or Arkan’s fan then being gay, or having different point of view…That’s the problem of this people, and as for know i don’t think there is proper solution they don’t want to understand!And as long they don’t want to understand the Balkans will always have a problem, a conflict, a war…and the real losers are the one who hate…
Dear Elda,
There are no arguments in Mr Schwartz’s piece. He merely insults and slanders the Serbs.
Where exactly are you that you see these “messages of hate”? I have seen exactly one racist piece of graffiti in Belgrade and that said “Shiptars go back to the zoo”. One hate message. One idiot with a spray can. Thats it.
Are Albanians attacked and killed in Serbia like Serbs are in Kosovo? Are Albanian cemeteries desecrated like Serb cemeteries are in Kosovo?
Does anyone say anything about ALL Albanians because the actions of SOME tiny number of extremist Albanians? Of course not!
It is not merely that Schwartz is a bigot and a loon, but he is also factually and logicllay utterly wrong…and so are you.
I have yet to see a post by a coherent, reasonable, knowledgable pro Albanian supporter. All of them so far, in the three years or so I have been visiting the site, have been insulting, ignorant, hateful, vicious, spastic, and incoherent. I forgot to mention, dishonest.
Let’s see,hmmm,today, it is politically incorrect to attack blacks, Asians, Arabs/Muslims and homosexuals, but perfectly acceptable to attack a Serb–a name that has become synonymous with evil.
Terminology that demonizes Serbs with collective guilt thrives
Well .. in that case…
After the party comes the hangover !
The muslims of Kosovo having drunk themselves silly that fateful sunday evening on vast quantities of alcohol (and then the following day appealed to the very sober islamic world for recognition) are now starting to experience what will turn out to be the longest slowest and most painful hangover ever seen. This abomination of a ‘country’ will consume itself in an orgy of alcohol ,drugs,forced prostitution and slavery,internicine clan honour killings, and ulimately a civil war between those loyal albanians who accept serious autonomy within the legal and historic borders of Serbia,and those who want to maintain their narcotic funded and war criminal led regime.
I would say this time it will take 5 to 20 years as opposed to the 500 years it took Serbia last time to take back what is theirs.When the empire supporting this criminal regime in Pristina weakens then it will all change.
Like before the when the Ottomans left, then Austro -Hungary left, then Hitler left then the Croat Communist Tito left and sooner or later the latest empire will leave.
Serbia is a graveyard for empires!!!!
U.S. imperialism confronts something of a crisis as its partners rethink where their real interests lie. The GDP of the EU now exceeds the U.S. figure. The euro is much stronger than the dollar. People everywhere hate the U.S. government, which they associate with war-promoting lies and general savagery. Bush is out of political capital, domestically and internationally, as Kosovo announces its independence, made possible by U.S. lies and bloody intervention, “threatening,” as the Russians put it, “the foundations of a world order.”
Everything dies eventually. Hitler’s “New Order in Europe,” Japan’s “New Order in East Asia,” George H. W. Bush’s “New World Order” proclaimed as he launched the first Gulf War in 1990. The present world order is profoundly unfair and deserves to be threatened, by the right people, with a better alternative. But the assault on Yugoslavia in 1999 brought nothing positive; rather, more intolerance and suffering, more ethnic cleansing. A new regime emerges, applauded by its American sponsors and most of the EU (but rejected by Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Bulgaria). It is wrapped in smoke, in a legacy of smoldering churches. Smells like the cremation of a world order.”
P.S. Stephen Schwartz but don’t be so upset. I don’t wanna see you have a heart attack. I cannot stand yet another example of Serbian homicides strain.
Stephen Schwartz is nothing but an apologist for expansionist Islam. He’s the poster boy for taqiyya. And everything he writes is enemy propaganda. When are they going to start enforcing the laws against treason?
I have to think where to start! I’ll start with this quote:
“You display real Serb-style courage. And everyone knows Serbian radar is about as efficient as the Yugo car!”
I must agree with you on this one BUT can you please explain to me how the hell did that unefficient radar caught american stelth F-117? Is it beacuse you can make that invisible plane like, we Serbs, produce space shuttle?
I have to say that, we Serbs, are very sorry, we didn’t know it was invisible!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmqLyn4Q15U
What happened here may be the reason and timing when you started to hate Serbs.
Lets get to something more serious. Who gave you the right to accuse whole nation? Who do you think you are? Do you think that, I for example, will ever change my point of view about Americans, Italians, Bosnians or British’s just beacuse some arse dumb mf from named countries killed someone or did an atrocity condemned by any normal civil person?!
Nope! But when I see words like this, coming from some countrymen of many friends that respect me?! Still not a single chance! Beacuse you are one ignorant sheep who desperately need to go to a war! Your place is on the enemy lines where you could be the target of a sniper instead of those kids you mentioned, whether it’s a Serb or Bosnian.
Your hate is a product of your unhappiness and you should visit some red light district or get a job in your goverment. Yep I said it, your goverment is a shame to your country! I used to say “great nation” for your countrymens and I still haven’t changed my mind a lot althought, I as a proud Serb, have to right to hate your guts! After all your goverment have done, it’s a wonder your embassy is still there! Tricks and lies!
Do you think I cheered after 9/11? Of course you don’t! I guess you can see that you are not dealing with some idiot or a “pigg” as you like to call us. Btw my friend who used to work in that twin building, was ill on that day so you might assume that he was a part of 9/11. Spread the word fast, you don’t use facts and proofs anyway.
