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Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero

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Most know him only as war criminal if they know him at all. Ratko Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian-Serb army in the early 1990s gained famed for his blunt speech and his military brilliance fighting Islamic extremism and Croatian fascism. However the West conspired to revitalize Nato and using the EU and the UN launched a brutal war against the Serbian people. Mladic served for years against this onslaught as world opinion was fed propaganda images and as the world was told that the Serbs were the 'new Nazis' and the Bosnians were the 'new Jews'. With the 'massacre' at Srebrenica the world was told that the Serbs had committed the worst 'act' of genocide since the Holocaust.

This book dares to present a very different one than the western media has created. In this book we learn about Mladic's journey from communist officer in Tito's army to patriotic defender of his people as they are being ethnically-cleansed and butchered by Bosnians and Croats. In the end we read about a tragic figure who has been betrayed by the world and even by his own backers in Belgrade. We see that military brilliance and honor are not values that can save one when the entire Muslim and western worlds are against them. Thus Mladic, like the Serbian people, is labeled 'war criminal' and must go into hiding.

But this book is far more than biography. It combines both biography and vignettes of Serbian and Balkan history that seek to show the reader the many sides of what took place in the Balkans in the 1990s. Articles illustrate the history of Croatian Nazism, the Ustasha movement, the role of Islamic fundamentalism among the Bosnians, an analysis of what really happened at Srebrenica and the true workings of the 'international Criminal Court' at the Hague.

This book is more than just a book about Mladic, a minor figure in world history, it is a tale about the modern world and the way in which western idealism and 'good intentions' combined with Islamic fundamentalism conspire to destroy unique and diverse peoples, peoples like the Serbs who fought against Totalitarian imperialism in the 19th century, against imperialism in the 1914 and against Nazism in 1941, only to be betrayed by the West and trodden under foot. The West found itself aiding people like the president of Croatia, a holocaust denier, and Islamic fundamentalists in Bosnia in their quest to destroy hundreds of Serb villagers and continue the genocide of the Serbs that had begun with the Nazis.

This book is a virtual encyclopedia of these histories. It is a condemnation of western policy and a wake up call to Americans and English speaking audiences who have never been exposed to this sort of material before. Here are revealed for the first time in English the words of Serbian women and men, witnesses, who saw the way in which the Croats, Bosnians and their Nato allies butchered Serbs, cleansed them and even beat old women and priest. Unspeakable stories of torture and genocide are revealed, ones that will shock readers and perhaps make a few people think about the policies the west has had towards Serbia and the policies it still has. A brilliant collection of essays and stories that anyone interested in the history of American foreign policy, the Balkans, Islamism, or modern Europe should not be without.

Seth J. Frantzman

Wery good book, its reveals another important things about war in Bosnia. Few days ago I was in Srebrenica , now its a small mine city in mountains. I saw the Potocari monument about that "genocide" . And I had a trip throuht the hills around the city where I saw abandoned houses , many small cemeteries of serb people. But if you want to know more about that wars you need to read another books too . Maybe "Seasons in Hell: Understanding Bosnia's War" from Ed Vulliamy - its so probosniak muslim book (like many american) and some book from Croats side. Then you can think serious about that times and you will find that Mladic wasnt any "butcher" and if yes , then there was a little more "butchers" on other sides.

One word describes this book...chore: as in "it's a chore to get through it."

Mladic: Tragic Hero is actually a collection of works from various sources, written by various authors - compiled, translated, edited and supplemented by Milo Yelesiyevich.

It begins with Yelesiyevich waxing Greek tragedy style about what is a tragic hero and why Mladic is a classic example thereof...then the train rolls off the tracks....

Part one of the book opens with an abridged version of Serb author Ljubodrag Stojadinovic's study of another Serb author's (Heroj Evro) work "Ratko Mladic: Hero or War Criminal. A good start so it would seem, except the writing is all over the place, skipping from one topic to the other in seemingly no rational order. It's filled with anecdotes, but when and where they are inserted seem to have little to do with what's being covered in that particular paragraph(s). Often when there's a quote, it's hard to know who said it due to the way it's placed within the paragraph. There are also several times in the text where question marks appear in parenthesis (?) at the end of quotes and paragraph's, leaving the reader wondering what's being questioned.

Also, if you're going to read this book, you should have a greater knowledge of the Yugoslavian conflicts than just a novice level. Yelesiyevich explains some things, but totally misses explanations on more complicated topics...leaving it up to the reader to know the rest.

As for the actual writing, it contradicts itself consistently. One paragraph says Mladic was a wise, instinctually keen, general of superior tactics and battlefield knowledge, yet doesn't to address how he failed to see the tables had turned so squarely against him at the war's end. Milosevic had cut off money, military support and political backing of the Srpska Republik, Russia had turned it's back and the "West" had formed an international coalition against it and wasn't even in negotiations in Dayton with SDS officials. Yet Mladic saber-rattled endlessly. It completely fails to address the simple fact that the ARS (Army Republik or Srpska) bit off more than it could chew. A nearly 2,000 mile battle front with nowhere near enough men and material (much like the US in Iraq). Mladic failed to take Sarajevo or close out battles along the Drina Valley.

