PERSPECTIVErnPut Out More Flagsrnby Thomas FlemingrnDo I contradict myself?rnVery well then I contradict myself.rn(I am large, I contain multitudes.)rnIllyria AmericanarnWalt Whitman was a bad poet, but he might have made an excellentrnAmerican statesman, something like an effeminaternMadeleine Albright, who can switch from one basic principlernto the next with a duplicity that even the dewy-eyed fair)’ godmotherrnof the battlefield would have admired. In the course ofrna day, she can be lecturing the Republika Srpska of Bosnia onrnthe rights of Muslim and Croat minorities; then, without battingrna reptilian eye, she can champion the right of the Albanianrnmajority in Kosovo to gain autonomy, which will inevitably entailrnthe right to expel (or exterminate) the Serb minority thatrnhas clung to its ancient land in the face of over half a millenniumrnof persecution and ethnic cleansing.rnPerhaps in their hearts, many statesmen are really bad poets:rnthey prefer lies to truth and rely on poetic license as an excusernfor incompetence and incoherence. I have been trying to figurernout American foreign policy in the Balkans for six years, andrnthe best I can come up with is that we are hostage to special interestsrn—the Croatian and Albanian lobbies obviously, Arab oilrninterests, and (strange as it seems) the Israelis, who have foundrna way of doing something to please the Muslims. The UnitedrnStates and Israel, in other words, are making the Serbs pay thernprice for what we are doing to Muslims in the Middle East.rnBut even bribery and cowardice do not fully explain the zealrnof the American foreign policy establishment and the media itrncontrols. Their minds are already formed in globalist categoriesrnto see nationalism, Christian piety, and attachment tornh-adition as the last vestiges of a savage old worid that must bernrooted out, no matter what the cost, and although the Albaniansrnand Croats are, each in their own way, as atavistic as theirrnSerbian neighbors, it is the Serbs who have historically beenrnpredominant in the region, and it is the Serbs who sing thernloudest songs about their heritage and their destiny. The globalistrnelites hate the Serbs for the same reason that they hate allrnreal Americans who wish to preserve their traditions, their religion,rntheir identity. This point was rammed home to me on thernSFOR base in Sarajevo, where American soldier-girls luggedrntheir lard-bellies, huffing and puffing, up the steps to the cafeteriarn—an oasis of bad cooking—where the bulletin boards featuredrn(on paper of U.N. blue) advertisements for Black HistoryrnMonth.rnThe Balkans were heating up again early this year: riots inrnKosovo followed bv a Yugoslav crackdown followed by anrnAmerican crackdown, renewed talk of Montenegrin independence,rnBosnian Muslim threats over the postponed Brcko decision.rnBy March, Boris Yeltsin’s intoxicated hints about WorldrnWar III breaking out over Iraq seemed more likely to be realizedrnin Europe.rnIn tripartite Bosnia, the Muslims are no longer content withrnthe cards they were dealt in the Dayton Accords: so far, theyrnhave been disappointed in the expectation that a liberal interpretationrnof the agreement would improve their hand. The RepublikarnSrpska remains divided between the old warlords ofrnPale, who exploited their political ineptitude —they never devisedrna tax system, much less a strateg)’ for victory—as an excusernfor massive corruption, and the democratically elected governmentrnof President Biljana Plavsic, a staunch Serb patriot whosernlO/CHRONICLESrnrnrn