Customer Reviews

Be Not Afraid, for You Have Sons in America: How a Brooklyn Roofer Helped Lure the U.S. into the Kosovo War

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Be Not Afraid" is very hard to put down. It brings to life an important story from a region whose names and rival groups are nearly impossible to keep track of by following the daily news. The Onion's headline summed it up best for many people: "CLINTON DEPLOYS VOWELS TO BOSNIA: Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients".

The book offers a sense of personal understanding of the way that groups like the Kossovo Liberation Army are started and the way that populations, governments and the media are manipulated by the actors involved in a conflict. While from the outside, the actions of these warring tribes appear like inexplicable madness, when reading their story you can almost place yourself in their position. For many readers, Florin Krasniqi's life in Brooklyn will make the story particularly compelling.

My only criticism is that the author does not take seriously some of the stronger arguments against the 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Kosovo and Belgrade. Instead, taking the approach favored by the major media networks like her employer (Newsweek/MSNBC), we hear a lot from US Government and military sources and virtually nothing from their most compelling critics.

Every few years I read a book that makes me wonder most of all -- How come the literary/bookseller world isn't paying more attention to this one? I fell upon this one by accident and it is a gorgeous piece of reportage from a place we isolated Americans know nothing about. Also, it is an amazing, classic kind of American story, too -- beautifully rendered by a skilled reporter and told engagingly -- at times with great humour and always, admirable skill. Don't judge a book by its cover or either, the lack of buzz. This one's a winner.

Having just finished Stacy Sullivan's "Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons In America," I can only say that it an extraordinarily undervalued gem. Not unlike Chuck Sudetic's "Blood and Vengeance," Sullivan takes a complex international disaster and makes it intelligible by weaving "big picture" historical, stategic and political facts into the lives of the ordinary people who always make history.

Anyone can find the history of the Balkans in general and Kosovo in particular by perusing the recent texts that focus on the governmental players, but this book sees the tragedy in the lives of those who experienced it and make it ever so real.

The book is also highly relevant to our post-Sept. 11 world. It depicts how Albanian-Americans were able to use the openness of our society and gulibility of our leaders to subvert American foreign policy in ways that were totally legal. Her chilling message for today is clear. If blue collar expats in Brooklyn can fund and arm an insurgency across the world, how much easier it would be for weapons of destruction to be acquired and utilized right here at home? Sullivan's book makes the Oklahoma City bombing - much less the continuing threat of Al Qaeda - very close indeed.

Did Sullivan get every just right? As someone who has travelled to Albania and the rest of the Balkans and read more than a little, there are some facts she missed (such as the role of the Berisha family), but not much. I learned a great deal from this book.

Finally, even if the reader has no interest in the intricacies of the Balkans, this book should be purchased and read. It is one great tale.

This is a well-written, readable account of the guerrilla war in Kosovo. The author spent years in and around Kosovo, and is clearly in command of her topic.

If you're not familiar with the Kosovo conflict, this is a very solid introduction to it. If you are, it's still very much worth reading. This is the first book examining in detail how Albanian-Americans supported the KLA guerrilla movement, and it adds a lot to any discussion of the Kosovo issue.

Stacy Sullivan's writing is light and very readable, but she has done her homework, and the tone never lapses into sentimentality or self-indulgence. There is a clear pro-Albanian bias, but this is hardly surprising... she spent most of her time on the Albanian side of things.

(This has definitely affected the book's reviews. You may notice that several reviewers have said "it's great" and then given it low reviews, because it didn't agree with their own opinions about the war. This is unfortunate, because it's a book well worth reading whether think the Kosovo intervention was a good idea or not.)

I have some quibbles with the book. She really doesn't give enough time to KLA atrocities, including the ones that have caused KLA members to be indicted to the Hague. She largely ignores the strange cross-currents in the province, like the killings of "collaborators" (who may or may not have been such). And some of the numbers in the final chapter are a bit iffy.

But these are quibbles. There are a lot of wonderful pieces in here: her Albanian-American protagonist shopping for Stinger missiles in a Pakistani arms bazaar, young Americans in a disorganized KLA "boot camp", Geraldo Rivera setting off an artillery strike. And the general quality of the writing is high, and the book takes a complicated subject and boils it down into a clear narrative.

Highly recommended to anyone who's interested in this still-controversial topic.


Doug Muir

Sullivan's book recounts the Kosovo conflict as seen by participants and supporters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). Despite this focus on one side of the conflict, it is remarkably even-handed, and does not gloss over misconduct by the UCK and Kosovo Albanians during and after the war. It is not (and does not claim to be) a complete history of the conflict, but it's an important contribution to that history.

This book quietly appeared in the midst of election time, an escalating guerilla war in Iraq, and questions about the Bush administration's actions post-9-11 and going forward.

A quick read of the jacket is enticing enough, but the whole work becomes fascinating, and then just outright disturbing.

Consider, if you will, the story here, which is true. I'm very surprised this book hasn't received more comment. This is the story of a man, living in America, who organizes a terrorist group for export to his home country (Kosovo).