Thankfully there are plenty of those decent people in every country and your kind will always lose! You can learn and change when you grab your chance, you wont get more chances!
You should fight against your hatery! Go to church man!
First of all why is this “Stephen” hiding behind Western name when he has his own Muslim name: Stephen ‘Suleyman Ahmad’ Schwartz,
that should be sufficient reason to raise concern about him and not take him seriously.
A google search reflects he purported to “convert” to Sufi Islam after a stay in Bosnia a decade ago.
Read this article where he explains how he became MUSLIM to Bosnian Muslims.
http://www.naqshbandi.org/events/articles/conversion_schwartz.htm
WATCH for yourself,who is Stephen Schwartz: Spinster interviews for a Muslim Magazine wearing Islamic robes
http://serbianna.com/audio/
Just to add,commentaries of Stephen Schwartz a.k.a. “Suleyman Ahmad, are like the Goebbels of Nazi Germany wrote it. He is a extremist with a lack of knowledge in history and serious need for pills and psychotherapy who made a lucrative career as a cheerleader for violence by the US government against civilians in Serbia.
Right on Catherine!
It does not surprise me that you would disagree with Stephen Schwartz, because Stephen Schwartz is not what he seems. Schwartz converted to Islam in Bosnia [www.naqshbandi.org/events/articl...]
That’s not rumor, it is fact, that even appears in his Wikipedia profile. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sc...] Since that time, Schwartz has been called “The Trojan Horse for Islam” — especially as an apologist for Balkan Islam. [www.serbianna.com/images/schwart...] Schwartz can always be counted on to take the anti-Serb side of every argument, for that very reason.
Since when someone must be a christian to be right?
Elda Beko,bzzzzt! Missed the point entirely, didn’t you?
You jumped so quickly to the conclusion ( which speaks volumes about your driven agenda ) without reading for comprehension.
Who said anything about being a Christian makes you right? Which part of apologist for Balkan Muslim extremism and revisionism of history (he is dredging history and presenting distorted half truths in an attempt to slander the people of Serbia + he is known here in the USA to have a fierce hatred of Orthodox Christians) which favors Muslim side all the time you have hard time understanding?
Since he is known champion of the Islamic cause on Balkan ,his position on this issue is colored by his partisanship in favor of the Albanians.
Therefore, his Serb-hating descriptions should be regarded as party political/biased broadcasts, with all the credibility that carries.
Now I ask you: He was a convert to the Muslim religion, but he is now using his Jewish name. Did he convert back and give up being Muslims or is he only using his Jewish name to appeal to a certain audience? Why hide your chosen Muslim name while disparaging a whole nation!?
Either way the guy is a chameleon of sorts - switching religions back and forth, or hiding the fact that he is a Muslim when he is writing for certain crowds, in order to achieve more leverage.
When the postmortems of American Empire are written, some time in the not too distant future, it will be noted that American understanding of ex-Yugoslavia civil wars had been shaped for decades by an inundation of deliberate lies. If “Stephen Schwartz” is even mentioned in this context, it will be as someone whose lies had the particularly vile quality about them, and this pathetic tirade from the “Pajamas Media” could serve as a good illustration.
The MSM media that allows this Mr. Schwartz person to misrepresent himself as an expert on Balkan affairs and such are just agit-prop departments of their governments. Also, not immune to interests and needs of their masters (owners), that are signing the ‘front’ of their checks.
So, all those ‘humanism’ and morality rants are just ’smoke and mirrors’.
If the world is really concerned about that, it should disassemble and close down ‘NY Times’, ‘cnn’, ‘bbc’, ‘al jazeera’, political PR companies like Ruder&finn… etc and all other REAL weapons of mass destruction (WMD-s) out there.
Just as a short reminder - Turks invaded and ‘liberated’ Kosovo and had to leave, then Hitler invaded and ‘liberated’ Kosovo and he had to leave, now ‘NATO’ occupied and ‘liberated’ Kosovo… All great ‘humanitarians’ to say the least… See the trend here?
As for his many names/identities, Mr. Schwartz uses his Jewish name in a cheap bid for instant credibility: if a Jew defends Muslims, surely he must have a point…? But even if his identity was not so murky, his arguments would still be rubbish; his history is simply wrong, and his conclusions are vacuous nonsense.
I honestly believe that all the intense hatred displayed at the Serbs stems directly from their refusal to take orders from the Empires of history. All the other members of the former Yugoslavia only wish they had that kind of fortitude.The Albanians have been totally opportunistic and obedient to whatever great power has wielded influence over the Balkans and have absolutely no historical record of principled behavior whatsoever. Even their newly found “secularism” in Kosovo is a convenient placation of the neo-marxist Eurocrats who frown on faith.
NATO led by the USA and their British puppet hates Serbs for not being sufficiently “compliant” in the way that so many vassal states of Europe are. Who in eastern Europe has had the temerity to resist America’s/NATO “invitation” to host garrisons, permanent military bases or missile installations - other than “hated” Serbia ? Contrary to what mainstream media says on daily basis, Serbia suffers precisely because she does not regard EU/USA as her “master”.Look at all Balkan countries, they have all benefited at the expense of Serbia, because Serbian voice is ignored and never heard.
When Kosovo inevitably becomes a member of the EU the real fun will start. As I understand it rather a lot of Al Quaida “freedom fighters” ( PC mantra) settled in the region before, during and after the war. I suppose they will be entitled to invite their rather extended families to come and join?
