20 Years On

Twenty years ago, Serbian military forces, both the army and militias, massacred over 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in what is now known as the Srebrenica massacre. It was a mass killing that was planned at the highest levels of the Serbian military command.

The massacre, and then an attack where the Serbs mortared a marketplace, led to NATO[1] intervention into the Bosnian War. In essence, the Serbs were bombed to the peace table.[2]

The Russians vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have designated what happened in Srebrenica as an act of genocide. The Russians did so to protect the sensitivities of Serbia, which has been allied with Russia from the beginning. The American ambassador to the U.N. made a speech in reply.

I don't doubt the sincerity of Ambassador Power's remarks. What I doubt is the sincerity of the U.S. government, which was in favor of calling what happened in Srebrenica a genocide, but has been loathe to call what happened in Armenia a century ago by the same word. Because Turkey has better lobbyists.[3] And because geopolitics matters.[4]

And then there is our own Christian Taliban, which thinks that permitting gay marriage is persecuting them, but when Serbian Christians murdered Bosnian Muslims, they were and have been noticeably silent.
________________________________
[1] Minus the Greeks.
[2] The Serbs, being slow learners, got a repeat treatment in 1999.
[3] Former Congressman Dick Gephardt, who was in favor of recognizing the Armenian genocide, changed sides once he left Congress and was hired by the Turks. (The Turks also hired a pederast.)
{4} When it comes to geopolitics, "hypocrisy" is a forbidden term.