Serbia, my Serbia

You know, I should not find it surprising to see Serbs protesting in favor of arrested mass murderer, Gen. Ratko Mladic, and revering him as a national hero.  This has always been the Serbian mindset, ever since they betrayed each other to defeat in Kosovo in the Middle Ages.  In 1903, after decades of trying to enter "respectable" European society, they assassinate- then mutilate- King Alexander Obrenovic and his queen and throw them naked into a pile of manure.  This is not an unruly mob, this is the military elite what did this- including the man code named "Apis", who was not only a high government official but the main supplier to the Black Hand terrorist group- whose splinter group led by Gavrillo Princep kicked off WWI by killing the Austrian Archduke and his innocent wife.

And yet, Europe went to war over the "poor Serbs" being "bullied" by Austria.  Why?  Because Russian saw them as "Slav brothers"; France saw Russia as their only chance of surviving the next war with Germany; And Britain needed the continental alliance with France, even though both were democracies who deplored the government system of their Russian "allies".  And a prime example of acting from politics rather than a careful consideration of who's involved is set in stone.  Grave stones, that is.  Britain should have known better- between the dismal results of the so-called Great Game with Russia and the wasted lives in their attempts to make something valuable of Afghanistan.

But does anyone learn?  We plunge into Vietnam to protect the "good guy', but was their a good guy.  In his book White House Years, Kissenger describes the Vietnamese mindset all to well.

"...a conviction that it was Vietnam's destiny to dominate not only not only Indochina but all of Southeast Asia... we were simply one of the hordes of foreigners whose congenital ignorance over the centuries had tempted them into Indochina, whence it was Vietnam's mission to expel them (not, I often thought, without driving them mad first)."  Kissenger, page 441.

And still today.  A blogger friend of mine was recently on a tour of SE Asia, and her last stop was in the city formerly known as Saigon.  She described verbal rudeness, physical semi-assault in the markets (She told the story about the "disturbing"Vietnamese from in-country on April 13th, and posted last week about the marks and pain she still had from the experience. 

But do we learn the lesson- look WHO it is we're helping before we jump in?  Look at the Pakistanis, the Iraqis.  How about the Egyptians ( the "broken reed" of Ezekiel 29:6-7) who we're about to sign off on another Obama $2 billion bailout?  Or the Libyans who are very glad for our help in getting rid of Qaddafyduck?  His supporters already stand in line protesting the NATO strikes.  Say what you want about Mubarek- he kept Sadat's word with Israel for 35 years.  Who, of all the nations we are currently "helping", will we be able to say that about in 2046?