Catherine, if someone is converted form a religion to another, this doesn’t mean to use a new name. For the case we all know many known actors of Hollyvood converted into Budhist or Hindu, they don’t use Chineze or Indian names!!!
This kind of belives are in the heart Catherine not in the names.
Stephen Schwartz is the name that his parents gave to him and the freedom to chose what to belive or to change his belives contuinously, doesn’t mean that he will change his identity.We live in a free world and we can use each name we like to be presented in private or in public even someone don’t like it!
I can’t say this enough to you: READ. FOR. CONTEXT. It’s really really obvious when someone comes in with their own agenda and is UNABLE to ascertain what is REALLY being said here.
Frankly,I do not give a damn what he is doing as private citizen and how many identities he uses in the process as long as he is not presenting himself to be much touted “Balkan expert”
Schwartz’s failure to acknowledge in his many diatribes that he is a convert to the religion of Muhamad is obviously mendacious. He is either secretly ashamed of his new identity, or he wants to mislead his readers and editors; perhaps both. In view of what Islam teaches about the Jews, however, self-loathing is probably the most applicable diagnosis of Schwartz.
As apologist for atrocities Muslims did to non-Muslim in Yugoslav bloody civil wars he desperately tries to accomplish what Ottoman Turks, Imperial Austria and Nazi Germany failed: to eliminate Serbs from Balkan region altogether. Just the name of this spineless chameleon and neocon militant should be red flags, even if the book weren’t shameless propaganda for NATO and the KLA. But lo and behold, it is!
And since it’s a free country ( or so we are led to believe) I as reader think people who employ or publish him owe us an explanation for his and their failure to acknowledge this significant fact: that he is a Muslim. The attempt to turn Schwartz, a.k.a. Suleyman Ahmad, into an author will come to haunt all those helping him in his self-invention, especially when this deeply troubled and unstable man decides to turn a new page in his Odyssey.
p.s. I suggest fair-minded people to investigate Schwartz’s flaky curriculum vitae, which stumbles from Trotskyite to “Islam expert” to authority on Balkan issues to well, unclassifiable weirdness.
On personal note:My husband was in Kosovo about 18 months ago to see the burnt out churches and monasteries and and to visit nuns living in burnt out box cars of trains. It was so sad. His group brought about five or six suitcases full of basic medicines. The medical dispensary was almost empty when they came with their supplies. The UN troops look on..and do nothing. Mosques, funded by the Saudis, are going up all over the place. Yet, this is supposed to be a successful UN and European operation..I guess it is for the Muslims as they establish another foothold in Europe. The reports made after the trip basically went nowhere. Only a few media and Congress members showed interest. And for some of you who claim ethnic cleansing, human rights, please do not make me laugh, enough of this hypocritical political gibberish.
Albanians have got the money from being the biggest drugs, arms and women and children traffickers in the area.
The money has found its ways in |American Senate’s lobbies….MONEY TALKS…but God sees all!
Stephen Schwartz — a lyrical biography
For those curious to know a few biographical details about Stephen Schwartz (and see below), here is a great little poem that appeared on a Sufi discussion site around the time of the Kosovo war.
WHO IS THIS PERSON?
Who is this person, this man Stephen Schwartz?
a question that’s asked by all manner and sorts
A trade union man who ne’er mastered a trade
Or a man of the sea, who not one voyage made
An agent of anarchy in a radical cell
Merely playing a role for a story to sell
His passions confined to wars already lost
To bleed for beliefs? far too high a cost
With blood still being spilled for poor people’s fate
He chose the Spanish revolt, half-century too late
All ongoing struggles and fighting and killing
Were sidestepped with care by this warrior unwilling
Devoid of real courage and anarchist zest
He waged his revolt from the Cafe Trieste
No explosions nor death, desert heat, jungle rains
Just Latte’s, Biscottis, and hemorroidal pains
Comrade Sandalio walked away from the causes
An insurgent impotent, he obeyed all the lawses
But a new calling leapt from deep in his soul
To pen biographique for whom the bell tolls
At the obituary desk in the heart of the city
Steve’s secret life, just like Walter Mitty
While cutting and pasting details of the dead
To a war-ravaged land his fantasy led
Overnight, so it seems, a New Cause did emerge
Convert to Islam! An irrepressible urge!
Cartoon-like comb-over, ellipsoidal bod
Strange creature indeed, Suleyman ben Ahmad
Fake revolutionary? No, no, not any more
Now a make-believe journalist, bound for the war!
And Steve’s new religion and peaceful dictate
Caused nary a pause in his spreading of hate
We now see the dream of this red diaper boy
To preach war on TV is his true pride and joy
And no hawk so fierce, on the left or the right
As one calling for War once he’s too old to fight
But, balding and bitter, Schwartz did what he can
To wage holy war ‘gainst beloved Islam
Stephen’s Black Book of Bad Men, those who plot and deceive
Was it scripted for Ahmad in old Tel Aviv?
A self-proclaimed Sufi peddling Sharon’s agenda
He tiptoes the high wire as if born a Wallenda
He’s rejected your culture; he’s mocked it for years
Now he calls for your sons to shed blood, sweat and tears
Before waging a war from this charlatan’s teaching
Look up His Own History and what he’s been preaching
And there you will find amidst all of the rubble
A life of Great Causes…
but none worth your trouble.
