First and foremost, we should stay out of it.
Thank God that Georgia has not actually joined NATO, or we would already be at war with Russia. NATO should have been disbanded in 1991, when it ceased to have anything to do. But instead, it has been extended to within a few hundred miles of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and it has gone about looking for conflicts from Kosovo to Afghanistan. Let the realisation that we were one treaty signature away from World War Three, a global nuclear war, finally kill off NATO.
Georgia has withdrawn entirely from Iraq in order to fight this war. Perhaps Russia should invade the United Kingdom.
Odd how every microscopic entity in the Balkans that decides to declare itself independent is indulged, even to the point of military force, by the West, whereas those who seek to do the same thing in the Caucuses, objecting to the arbitrary borders imposed by Stalin rather than insisting on the arbitrary borders imposed by Tito, receives exactly the opposite response, possibly even to the point of military force.
If they will submit to the closely connected forces of European federalism, American hegemony and global capital, then even smack-smuggling, women-trafficking Wahhabi who wear black shirts in deference to their SS fathers and grandfathers can declare any bit of soil they like to be their state. But no one who will not so submit can expect anything other than scorn.
We need lots and lots of nuclear power. Then Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be of no more interest to us than Northern Ireland, the Basque Country or the deteriorating situation in Belgium is of any interest to the Georgians, the Abkhazians or the South Ossetians.
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A bit lame. I was interested how you would react to the conflict since a) you hate sepratism (unless it is from Muslim rule) and b) you are very pro-Russian. Think your response is a bit of a fudge to be honest.
ReplyDeleteDo not know how Stalin would have felt about his hometown Gori being bombed. On the other hand Georgians frequently claim that Stalin's father was of Ossetian blood - a claim to try and remove his legacy in his native land.
Anyway, the Georgians should just allow referendums in there and Arbkazia to see where the local populations want to go. Like Kosovo with Serbia, it looks like South Ossetia is lost to Georgia.
I am sure however the Ukrainians are tooling up for a fight on the back what has been happening. The Western Ukrainians will not be bullied by Moscow. They feel no allegiance to Moscow as they only fell into their sphere during WWII.
When the elections took place in Ukraine last year when I was visiting, Yulia Tymoshenko (now the PM) was talking about tooling up the Ukrainian armed forces. She is probably behind Ukrainian demands that Russia withdrawls its Black Sea fleet from Sevastapol - to which Russia has threatened to ferment problems in the Crimea and other pro-Russian parts of the Ukraine.
This might lead to the collapse of the Ukrainian state - with the pro-West, Ukrainian Catholic part going one way, the pro-Russian East going another, leaving poor old Kiev with what is left.
However my beloved Lviv will once again be a capital city (it was the capital of the short-lived Western Ukrainian Republic). My friends there will be pleased with that.
I am not even going to argue with you over Kosovo. You do not like Albanians because they are Muslim more than anything else. You probably despise even Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu/Nene Tereza/Mother Theresa because of her Albanian (born in Skopje though)origins. The airport in Tirana is named after her.
Strange really since the late King Zog (Ahmed El Zogu) himself bent over backwards to promote both Islam and Christianity amongst Albanians in his kingdom. He took his oath of kingship both on the Koran and the Bible.
Is the KLA a bit dodgy. Yes. Was Sloba a bit dodgy. Yes. Where Sloba went wrong in Kosovo was abolishing their autonomy and when the rebellion happened, trying to drive the Albanian population out of the region.
If he had not done this he would have been left alone to die in his bed like Tudjman and Izetbegovic. It the fact he went back to the same tactics used during the civil war that hacked off the west.
Go on, keep claiming Izetbegovic was in the SS (would someone with this background be allowed into politics during the communist period). There is no evidence. Comes from the same source about the absurd claim that Tudjman was in the Ustasa when he was fighting with Tito and was on his personal staff. Indeed for many years he was Tito's protege (both men of course being Croat - does that make Tito a facist?)
By the way, why do you never mention the deal Prince Paul of Yugoslavia did with the Axis before the invasion or the actitivities of the Chetniks.