This from page 100: "Mladic would not have been Mladic without his creative arrogance. If he had behaved as a polished & humble parlimentarian, he would have, if necessary, made new allies, and adapted himself to the situation. Instead, Ratko Mladic tried to do the opposite, to adapt the situation or at least the presentation of the situation, to himself. It turns out that such an adaptation was impossible..."

It says it always conducted himself like a soldier with respect and that he was fighting the good fight for the Serbian people, yet then follows with examples which make him seem petty, self-obsessed, insecure and at times, downright childish. (ie - his early talks with Gen. Wesley Clark). When Mladic is rude, arrogant or abrupt the author shrugs it off as "Well, that's just Ratko...", but when Clark acts the same way, the author labels him as "rude and arrogant" & a "pathological anti-Serb." (page 97)

It also tries to portray Mladic as an honorable soldier on the battlefield, yet a few paragraphs later says the prolonged bombardment of Sarajevo became and inexplicable obsession with Mladic and that the Sarajevo siege "was not a noble undertaking for a commander, but a unique sort of military horror, an act of unconcealed sadism" (page 56) and this from page 55, "It is obvious that rational military targeting was not possible from the hills around Sarajevo. From these positions, there was no justification for the heavy bombardment of Sarajevo, and the systematic "murder" of the city."

It also says he had great control and mystique over his troops, yet failed to control their actions when things went bad (ie - Srebrenica). The author seems to verbally shrug and say, "Well, who could control those men?" (page 77)

The section dealing with whether Mladic should be labeled as war criminal merely skims the topic, offers no real insight and is only 5 pages long!

And that's sort of what the entire book does...skims the topic of Mladic but offering few insights or strong arguments for his case. In fact, at times it seems to argue more against rather than for him. "General Mladic's obstinacy, which he demostrated by behaving rudely toward one and all, but especially toward those who weilded the most power, was certainly a prejudice above and beyond rational decision." (page 54)

Part II of the book is series of essay & articles from various authors which have virtually NOTHING to do with Mladic, yet it comprises 268 pages...well over a third of the book's 700 plus pages!! I thought "we" were discussing Mladic here. Finally, the last section of the book are the speeches and interviews of Mladic. This is by far the most interesting section of the book.

There is very little unbiased "truth" in war...conflicting sides see events through their own nationalistic and often religious eyes and things are rarely as they appear...and victors ALWAYS write history...so I was very excited to read this book...I wanted to hear good arguements against Mladic's war criminal charges. I wanted to hear and understand the other side. That didn't happen with this book. It uncovers little more than I already knew about Mladic and offers little to dispute the idea that the villain the West has painted of Mladic is incorrect.

There may be a compelling, strong case to be made that Mladic is NOT a war criminal, but sadly it's NOT in the pages of this book.

Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero, edited by Milo Yelesiyevich, rebuts the US propaganda regarding the role of Ratko Mladic in the Bosnian Civil War, 1992-1995. The book allows an unbiased and neutral reader to make his or her mind up for themselves. Mladic has already been found guilty and convicted in the US and corporate globalist media as a "war criminal". He is guilty until proven innocent. And there is no intention to prove him innocent. Guilt is thus assumed. The corporate media can induce us to think however its paymasters want us to think. We were told by our media that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. There were none. We were told by our media that Al-Qaeda had links to Saddam Hussein. There were no links. We were told Hussein sought to buy uranium from Africa. This was not true. We were told there was a "genocide" in Kosovo. This was not true. In fact, Kosovo was a separatist terrorist conflict meant to create a Muslim state of Kosova as part of Greater Albania. These events show a pattern of deception and brainwashing that should trouble and perplex all Americans. We should question a media and a government that brainwashes and deceives its own citizens. Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction? Where is the other side to the Bosnian conflict?
This book gives the other side to the Bosnian civil war. The book presents the historical context to the conflict. During World War II, Adolf Hitler made Bosnia a part of a Greater Croatia which was ruled by Croatian Roman Catholic and Bosnian Muslim leaders. This Nazi/fascist Ustasha regime, made up of Croats and Bosnian Muslims, embarked upon a systematic and planned campaign of genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were murdered in Bosnia and Croatia. Roman Catholic priests Alojzije Stepinac of Zagreb and Ivan Saric of Sarajevo endorsed and sanctioned the Ustasha genocide of Serbs, Jews, and Roma. There is Vatican complicity in this genocide committed against Serbs and Jews. The Vatican had legates to the Nazi Croat puppet state and knew what was happening but did nothing to prevent the genocide, indeed, encouraging it.
In Bosnia, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem came to Sarajevo in 1943 to form the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar or Handschar, made up of Bosnian Muslims. This Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division was deployed in eastern Bosnia against mostly Serbian guerrillas and resistance groups. Bosnian Muslim political leaders had written a famous Memorandum in 1942 to Adolf Hitler requesting that he make Muslim Bosnia a part of the Nazi New Order. All of this factual background is censored and suppressed in our free societies and by our free media.
This is the context for the Bosnian civil war and for Ratko Mladic, whose father was killed in 1945 fighting Nazi Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces during the Holocaust. This event cast a shadow on Mladic's view of Bosnia and Croatia. He did not want a repeat of World War II. He did not want to witness again the genocide and mass murder of the Serbian population. This is an important fact in showing what motivated Mladic.
The book dispels many of the US propaganda constructs. The Bosnian Muslims had a well-armed military division stationed in Srebrenica. The Bosnian Muslim commander, Naser Oric, was convicted of war crimes in 2006. Oric burned down Serbian Orthodox churches, murdered Serbian civilians and POWs, and burned down at least 50 Serbian villages. His forces would castrate and cut the throats of Serbian POWs and civilians and mutilate the bodies, usually by decapitating the corpse or by circumcizing the victim. Oric told the UN commander Philippe Morillon that he never took any Serbian prisoners, but executed all Serbian POWs he could find.
This created the background to Srebrenica. Srebrenica was a military defeat and disaster for the Bosnian Muslim faction. It was a military loss. All those killed were well-armed Bosnian Muslim military forces. When is killing armed soldiers in a war considered "genocide"? This book exposes the absurd US propaganda claims. Moreover, there is no proof for any of the allegations made about Srebrenica. There is only propaganda. And this book does an excellent job in disproving the US-manufactured propaganda.
This book also shows that war crimes were committed against Bosnian Serb civilians. Ossama bin Laden made an official visit to Sarajevo in 1994. Al-Qaeda forces were actively fighting as members of the Bosnian Muslim Army under ultra-nationalist radical Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic. Iran was the major backer and supplier of the Bosnian Muslim forces. Izetbegovic visited Tehran in 1993. None of this factual material has been presented in the US media. It has been censored and suppressed. Why?
This book allows you to make up your own mind based on all the facts and not from handouts from the US State Department. This book allows you to cut through the brainwashing and propaganda and to decide for yourself. What harm can that do? Why is the US propaganda machine so alarmed by an opposing view? What is there to be so afraid of? Show us both sides to the issue. Let us decide. That is real democracy and freedom.
This book is highly recommended. Decide for yourself.