“Stephen Schwartz” certainly has a lot to say about the rioting that happened in Belgrade, Serbia. His venom for the youths that have been subjected to years of threats and actual ethnic cleansing in different parts of former Yugoslavia is really astonishing. I guess when you want to believe the certainly proven lies of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and their puppets in the European countries who would rather bomb than investigate the venom coming from western politician, than it’s easy to perpetuate that same lie and kick the same people while stealing parts of their homeland.
What other province of former Yugoslavia is as ethnically diverse as Serbia. the answer is NONE.
Croatia and Slovenia still believe that the goodness and benevolence of Nazism will return to their regions and kill off the undesirables one day. Bosnian Muslims and now Kosovo’s Muslim population have drunk the potion of fundamentalism and will be following the instructions from Mecca for a long time to come regardless of all the trappings of the western culture.
But, people like Mr. “Stephen Schwartz” are just lazy bloggers who want to think themselves as journalists.
I guess he is the product of this generation of 10 second attention span.
Real war criminals are “journalists” like this with their mentors, who lied people and created political conflicts in the first place. Their evil words killed more people than any poor soldier from any army. I hope to see “International Criminal Tribunal” for these one day
“Stephen Schwartz” certainly has a lot to say about the rioting that happened in Belgrade, Serbia. His venom for the youths that have been subjected to years of threats and actual ethnic cleansing in different parts of former Yugoslavia is really astonishing. I guess when you want to believe the certainly proven lies of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair,now Bush and their puppets in the European countries who would rather bomb than investigate the venom coming from western politician, than it’s easy to perpetuate that same lie and kick the same people while stealing parts of their homeland.
What other province of former Yugoslavia is as ethnically diverse as Serbia. the answer is NONE.
Croatia and Slovenia still believe that the goodness and benevolence of Nazism will return to their regions and kill off the undesirables one day. Bosnian Muslims and now Kosovo’s Muslim population have drunk the potion of fundamentalism and will be following the instructions from Mecca for a long time to come regardless of all the trappings of the western culture.
But, people like Mr. “Stephen Schwartz” are just lazy bloggers who want to think themselves as journalists.
I guess he is the product of this generation of 10 second attention span.
Real war criminals are “journalists” like this with their mentors, who lied people and created political conflicts in the first place. Their evil words killed more people than any poor soldier from any army. I hope to see “International Criminal Tribunal” for these one day
“Stephen Schwartz” certainly has a lot to say about the rioting that happened in Belgrade, Serbia. His venom for the youths that have been subjected to years of threats and actual ethnic cleansing in different parts of former Yugoslavia is really astonishing. I guess when you want to believe the certainly proven lies of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair,now Bush and their puppets in the European countries who would rather bomb than investigate the venom coming from western politician, than it’s easy to perpetuate that same lie and kick the same people while stealing parts of their homeland.
What other province of former Yugoslavia is as ethnically diverse as Serbia. the answer is NONE.
Croatia and Slovenia still believe that the goodness and benevolence of Nazism will return to their regions and kill off the undesirables one day. Bosnian Muslims and now Kosovo’s Muslim population have drunk the potion of fundamentalism and will be following the instructions from Mecca for a long time to come regardless of all the trappings of the western culture.
But, people like Mr. “Stephen Schwartz” are just lazy bloggers who want to think themselves as journalists.
I guess he is the product of this generation of 10 second attention span.
Real war criminals are “journalists” like this with their mentors, who lied people and created political conflicts in the first place. Their evil words killed more people than any poor soldier from any army. I hope to see “International Criminal Tribunal” for these one day
The Yugoslavian wars happened before we had Internet or anything similar to correct bias from MSM, and in a region where we simply didn’t know very well, it seems that the media went into ‘Lemmings mode’ and duplicated the bias of each other, assuming that the Serbians were really the criminals and everyone else victims.
Reality, as usual, is a lot more complex. And particular so in the Balkans. But a couple of fairly straight documentaries opened the subject for me - in particular on those supposed Nazi-style concentration camps in Bosnia. That caused an outrage. Her is a documentary that shows how the story was created:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=12348048107498892
Much of what we did there, including UN involvement, probably deepened and extended the conflict significantly. Which is something I’m having some trouble handling, as I’m usually very pro-American. But the endless mistakes and failures from particular the Clinton administration left the door wide open for radical Islam, including bin Laden in person.
I’ll add two titles that “opened my eyes” on this topic
Media Cleansing: Dirty Reporting - Book by Peter Brock which deals specifically with the biased reporting on the Yugoslavian wars.
Christopher Deliso: “The Coming Balkan Caliphate”, which documents in detail the extent of Wahhabi infiltration of the Balkans, including construction of hundreds of mosques for Saudi money. This, in particular, is a time bomb that we would be very wise to identify and dismantle. Wahhabi Islam is foreign to the Balkans, which used to be quite relaxed about religion, in particular after the Ottomans were thrown out.