You should maybe do some unbiased reading on this issue, rather than reading sources from Serbian and Russian ultranationalist websites and those like Neil Clark who keep repeating them.
A bit of travel around the region (like myself) might not also do a miss.
Concerning by the way the Dando case (you were mentioning about how Serb involvment was impossible) it should be pointed out that Yugoslavian-state assasinations did take place. Famously in Scotland a Yugoslavian agent Vinko Sindicic (a Croat posing as a Swiss businessman) tried to kill a Croat dissident in Kirkaldy in circumstances similar to the Dando death in 1988. Only the dissident's dog got in the way.
He got 15 years and was deported to Croatia after serving 10 as a category prisoner. He still lives in Croatia despite the French wanting to speak to him about a murder of a Croat dissident in Paris.
Apparently the Yugoslavian Secret Service used to carry out a few assasinations. There are claims they even shot a nine year old son of a dissident when the family were found shot dead in Italy.
"you hate separatism (unless it is from Muslim rule)"
ReplyDeleteWhere is there an example of this today? In the Republika Srpska or in Serbian enclaves within Kosovo, I suppose. And in Ngorno-Karabakh. All illustrations of my main point.
"Georgians frequently claim that Stalin's father was of Ossetian blood"
These ethnic groups are so mixed up that separatism among them is ridiculous, and liable to set relatives against each other. Remind you of anywhere? (The ethnic Russians have blood ties to every other people of the former USSR or Soviet Union. Every single one.)
"You do not like Albanians because they are Muslim more than anything else."
No, I do not like Wahhabi, or black-shirted nostalgists for the SS, or heroin-smugglers, or people-traffickers, or one of the half-dozen most corrupt territories on earth. Do you? If so, then why?
"Strange really since the late King Zog (Ahmed El Zogu) himself bent over backwards to promote both Islam and Christianity amongst Albanians in his kingdom. He took his oath of kingship both on the Koran and the Bible."
He ws a long way from the KLA. His heirs and succesors aren't, though.
"Go on, keep claiming Izetbegovic was in the SS (would someone with this background be allowed into politics during the communist period)."
Yes. Such people were, routinely, all over Eastern Europe, as well as in Austria. In East Germany, there was even a block party specifically for them.
"There is no evidence."
There is any amount. The only dispute is from Oliver Kamm, and that is only because Neil Clark mentioned it in a review of his book.
"Comes from the same source about the absurd claim that Tudjman was in the Ustasa when he was fighting with Tito and was on his personal staff."
Tudjman was a full-scale Ustasha re-creationist once he was running Croatia, and that is the point.
"both men of course being Croat - does that make Tito a facist?"
No. But you surely wouldn't argue that he was a nice man, or even a good man? He was our ally, but so were Stalin and Mao at the same time.
"By the way, why do you never mention the deal Prince Paul of Yugoslavia did with the Axis before the invasion or the actitivities of the Chetniks."
Because it has nothing to do with anything.
"You should maybe do some unbiased reading on this issue"
And your sources are?
"Famously in Scotland a Yugoslavian agent Vinko Sindicic (a Croat posing as a Swiss businessman) tried to kill a Croat dissident in Kirkaldy in circumstances similar to the Dando death in 1988."
Similar how? And I can see why, being the Yugoslav secret service, they might have wanted to kill a Croat dissident in 1988. I cannot for the life of me see why they would have wanted to kill Jill Dando a decade later, or even why they might ever have heard of Jill Dando.
Albanians are not Wahabists. The vast bulk of them are Hanafi Sunni or Bektashi Sufi. The sort of websites you read claim that Iran (!) is sponsoring wahabists. These sites just pick out frightening words and cobble them together to promote paronoia.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do think you hate muslims regardless of whether they smuggle smack or give alms to Dr Banardo's.
I do not have my book list in front of me at the moment. However I am sure that Durham University has a stock which you can fill your boots with.
Tudjman played down the amount of people killed by the Ustasa. That is all. As I pointed out a while back the graves of Ustasa troops in Zagreb Central cemetery were desecrated and remain so except for a couple of wooden crosses stuck up by relatives.
