{"id":1473,"date":"2004-11-19T04:42:41","date_gmt":"2004-11-19T11:42:41","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2004-11-19T04:42:41","modified_gmt":"2004-11-19T11:42:41","slug":"serbia-takes-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/19\/serbia-takes-notice\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia Takes Notice"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t think anyone in Serbia has had time to read the Politics of Destruction<\/a> yet, but it appears I\u2019m not the only one to see things that way. That’s encouraging.
\nHere\u2019s some excerpts from an article in the Thursday, November 18 issue of a Belgrade daily, Nacional, headlined \u201cKostunica resurrecting Milosevic?!\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2026American Serbs are watching their political influence drastically wane due to anti-Serb statements by Serbian leaders… In a recent interview for AP, [foreign minister Vuk] Draskovic commented that \u2018\u201dSerbia is obviously and tragically returning to the era of Slobodan Milosevic.\u201d
\nDraskovic clearly notified Washington that [PM] Kostunica and [his party] DSS should be permanently removed from power, claiming Kostunica has ties to Milosevic.
\n\u201cDraskovic is spreading fear in Washington that Kostunica will lead Serbia back into ethnic conflict…\u201d says a reputable Washington analyst.<\/i>
\n[Nota bene: Wasn’t me; I’m not reputable.]
\nDraskovic\u2019s comments have forced even Serb partisans in Washington to stop and think whether he knows something they don\u2019t.
\n[\u2026]
\n\u201cDraskovic is creating an atmosphere in which it\u2019s impossible for Washington to pay attention to Serbian interests. Once again, someone in the Serbian government is sabotaging the country\u2019s national interest.\u201d
\n[\u2026]
\nInstead of firing Draskovic and offering evidence of his \u2018foul play\u2019 in cahoots with the DS [President Tadic\u2019s Democratic Party], Kostunica actually gives credence to his specious attacks, defending local arrangements with Milosevic\u2019s longtime associates.
\n\u201cUnless Kostunica can control Draskovic and stop this anti-Serb propaganda by one of his own government ministers, Serbia should prepare for another period of isolation, and maybe even war,\u201d says our source in Washington.<\/i><\/p>\n

Once again I must repeat, I was not<\/b> Nacional’s source for this story.
\nThis bit with isolation and war is somewhat over the top; but given the Empire no longer needs even fabricated excuses to engage in wanton repression (or outright aggression), there\u2019s no telling how much damage Draskovic\u2019s barking may cause.
\nI must say, if Draskovic and Tadic plotted this \u2013 with or without outside help, no matter \u2013 they are devilishly clever. Kostunica is in a lose-lose situation. If he wants to retain credibility, he must<\/i> sack Draskovic; but by doing so he would lose the support of Draskovic\u2019s Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). In that case, he\u2019d either have to dissolve the cabinet and call a new election \u2013 which he\u2019d lose to either the DS-SPO coalition, or the Radicals \u2013 or form an alliance with the Radicals, who are reviled in the West (and by many in Serbia) as \u201cMilosevic\u2019s allies\u201d and \u201cnationalists.\u201d And wouldn\u2019t that<\/i> just prove Draskovic\u2019s claims nicely? But the even greater loser is Serbia itself, which as the article from Nacional shows, is losing by the minute what little political capital it had.
\nGood job, \u201creformers.\u201d Just swell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t think anyone in Serbia has had time to read the Politics of Destruction yet, but it appears I\u2019m not the only one to see things that way. That’s encouraging. Here\u2019s some excerpts from an article in the Thursday, November 18 issue of a Belgrade daily, Nacional, headlined \u201cKostunica resurrecting Milosevic?!\u201d: \u2026American Serbs are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}