Three experts each with a new book comes to talk with Charlie Rose about the Balkans. The year is 2000 eleven years after the breakdown has begun. The hot issue is Kosovo, which this year, 2008 declared independence something forty- eight nations recognized, and Serbia did not. The experts believe that in the future , not five but fifty years as Ignatieff says the whole may be woven together again. Judah claims that Serbia and Croatia were not at each others throats historically until the Germans introduced into Croatia the Nazi murder squad during the Second World War. The implication is that they can be in good relations again. All commend Richard Holbrooke for his achievement in ending the violence in Bosnia. They are less complementary about his failure to end the violence in Kosovo. All seem to feel that had there been greater understanding of the region, greater intelligence and involvement on the part of the West the subsequent wars and the loss of a quarter of a million lives might have been prevented. They all point out that the American people know little of this remote region and certainly are not interested in a long- term military presence there.
This was an interesting discussion for me , in part because I am in no way a close observer of the area. I would however have asked them about outside interference including reported Muslim interference to support the Croats and the Albanians against the Serbs.
This was an informative segment.
