Wall Street Journal's Grotesque Take On Kosovo

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From:                   Rick Rozoff <R_ROZOFF@xxxxxxxxx>

http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=2796

[As the article contains numerous significant
hyperlinks, it's best viewed at the above URL.]


Reality Macedonia
October 18, 2003

What are they smoking at the Wall Street Journal? A
grotesque take on Kosovo 
By Christopher Deliso

Just when one thought Serbophobia was dying out in the
West, along came the War Street Journal. There?s
really nothing that need be said about Editor Tunku
Varadarajan?s astonishingly asinine conclusion - it
speaks for itself:

"?If the Albanians can make promises to protect Serb
shrines, and the Serbs can bring themselves to believe
those promises, there should be no reason why Bishop
Artemije and his flock cannot arrive at a modern way
of living with reality. And then perhaps the year 1389
might cede, at last, to the present."

This resounding conclusion follows a recap of the
author?s visit to Gracanica, a Serbian enclave located
near Pristina and guarded by KFOR troops. It houses
one of the most magnificent, and one of the last
surviving Byzantine churches in Kosovo. Varadarajan?s
contempt for Serbs is spelled out quite clearly:

"?history is but a flash to the Serbs, for they still
kindle themselves with fuel from the 14th century.
They were defeated in battle by the Turks in 1389--in
a place near here, called the Field of the
Blackbirds--and have turned that defeat into an
elaborate myth, a kind of Balkan "nunca más," or
"never again," an eerie, vengeful national myth of
regret and reprisal. "Losing" Kosovo to the Muslim
Albanians today is unthinkable because it evokes the
loss of Kosovo to the Muslim Turks 600 years ago. So
when prayers are conducted at Gracanica, they are not
so much an attempt to transcend political conflict as
an extension of existential polemics. Orthodox prayer
is politics in Kosovo."

The message is clear: the Serbs are backwards,
religiously-crazed paranoiacs, still living in the
Middle Ages, needlessly upset about a future that will
assuredly be rosy and replete with human rights and
ethnic harmony. Come on, Serbs, keep your chins up and
get with the program!

The sentiment is unreal. It is hard to believe that
the writer could actually have gone to Kosovo, as he
claims, for if he did he certainly left his mind back
in New York. Does he really think that after the
destruction of a few churches (actually, over 110)
that the Serbs of Kosovo should start trusting their
ethnically-challenged neighbors now? And does he
really think that what?s happened in Kosovo since 1999
has been anything other than a focused and persistent
policy of cultural and ethnic cleansing by the
Albanians? And does he think that this campaign is
over, now that elderly Serbs are forced to die of
starvation rather than dare set foot in the street?

Note that this article portrays the Serbs according to
a well-worn precedent that proved indispensable to
their castigation during the 1990?s. The article
presents just a watered-down version of the same logic
that described the Serbs as religiously-crazed
killers. Now, stripped of that opportunity, they?re
just fanatical haters.

However, the oft-repeated statement that the Serbs are
constantly reliving events from 600 years ago is
merely a device to belittle them, and to take away
attention from the fact that in Kosovo the last 4
years, at least, have been pretty terrible (and not
just for the Serbs). This requires no religious
belief- just the facts. Anyone can see this clearly,
unless he chooses to avoid them and instead delight in
conjuring up happy tales of another peoples? laughable
alleged collective reverie.

Indeed, the bishop?s apocalyptic fatalism has less to
do with religion than with the now-realized notion
that in Kosovo, things have gone too far already.
There?s only one way left for them to continue- and it
isn?t the ethnic harmony route.

Of course, for the WSJ, this is all quite funny. In
order to avoid the responsibility for unleashing all
this terror, the West must portray real people as
mercenary cartoon characters. And so the description
of the Serbs, who apparently see

"?their lives as an irreducible conflict between
Christian Serbs and the Albanian Antichrist. The gloom
in their hearts was palpable, as if they knew that
their days in Kosovo were numbered and that their only
option now was to stage an elaborate theater of
outrage--in hopes of getting the outside world to come
to their aid."

What kind of "theatrics" need to be staged, when the
blatant truth is right there, staring everyone in the
face? It is easier for the West to ignore its major
role in the tragedy of Kosovo by belittling it.
Indeed, the only ones talking about the Antichrist are
those now building democracies from Washington. The
problem in Kosovo is not religious hatred- it?s fear
of mass murderers.

This article also seems to be another example of
American-style objectivity. (That is, to report
others? testimony without commenting on its veracity
or implications). This is most often done, of course,
with, the sober noting of what politicians say.
However, in this case one gets the impression that the
author is mildly amused with the antics of these
religiously crazed people stuck in the 14th Century.
And one also gets the impression that he would again
just be mildly amused if Gracanica Monastery were to
be blown up. That Bishop Artemije is fatalistic in
this regard is not inexplicable, considering the fate
of so many other Serbian churches since 1999 when NATO
took over to bring peace to the languishing province.

In closing, I urge anyone who?s never been to
Gracanica to go there and see the church while it
still exists. After experiencing its ethereal beauty
and peace, the visitor will somehow understand a
little of the value that this monument has to the
Serbian people, and even to the rest of us. When such
monuments are destroyed, everyone suffers, whether
they know it or not, because culture has been degraded
and barbarism becomes a little more tolerable. This
allows for a host of other associated criminal acts
that degrade society in general. Indeed, destruction
of cultural treasures says a lot about the kind of
society that allows it, even from afar. And here we
cannot excuse the passive Western "observers" who
claim to support positive intervention but keep
letting the negative seep through.

Someday, when this church too is destroyed, the
visitor will also be able to feel a little of the pain
that the Serbian people have felt for the past 4 years
(never mind the past 600, that?s beside the point). Of
course, by then it will be too late, but at least one
will be able to say, "maybe them Serbs weren?t so
crazy after all." 




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