You focus of banging on about collaboration by the Ustasa etc. So did the Chetniks and that has everything to do with it. Remember the massacred Croats regardless of their political views just as the Ustasa did to Serbs.
Now Tito. Well Tito was no democrat that is for sure. However I think he did a good job out of bad situation and was heck of a more effective and unifying leader than the Karageovics (who abolished democracy in Yugoslavia in 1926).
Today in old Yugsoslavia streets that bear his name remain. In Serbia, in Croatia, in Macedonia etc. Not like Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky where their cult remains largely confined to Russia and Belarus.
Indeed to this day (and this says a lot), on the anniversary of Tito's death, representatives of the governments of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia etc jointly hold a memorial ceremony at his tomb and lay flowers there. Cannot say similar things happen on Stalin's tomb or any other USSR leader. Or indeed Eastern block leader. Or in many cases Western leaders.
There is still (no doubt helped by his cult of personality) a wistfulness that he has gone. Indeed there is a market in Tito impersonators in some parts. The impersonator turns up in a limo to parties (usually on a date connected with him such as his birthday) and recites one of his speech's in full marshal's uniform. Then he waves goodbye and disappears in style - in some cases on a yacht or speedboat.
Titograms. I have never heard of Stalingrams or even Churchillgrams (might be a market in Tory clubs).
Weird that he is still missed even in Croatia, where the governing party founded by Tudjman rules. Tudjman, the man punished by Tito in the 1970's. One of the main squares in Zagreb is Marshal Tito Square and contains the national theatre.
Concerning Zog and co, Zog's supporters for many years ran a hardline Albanian nationalist organisation which used to pull some strange stunts during the communist period. These included a rock attack on the Albanian embassy in Paris and cutting the underwater international telephone cables (for what they were under Hoxa) for Albania.
Zog's son Leka of course is a South-African raised gun runner who has his own posse of gunmen in Albania. He was wanted in Spain for a while.
Concerning Dando, the technique used on the dissident was very similar to the Dando killing. Being grabbed by the arm and being shot at point blank range. However the dog got in the way so the bullets went into the dissident's side before the agent legged it.
Dando was killed not long after the NATO raid on the Belgrade television centre killing some journalists. She also had lead television appeals for aid for Kosovo refugees.
"Albanians are not Wahabists"
ReplyDeleteThe KLA certainly are. Or, at least, they belong to that Postmodern pastiche of these things, like Bin Laden's Pakistani and Pakistani-British admirers. And like Izetbegovic, of course.
"The sort of websites you read claim that Iran (!) is sponsoring wahabists."
I have only ever read comments like that. I have never seen a whole site which, as such, says it.
"Tudjman played down the amount of people killed by the Ustasa. That is all."
He re-created the full panoply of 1930s Fascism, including the genocidal policies towards Serbs and others.
"Being grabbed by the arm and being shot at point blank range."
What, that's it? You'll have to do better than that!
"Dando was killed not long after the NATO raid on the Belgrade television centre killing some journalists."
There are lots of journalists in the world.
"She also had lead television appeals for aid for Kosovo refugees."
Well, she'd read out the words. And I suggest that those about whom she had read out words on Crimewatch had both rather more motive and rather more opportunity.
"I have only ever read comments like that. I have never seen a whole site which, as such, says it."
ReplyDeleteHere ye go:
http://www.savekosovo.org/default.asp?p=4&leader=0&sp=308
http://www.kosovo.net/erpkiminfo_feb04/erpkiminfo08feb04.html
They are a bit drawn out though.
By the way, strangely the Azeri's claim that Nagrano Karabakh is controlled by drug-smuggling, people trafficing gangsters who also kidnap Azeris and hold for ransom.
ReplyDeleteIt also says that Iranian terrorists have been brought in to help(!)
It describes the breakaway region as:
"separatist-terrorist regime posing as an independent state"
Maybe you should start blogging about this as well as Kosovo!
When it kicks off, I certainly will.
ReplyDelete