In detail, we read about a Brooklyn roofer and Kosovo ex-pat, who, upon hearing of the strife in his country helps organize KLA resources. The KLA was actually branded a terrorist organization by America and most of Europe in 1998. Their aim, it was no secret, was to launch attacks on Serb police and civilians in hopes of triggering disproportionate responses (re: atrocities) in order to lure the West in to help.

The Kosovo War is now, of course, another cottage publishing industry (like every war.) However, the war is mysteriously absent from public debate and is yet another chapter of American foreign policy that is doomed to the memory hole.

More than two years before the re-declaration of the war on terror(ism), the Kosovo war was another illegal war (by largely ignored international standards) that accomplished little but remind Europe that the US is still the dominant military power in NATO (and the world.) Indeed, the bombing campaign escalated the level of violence in the region as Milosevic's 'horseshoe' strategy was put into effect, driving people from their homes and triggering major atrocities on both the sides. In 2004, tensions flared again as ethnic Albanians burned Serb homes in retaliation, driving yet more people out of region to ensure it becomes completely Albanian, thus making the claim of independence more viable. Perhaps the US and NATO didn't realize how sticky the situation could become.

While the KLA was disbanded, it wasn't long before another rebel group formed with the aim of driving Serbs out of portions of Serbia proper and making new geographic claims. Macedonia has seen flare-ups of similar tensions. NATO and the West were not prepared nor intensely interested in mitigating these actions.

Imagine, if you will, a book about a successful Iraqi ex-pat who helps organize terror squads from Brooklyn for export to Baghdad, to kill Americans and pro-American Iraqis. Or an Irishman who organizes IRA cells from Boston...oops, nevermind. These selective doctrines of intervention (you know, like NATO just suddenly deciding to care about Kosovo) fall apart under scrutiny. In 1999, 'Serbs' were, of course, synonymous with Nazis, the most evil people in Europe, so it was okay to bomb their cities to smithereens because Milosevic was just an awful guy (though once a convenient ally). It was okay to fund and train groups once branded as terrorists only if it made the West look more civilized and humanitarian in the process.

The US should never have entered the Kosovo conflict. The war accomplished little for the Serbs, the Albanians, or Europe. More and more, it looks like an exercise in American muscle-flexing. And the cited humanitarian reasons for the war are borderline absurd. As in, how is it humanitarian to blow apart a country and drive the people into further poverty? Or undertake a bombing campaign with the full expectation that the ethnic cleansing might get out of control, which it did, driving hundreds of thousands from the region and creating a whole new and genuine humanitarian crisis? Sometimes, if we can't think of a real solution to a complex issue, it might be better to stand back rather than escalate the violence and cause more harm.

It's nice to know a fanatical ex-pat (who happens to be Muslim, proof that the war in terror is not about religion, but power) can help lure the lone superpower into a dusty and desolate pocket of Europe to bomb the daylights out of an impoverished country. This man's story is indeed fascinating, even admirable--we don't doubt his passion in defending his kin. But are we supposed to cheer the guy on? In many ways this is far more disturbing than any accounts I've read of the actual war.

Having lived many years in Kosovo after the war, I found many people who have not lived here think the KLA and the revolutionary movement did not exist, or that they are terrorists of the worst kind. This book shreds those misconceptions and illustrates how love of one's country will lead any person on a similar path to ensure his country and countrymen's freedoms. Any westerner will question his or her own patriotism - how far would you go to save your country from oppression? I bet many would hide and run away, not find ways to make a different path for so many!

When I had bought the book, I assumed that it would simply tell the story of Florin Krasniqi and how this 'lone ranger' saved Kosovo through financial support. However, this book, to my pleasant surprise, offered a much broader look at this war, it's build up and it's aftermath. From my own research and other books I've read, this book in comparison offered a fairly accurate and unbiased view of this war. Most of the books you read will tend to take one side or the other. And, while the author uses the Krasniqi family as a focus throughout the book, she does an adequate job of making sure not to hail them as 'the winner' or hero in the war. Bottom line: this book tells the amazing story of atrocities faced in this tiny disputed country, the power struggle that took place and the world and people's response to this very difficult situation. Well worth the read if you are looking for accurate facts about both sides in this war or the amazing story of just how loose American gun laws are...

This book not only makes learning fun, it actually doubles as a thriller, a true life version of the Eric Ambler novels that pivot on an everyday citizen -- here, a sometime livery driver in New York -- who finds himself deep in intrigues that will determine whether Europe explodes into war. There's gunrunning, mass graves, high wire diplomacy, and the straw man purchase of a Tanzanian elephant. Sullivan even makes the history arresting, drawing from the walls of the Krasniqi family home the cycles of destruction and vengeance that propel its young men into a thrilling adventure that really was torn from the headlines, but which unfolds so breathlessly on these pages it's possible, even likely to forget how it comes out. A ripping yarn.

Very insightful and thoroughly researched book. I recommend it to anyone with any interest in the Balkans and in Albanians, in particular.