I will keep watching what goes on there.
mystical_cranial wrote:
As a Canadian reading about this whole Kosovo situation, I am somewhat intrigued. If one looks at American involvement outside of their borders, one sees that the US government is not interested in the “citizens” of the countries that they have “invaded” (or come to help), but what that country can offer them. Iraq: no WMD, but oil. Now let’s look at Kosovo. Why is the US so adamant about Kosovo independence? Give this some really deep intellectual thought, please. Do a little reading, and look at history since the Nato bomings in 1999. Do you really think Bush cares about the Albanians living in Kosovo? Really? If he did, then why doesn’t he send his troops to Sudan/Darfur (oh yes, the Chinese control the oil companies there)? Since 1999, one of the largest US military bases in Europe was built in Kosovo — Camp Bondsteel (is the general public aware of that? You can easily “google” this). Also, are Canadians aware about the US-Caspian Oil pipeline that is being built in Kosovo? Interestingly enough, recall, that the current US Vice President (Dick Cheney) used to be the CEO (and now large shareholder) of Haliburton Technologies. More interestingly, Haliburton Tech (US company) holds the contracts for both: Camp Bondsteel & you guessed it, US-Caspian pipeline. Unfortunately, in the US-dominated world we live in today, “large financial contracts” can tear apart sovereign nations, such as we see today in Serbia-Kosovo. I really hope that there is NOT a large hidden oil deposit in Quebec! Regards, - Intellect & “not-CNN”
I really have to stress it again, think about the American sponsored “US-Caspian Pipeline” (or Trans-Balkan pipeline) which passes through Albania/Kosovo. Interestingly, why did Bush go to Albania in the fall of 2007 & tell them he supports them & Kosovo Albanians (even though his watch was stolen from his wrist), prior to Kosovo recognition? Hmmmm….once again, that US pipeline requires passage thru Albania. Bartering chip: Albania says yes to pipeline, and Bush says yes to Kosovo independence. Oh Georgie Bush…how many millions do you need to live a comfortable life after your presidency? Like Bruce Springteen once said: “Poor man wonna be rich, rich man wonna be king, and a King ain’t satisfied till he rules everything.”
Yes Mr Schwartz, the “evil” Serbs (who just looove to play victims, and are NEVER victimized), were the only aggressors in all Balkan conflicts, while charming, friendly and fun-loving Albanian leaders Agim Cheku, Hashim Thaci and Haradinaj (whose illegal organization KLA was recognized as terrorist by the UN) were just holding hands with children, peacefully picking flowers and singing “Ode to Joy” in fields of Kosovo. And arms, drug, stolen car, and human trafficking in Kosovo for the last 10 years, was actually done by Japanese Samurai, not friendly, ever-smiling, freedom-loving Albanians.
Seems that your knowledge of Balkan situation in the last 30 years comes down to - When unsure, just blame Milosevic and evil Serbs.
I don’t understand why the Kosovo Albanians think that now Kosovo is independent. Hasn’t anybody told them that now Kosovo belongs to the U.S.A.(may be they like it). As a matter of fact Kosovo has just become the 51st state of U.S.
For starters, the U.S. has installed one of their biggest military bases in Southeast Europe (euphemistically termed as a NATO base).
Soon, they will be dumping all their nuclear waste there (already radiation is high, due to the depleted Uranium spread all over by the “good” NATO bombs during the “liberation” war).
The Americans will be supervising the currently disorganized drugs dealing & transportation and also the human trafficking, which at the moment are in the hands of the local Albanian Mafia. As a sidekick, the Americans will have free drug rations for their soldiers and also, use the local Albanian girls as sex slaves for their military personnel (see Philippines).
So, Kosovo Albanians, you may now enjoy your newly-found INDEPENDENCE.
Thank you for very informative blog post. I have noticed that Albanians for years have used Noel Malcolm and this Swartz guy as source for all kinds of remarkable claims. Now everything comes together. Both of them are is part of a campaign to culturally cleanse Kosovo from Serbs. As if the ethnic cleansing of non-albanians from Kosovo was not enough, now they are also trying to cleanse Serbs from Kosovo’s history. It is time to expose this revisionist, put the spotlight on him.
why does the jewish community in north america hate serbs so much?
my grandfather and many friends are jews living in belgrade who are disgusted with the representations of serbs in the world…
XX if you are aiming at this vile Stephen Schwartz,remember he’s a self hating ex-Jew who converted ( became MUSLIM) in 1997 in Bosnia–Hercegovina. Not much a Jew ! He is champion of ISLAM in Balkans.
As for the American Jews or Americans in general, Yes, unlike Israeli counterparts, American Jews are as confused as everyone else.the Balkans are a mystery to almost every American, including the intelligentsia, who stay away from the subject like a plague. Even conservatives, who support the war on terror and the war in Iraq, have a blind spot and an apathy when it comes to the Balkans, as well as to the fact that a lot of the terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere are connected to the Balkans. The lack of commentary, due to the culpable media’s blackout,and lies of so-called journalist like Mr. Schwartz told on this topic, is largely responsible for the ambivalence we’re observing.
But why are Serbs so much hated by the Western powers? Well,I think,the primary reason is ideological: the Serbs represent everything the virtual empire hates. Serbs are strongly agrarian, very Orthodox and very communal. Serbs remain very distrustful (however sullenly passive at the moment) and have a strong record of defeating (western) powers far more significant than themselves. Serb social and political history reads as one long ideological nightmare for the west: the unity of the warrior ethic with that of the monastic, unified into a single ethnic nexus based around resistance and independence. Milosevic was recreating, perhaps against his own wishes, the militancy of an ethnic and Orthodox state aimed at the west, both ideologically and militarily.
Serbian history revolves around ethnic unity, agrarianism and the church, specifically the monastics. This makes Serbs the intrinsic enemy of the west, capitalism, Marxism and every other artificial “ism” that has been imposed on the Serbs throughout her history. The west was shocked a few years ago when the Radicals won the elections, forcing the west to shut them down–or else.