This is a nasty and deluded work that conveys the usual demented ramblings we have come to associate with Serbian nationalist paranoia and self justification. The author sees Mladic as a heroic leader fighting for a heroic people's heroic struggle. Of course there are the usual evil villains who will stop at nothing to destroy Serbia: the German Fourth Reich, Vatican, CIA, CNN, Iran, Al-Qaeda (the list goes on) and their nasty little helpers in Yugoslavia itself (those treacherous Croats, Bosnian Muslims etc).

Books like this really do nothing more than ferment hatred - justifying the last round of war crimes and inciting the next.

The following books should be helpful in setting the context from which grubby works like this sprang:

Flag on the Mountain: A Political Anthropology of War in Croatia and Bosnia

The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis

Balkan Holocausts?: Serbian and Croatian Victim Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia

Excellent book describing this mans past and the events that led to his leading a war of survival that the Serbian people were pushed into by the USA and Germany.

As a frail, barely recognizable Ratko Mladic is transferred today to The Hague, it is interesting to pause and reflect on the contrast in his capture and that of Croatian General Ante Gotovina. They sleep tonight in identical cells in the Scheveningen Prison but their journeys there could not have been more different.

Gotovina was captured at a 4-star hotel on the Canary Islands after jet-setting around the globe, living in luxury resorts in Tahiti, Chile, Argentina, and the Czech Republic. In contrast, the former Bosnian Serb General Mladic was captured less than two miles from the Romanian border in pathetic circumstances, a penniless and broken man, clutching his bag of medicines. The Serbian government had cut off his pension in 2005 but expresses keen interest in ferreting out anyone who helped Mladic over the years. Meanwhile, over the past six years since the Croatian General's arrest, there has not been the slightest interest in finding government sources of the substantial aid enjoyed by Gotovina.

Thousands of Croatians (including public officials and police) demonstrated against Spain's arrest of Gotovina. More recently, Croatians demonstrated again against the guilty verdict pronounced against Gotovina for crimes against humanity committed during the 1991-5 Yugoslav wars (especially the Operation Storm ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia). Similarly, over the past weekend, unemployed youths in Serbia demonstrated against the arrest of Mladic, but without the support of police and public officials.

If you've forgotten who Mladic was or never really knew, this book is the most obvious choice in English to brush up in preparation before his trial begins.

international influence in balkans is revealing. true history is coming outside although it is constantly pushed by protected interests of world key players. plain people suffered, countries poisoned with depleted uranium and while serbs, croats and bosniaks are trying to make best for their nations, they don't even seem to realize what kind of genocide was placed on them. i recommend this book to all regardless of what nationality you are; it showes a different perspective, one that will make you think about what really happened. people are people and when manipulated can commit horrific things. extremists will judge and hate and ordinary people will learn from history. unfortunatelly history repeats. fighting new world order is useless and all will play tune of european community and US soon enough. opposing it means suffering another war and being physically exterminated. going with the flow means loosing national identity and history. ratko mladic was opposed to this new order and marked as this book says tragic hero. couldn't be more accurate name for him.