A WAR FEVER is breaking outnamong the leaders of the free world.nCongressional Democrats are egging onnPresident Bush to do something aboutnthe situation in Bosnia, and their concernsnare echoed by Margaret Thatcher,nPope John Paul II, and the conservativenleadership of Mr. Bush’s own party. Asnwe head into the last months of thenpresidential campaign, a successful warnmight just tip the balance in Mr. Bush’snfavor. On the other hand, failure wouldnprove to be a domestic political disaster.nIt’s a tough situation.nPeople like George Bush do not listennto people like me, but if I had a fewnminutes of his time, I would tell him:nDon’t do it. Does anybody in Congressnor the State Department have any ideanof what we would be getting into? Indoubt it, because if they did, we wouldnnot hear so many glib generalities. For anwhile, all we heard about was the evilnCroatian Nazis who slaughtered Serbsnand Jews in World War II. More recently,nit has been the evil Serbs, and—nas things go on—we might hear morenof the evil Albanians, the troublemakingnMacedonians, perhaps even thenthieving gypsies. The truth is, fewnAmericans know anything about Yugoslavia,nand those few tend to be ethnicnpartisans.nYugoslavia is or was a misbegottennunion of at least six distinct Slavic peoplesnwith nothing to bind them togethernexcept their common hatred of eachnother. The largest ethnic group, thenSerbs, are a frustrated imperial race,nwhose defeat at the battle of Kossovonin 1389 led not only to their subjugationnby the Turks; it also grafted a permanentnchip on their shoulders. Thenreal devils in Serbian history are thenSerbs who collaborated with the Turkishnoppressor and converted to Islam,nand Orthodox Serbs have alwaysndreamed of cleansing their soil from thenMuslims who pollute it. They also cherishnfierce animosities, not only againstnthe Croatians who slaughtered them likencattle in World War II but also againstneach other. In Serbia, World War II wasnplayed as a civil war between royalist andnCommunist Serbs.nIn 1989, I was taken by a Serbiannfriend to a Serbian Orthodox monasterynnot far from Chicago. In the course ofnCULTURAL REVOLUTIONSnthe long afternoon of liturgy, it finallyndawned on me that we were commemoratingnthe martyrs who had fallen sixnhundred years earlier. What was evennstranger, some of the older men, whonhad been royalist guerrillas in WorldnWar II, carried in pictures of Drazha Mihajlovich,nthe royalist leader murderednby the Communists.nIn their minds, it is all the samenstruggle, and I recalled the old ballad innwhich the Serbian prince, on the eve ofnthe battle of Kossovo, is given the choicenbetween victory over the Turks andnworldly success or success in heaven andna future of political servitude and Christiannfaith for his people. The princenchooses God and defeat, and ever sincenthe Serbs have identified the nationalnidentity with their religion. The OrthodoxnSerbs and the CroatiannCatholics and the Bosnian Muslimsnhave been killing each other for six hundrednyears.nIt would be just as easy to make out ancase for the Serbs as victims as it is tonmake the case for the Croatians and thenBosnian Muslims. Americans arenalarmed and disgusted by the stories ofnatrocities being committed by Serbsnagainst their prisoners, but similar storiesnare told of all sides in the struggle. ThenSerbian aggression has been more successful,nsimply because there are morenSerbs and they can mobilize the militarynresources of the defunct Communistnregime.nThe most chilling atrocity story reportednin the press are the rapes said tonbe perpetrated by Serbian guards. Onenwoman told a Chicago Tribune reporternthat when she became visibly pregnant,nher captors sent her away, telling her ton”Go to Zagreb and bear Serbian children.”nThis story—appalling as it is—ncontains the germ of the whole conflict.nAnyone who has raised cats, knows thatnwhen a male cat finds a mother with anfresh litter of kittens not his own, henslaughters the kittens and reimpregnatesnthe female.nThe tomcat’s object is to have asnmany offspring as possible, to spread hisnown genes as far and wide as he can.nOther mammals—including human beings—donsimilar things. The ugly conflictnin Yugoslavia, for all the historicalncomplications, is the most basic and el­nnnemental struggle in the world.nIt is ethnic warfare at the tribal, evennbiological level, but it has also taken onnthe colors of a religious crusade. ThenBosnian Muslims are the residue of thenTurkish occupation. There are Christiansnin the United States who sympathizenwith the plight of Bosnian Muslims.nAt the same time, they would notnlike to be in the position of defending Islamnagainst Catholic and OrthodoxnChristians. Exactly 500 years ago, thensame King and Queen of Spain whonsent Columbus to the New World expellednthe Moors who had conquerednand occupied large parts of their country.nHumane people may not condonensuch acts of “ethnic cleansing,” but wenought to make an effort to understandnthem, if only for reasons of self-interest.nThe last time the Western powers tooknan interest in Bosnia, the result wasnWorld War I, and George Bush wouldnbe well-advised to keep America out ofnYugoslavia, even if it costs him the election.n—Thomas FlemingnO U R “LETTER FROM PRISON”n(Correspondence, May 1992) elicited annumber of requests for an update. Thenletter ended with “Frank,” a 26-year-oldnblack man imprisoned in Illinois, in solitarynconfinement at a medium-securitynprison. He had been placed in isolationnfor his own protection, because the gangnhe had once belonged to, the BlacknGangster Disciples (G. D.’s), had callednfor his murder by issuing a statewiden”hit.” What angered the G. D.’s wasnFrank’s cooperation with a state investigationninto a 1991 riot at a maximumsecuritynprison that left him and a fewnother inmates severely beaten. After twonweeks in a St. Louis hospital, Franknpassed a lie detector test proving he hadnnothing to do with the melee and thennidentified key gang leaders responsiblenfor the attack. For his own safety, he’snbeen transferred to four different facilitiesnin the last four months.nFrank’s first transfer after his May letternto Chronicles was to a medium-securitynfacility that housed a G. D. boardnmember (one of the gang’s 12 leadersnin Illino;s), even though he had explainednto prison officials that thenOCTOBER 1992/5n