Religiously, Serbs has stood in the way of Vatican penetration into the Balkans for centuries. She remains a bulwark against the sick American evangelicals, New Agers and other trendy and profitable religious mentalities emanating from the west. In other words, she is a regular inconvenience that will not go away, and thus, the west uses the last arrow in her quiver, slander and military attack. Of course, this attack needed to be done, by the Air Force, at 30,000 feet. Serbian infantry, tucked away in the mountains, would have made mincemeat of the green and arrogant American forces, as the Iraqi resistance is presently doing today in the Mideast, and under less cover that Serbia has.
Also,The Empire led by the USA was worried about Serbia for a number of reasons, 1) she is strategically located astride the oil pipeline routes from south Russia and Central Asia, in other words, she is the Belarus of the South, in energy terms. 2) People like Milosevic were creating a system that was the nightmare of Regime elites: a social, nationalist government that was non-communist, but based on a strongly ethnic and national vision of economics and wealth distribution. 3) Serbia has a reputation of being a country capable of living their national life under the most extreme of circumstances, and regularly throwing a monkey wrench into the great-power games in the region such as Austria-Hungary and Germany in WWI, Byzantium in the middle ages, Germany in WWII, Islam throughout its history, the Vatican and the British, at one time or another. Serbia has always, in other words, been an “inconvenient” country for the Regime throughout its history. 4) Kosovo is the wealthiest area in Europe, in that it sits upon a massive store of mineral wealth that reminds one f the pompous cliche’s thrown at South Africa in the 1980s, and for the same reason.
Therefore, the Regime began a propaganda campaign designed to assault, humiliate and eventually eliminate everything Serbian. “Serbian” and “evil” were synonymous in the popular, journalistic and academic mind, without even the slightest critical thought among establishment sources. Of course, there is little reason to repeat the notion that American, democratic foreign policy is a fraud, designed solely to promote the needs of the Regime in general, following no real principle except that.
Serbian people are very individualistic, free thinking and highly independent.
As such they and people like them are hard to control and mold.
Evil empire needs subservient and obedient subjects and it is logical that it will support people with those traits.
It is logical that evil empire will be anti-Serb, and anti-anybody who puts their own interests and desires ahead of the wishes, ambitions and desires of the evil empire to dominate and occupy entire planet.
We have had to listen to 17 years of unrelenting, vicious anti-Serb propaganda. Just lately there has been an uncharacteristic flurry in the media of articles written with an alternate viewpoint (in addition to, not instead of, the usual anti-serb bile), and there is an apparent chorus of shrieking and hissing from the gallery. I am furthermore concerned that on originally spotting such articles, then they magically disappear from every CIF listings page; you can find them if you remember the contributor, but you wouldn’t stumble across them by accident!
Serbia & former Yugoslavia is the most misreported story of modern times. It is consistent with an undercurrent of bias towards reporting of Russia (and even Greece when it suits). Serbia has enemies simply by virtue of being independently minded, of sitting on a catholic/orthodox/muslim faultline, of being a socialist country, of having Russian sympathies, of being a regional power with a serious army, of shaming the capitalist model by having had better education and healthcare with less money….
The man on the western street might not be bothered by some of the things above, but those in power really are.
I stumbled upon this blog and after reading it extensively I wish to describe to people like Mr. Schwartz and others of his kind in the West something I call “Serbia’s secret weapon”
First of all, our rich history has taught us INAT ( Serbian word) in the face of the world – and even of our own best interests.
The meaning of the Serbian word inat in a bilingual dictionary (like Morton Benson’s is often defined in terms of “malice”, “spite”, or “grudge”. None of these is a direct equivalent and each contains only a partial component of the emotional complexities the word suggests to the Serbian ear.
A closer correspondence for inat would be, in the words of Dragan Milovic, “an attitude of proud defiance, stubborness and self-preservation - sometimes to the detriment of everyone else or even oneself.”
The word inat most recently acquired notoriety as a description of the Serbian mentality in 1999, during Nato’s bombing of the country; many Serb citizens proudly displayed a “target” symbol on their coat, or even defiantly held annual public events despite the air raids. But in its way, this was only the latest manifestation of a long historical trend.
Indeed, the fact that Serbian history from the inside can seem like a catalogue of resistance to overbearing power is one key to inat. The word itself derives from the Turkish (and before then, Arabic) language of the Ottoman empire whose forces subdued and were resisted by Serbian people for half a millennium. In the course of this history, both the language and the wider culture of the Ottomans influenced the way Serbs defined themselves – in bitter opposition as well as compromise and negotiation – as a European nation on the “frontier” between cultures.
For Serbs, the defence of their Orthodox religious and cultural inheritance became a formative element in this 500-year experience. Out of their predicament – and the combination of persecution, frustration, powerlessness, and regret that it entailed – they acquired a particular, everyday mentality characterised by doing things according to the inat principle. This could mean acting in a negative mode for the sake of it; in Milovic’s words, “doing things because someone has told you you can’t, not necessarily because you actually want to”.
An ironic reflection comments on this aspect of the Serbian character: “Who says we cannot swim? Sink this boat!”
Some of the important dates in Serbian history – from the first big anti-Turkish uprising (1804), the start of the first (1914) and second (1941) world wars, the break with the Soviet Union (1948), to the Nato bombardment (1999) – suggest reasons for this way of thinking, one described by the respected writer and filmographer Branko Copic as “anti-against”.
