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I don't think you'll find many people here who'll disagree with you if you say that Serbia got an unnecessarily rough ride over the last two decades. Heck, you would probably even get agreement if you argued that Serbia was just one more in a series of small countries that the US has thrown against the wall and beaten up to prove its manliness to itself and the rest of the world. And that the diplomatic and political blacklisting of Serbia by the Union is a historical injustice.
I'll even argue that what happened viz Milosevic looked a lot like a kangaroo kourt - if for no other reason then because it took as long as it did. I take a rather dim view of the practise of imprisoning someone for years on end without that person actually being convicted of any crime yet.
But FFS, making Karadzic your poster child for the injustices committed against Serbia is like making the outing of Valerie Plame the poster child of investigative reporting. There are serious indications that the man committed war crimes. That means that he should be apprehended and brought to trial. Full stop. End of story.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
Now here's the other side of the story: Karadzic actually did more (much more - Lisbon for one) than Izetbegovic and all the fanatics around him to come to some sort of agreement and preserve peace. Imagine yourself in 1991 - You've got Alija Izetbegovic and Mate Boban at home and Tudjman, Joschka Fisher & Paul II next door. NATO is sharpening its kitchen knives. Guess who the target is. All your neighbours (Except Milosevic) are breathing fire down your spine and promising you Hell...
My point is simple: when Hell breaks lose, it's just that: Hell. I've never been in a comparable situation but I do know that when someone pushes me, I push back.
So, was Karadzic a mastermind of evil? Or was he answering violence with violence? As I said in my posts above, you're a freedom-fighter, a resistant, a hero if you win & a tyrant, a terrorist and a blood thirsty killer if you lose.
Political theories as to who planned it, how and why are abundant. Books have been written on the issue and it has also been debated on ET on a number of occasions.
No, it clearly wasn't a "smooth operation" and numerous contingency plans were certainly worked out and implemented as the play unfolded. But to anyone who closely follows the YU wars of "independence" it is more than clear that Germany, the Vatican and later the United States were heavily involved - not as peace makers but as self-serving antagonists.
Once this belligerent outside intervention (that started in the 80's) is established, the question that springs to mind is: was the Bosnian Serb leadership the internal aggressor or the international victim? The same question is pertinent for Slobodan Milosevic.
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