Even current political party controversies in Serbia, or those over the very future of the state union of Serbia & Montenegro, are sometimes analysed in terms of a politics of mutual inat. For example, in the June 2004 presidential elections, the unexpectedly surprisingly high support for the candidate of the nationalistic Radical party (SRS), Tomislav Nikolic, rather than his democratic rival, Boris Tadic, was explained by reference to inat – the voters responding to the slickness and overkill of the democrat with an attitude of “now I won’t even vote for what I would like”.
The malicious mixture of vengeance and envy in inat is reflected in the popular saying: Da komsiji crkne krava (“If only the neighbour’s cow would die”). The neighbour may be a fellow-Serb; but he, or his family, or even his ancestors may have wronged you in some way many years ago, or maybe just performed better than you on some occasion. So you stubbornly preserve (and even lovingly nurture) the resentful wound in your heart; and teach your young ones to do the same.
All this makes it easy to understand why Serbs say Inat je los zanat, meaning that the inat is an evil craft, knowledge or even skill. But if inat can disturb the peaceful atmosphere within a community (especially a small one), its positive aspects should not be overlooked. It is, at times, a motivating spirit that pulls the best out of you – for example, the strength to win a decisive basketball match when nobody would bet on your team. Or even, when life is not so good on a larger, national level – and Serbs have plenty of experience of that in recent years – inat can also furnish people with the resilience to feel that they can be subjects as well victims of their own history.
Today is my father’s 80th birthday. This is a milestone birthday that no one else in our family has reached, so far as we know (because in the early part of the 20th century there were no written records kept where they lived). He was born into a hard working peasant family in the village of Čaglavica in Kosovo, and he learned at an early age that you are valued for what you contribute to this world and not for what you take from it. He acquired, both through his genes and his environment, the skill of relying on nothing more than your wits and Serbian tenacity, or inat, to survive brutalities imposed on you by others, because, more often than not, everything else would be taken away from you anyway.
Recently my dad has suffered from a very serious and debilitating illness, but his inat keeps him going. He still looks ahead, he still makes plans for the future like a 30 year old. The fact that he’s made it to this birthday indicates that he might yet have a few more. The same qualities that his people possessed, which enabled them to survive one invader after another, now get him through each day. The Serbs didn’t give themselves over to their Turkish conquerors and even after 500 years of being dominated by them, and, despite being severely pressured by the Turks to do so, they never entirely assimilated into Turkish life and culture. At last the Serbs found themselves able to overthrow the Turks and they took their country back. But not long after that, during World War II, they had new self-imposed “masters” — German/Italian-aligned Albanians — lording it over them in Kosovo. When these fascists had finally been sent packing, it was Tito’s communists who stepped into the conquerors’ vacuum and mercilessly subjugated peasants all around Serbia, forcing collective farming methods onto them, which failed miserably, and taking away land that peasant families had owned and farmed for generations.
During World War II, my dad was a young adolescent whose regular job, when he wasn’t away at school in Priština, was to get the sheep to a grazing field several kilometers from the village. This was something he enjoyed – he would take in the scenery and think for hours about this and that as he watched the sheep and the reliable family dog, Karaman. This suited him as he was an introspective kid and was happy with his own company and time to dream. Every day his mother, my dear nana, packed him a lunch of traditional foods made by her and various daughters and daughters-in-law in their extended family village compound: bread and kajmak, maybe some pršut, possibly some šljive or jabuke picked in their orchards. He spent all day in the field, giving the sheep plenty of time to graze, seeing hardly a soul, except an occasional person walking in the distance. With Karaman’s help he would herd the sheep home toward the end of the day, and always before darkness approached.
One particular day, after the war had started, the boy was a little down in the mouth because all the schools had been closed, the reason given was that if they were closed they wouldn’t be full of children and teachers if they were bombed. Sitting on the grass with Karaman nearby and watching the sheep scattered all around as they lazily chomped the greenery, the boy’s thoughts were on the war and an uncertain future. This child, perhaps not yet 14 years old, sensed someone coming toward him. Sure enough, a man was walking in his direction, someone who looked to be in his early twenties. Although he was a stranger to him, the boy recognized the man as an Albanian. The boy’s family had many Albanian friends and business acquaintances in this part of Serbia where Serbian and Albanian villages existed side by side.
Soon the man came very near the boy, who waved slightly and said, “Hello.”
“I’m hungry – you got anything to eat?”, responded the man.
“Oh, sure. It’s almost noon — you’re welcome to share my lunch with me.” And the boy gave the man half his food.
From his sitting position on his rug on the grass, the boy turned to check on the sheep when suddenly he keeled over. Standing over him, the man had taken the boy’s shepherd staff in both hands and cracked it against his head with enough force to kill him, enough force to break the staff. He must have been satisfied that he had killed him because he left him as he lay, there on the ground, and finished the business that had brought him there. Later, people who had been walking on the nearby road said that on that day, at about that time, they had seen a young Albanian man walking with a lamb over his shoulders; however, because Albanian fascists ruled Kosovo at that time, there was no investigation, and while his child victim lay in a coma, near death, this potential murderer was left undisturbed to lick his fingers as he ate his lamb kebabs, without so much as a slap on the wrist.
When the boy came to, he saw only darkness. It took him a few moments to realize that his head was covered in blood, and for an instant it occurred to him that he must have been blinded, but, no — it was dusk. He tried to feel his way around with his hands, to crawl away from there, but soon he fell into unconsciousness again. When he next awoke it was very dark, but he heard voices in the distance calling his name. When he didn’t show up at home, his family and a number of other villagers came looking for him. He vaguely felt them lift his limp body into the bed of a horse-drawn wagon and he spent the ride home drifting in and out of consciousness, catching an occasional word as one person or another wondered, astonished, who could have done this.
In Kosovo during the war years Serbs were not allowed to be treated by Serbian doctors. Only Albanian doctors could be called. Not only that, but Albanian “officials” felt free to impose themselves on Serbian homes at will and to demand whatever they wanted – under pain of death. One such Albanian especially liked my grandfather’s farm and would show up every so often from his office in Priština to enjoy long weekends of eating their tasty food while he languished about the place however and wherever he liked.
It was important that it be seen that an Albanian doctor had examined his son, so one was called, or their situation would have been even more dangerous, but my grandfather often sneaked the family’s Serbian doctor into their house during the night. The trauma to his brain put the boy into a coma for a month. Of course, in those days there were no MRIs, and certainly no fancy equipment or techniques for saving someone from such a severe brain trauma, even less the possibility of finding out exactly what damage had been done. And, yet, the family was satisfied — although the Albanian doctor had immediately given the boy up as a terminal case, the Serbian doctor pulled him through. He lived, which was more than the family had dared to hope. He came out of his coma with deficits, unable to walk, speak, or read and write, but his inat hadn’t left him, and the boy relearned those things over time, so well that no one could tell he had once been unable to do those ordinary things.
It was only very late in his life that my father got medical confirmation of why he had been so over-sensitive, so obsessive-compulsive and often overly focused, why he has found it difficult, almost impossible, to trust others, and why life has generally been such a struggle for him. It was not due only to the traumatic effects of growing up in wartime, living in constant fear for yourself and your family, and subsequently, during Tito’s regime, enduring his family’s persecution and the pain of losing a dear older brother who was murdered by the communists. As though that wasn’t enough, that thief had permanently damaged his brain – at the back, toward the left of the head, a very important area for normal functioning. Effectively, my dad has had to function like a sprinter who has a broken leg, but continues to run; therefore, very imperfectly. And all his life, after that brutal attack by someone who had no qualms about taking a boy’s life so he could steal one of his sheep, all his life after that, my dad’s inat helped him to overcome, however he could, the disability imposed on him by this Albanian “neighbor.” My dad’s ways didn’t always endear him to others, but he survived the only way he knew how, by hyperfocusing, and all along the way, amazingly, he maintained his integrity.
The great irony in this story is that, had the man told the boy that he had no food at home, had he simply asked for a lamb, the boy would more than likely have invited him to help himself, because that was how my grandfather had brought him up – to share what you have with those who have less; that to give is much nobler than to receive.
Many people have tried to exterminate the Serbs, but, as Darwin showed us, the stronger of the species survive to procreate and pass down their traits. Serbs were tested time and again, and it was those with inat who survived and overcame one adversity after another in Serbia, and that tenacity, that pride and never-say-die attitude, even at your own expense, is not gone. It has been passed down millions of times, and it is still in the Serbian people. They have often endured for long periods, they had faith in the truth and waited for it to save them, but when pushed to the brink the Serbs’ inat showed itself, and it will show itself again.
Many enemies have threatened to annihilate Serbs, including my father’s ancestors and his immediate family members, and have tried to do it. Many expected my father to die – that Albanian thief left him lying in the pasture, convinced that he was dead. More recently, my father’s doctors thought he would be gone by now and are amazed at how well he has been doing despite all their dire predictions. During that time he has celebrated 2 more birthdays, and this, his 80th is very noteworthy.
There is a lot to be said for inat – when it’s part of your makeup there isn’t much that can keep you down. I am exceedingly proud to possess my own inat.
Happy birthday to my father!
>>yet since 2000 a democratic Serbia
You want a medal for net starting a fifth war?? Maybe because NATO will not let you? Stop it with the propaganda, then people will stop reminding of your history.
Albanian wrote:
>>yet since 2000 a democratic Serbia
You want a medal for net starting a fifth war?? Maybe because NATO will not let you? Stop it with the propaganda, then people will stop reminding of your history.
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No doubt he’d never seen his current behavior as fitting his own description.
I think Mr. Limbic’s ( as well as majority’s commenting on his blog) recognition of manipulation breeds tension in Albanians such as yourself. I think his disparaging the type of manipulation that your kind is using makes you hate that we see it so clearly.
As for the rest of Albanians and pro-albanian kinds/supporters If you are happy being horses, ridden by European Senators or American Emperors in Serb province Kosovo, we should indulge you, but we need to get you another stable.
I have worked for 5 years in Kosovo. In that time, I have grown ashamed at Western policy directed at Serbia and the Serbian people. It is essentially punitive in nature, conveniently disregarding international law to serve self-interest, while insisting that everything is based on human rights. Stereotypes take the place of analysis, hysteria takes the place of carefully considered policy and hypocrisy triumphs. Soon there will be no Serbs in the land that was genuinely the cradle of their civilization - thanks to all the above. And the West remains silent. Disgraceful.
I remind this political opportunist Schwartz that during the 1999 NATO bombing over
90,000 Albanians fled to Belgrade… into the arm