Customer Reviews

Trusted Mole

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4 star:		(1)
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As someone who was in the balkans at the same time as "Mike Stanley" i saw the same hopeless situation that the UN was placed into without the wholehearted support of the world community. To say that the UN is hopelessly bearucratic is to simplify the entire situation.The UN and UNPROFOR could not take resolute action against any of the 3 sides under the mandate which had been issued by the security council. a lack of wilingness on the part of the major members of the UN especially the USA to bolster the the presence of the UN and the forces which were there to PROTECT UN personnel NOT the indigenous population and the fact that the USA wanted to arm the croat and bosnian goverments against the wishes of the UN. This book shows the futility of sending military forces into an enviroment and expecting them to act as saviours to a population which are hell bent on butchering their neighbours mostly with arms provided by the good old US of A.The most inportant point from this book was that the UN is not and has never been a military organisation due in part to the intransigence of the superpowers at the end of WW2.The UN was not to blame for the war in the Balkans and as much as some countries have tried to militarise it this book shows that this is not only practically impossible but fundamentally dangerous.'Trusted mole' talks about world politics from the perspective of the balkans and it shows just how thin is the veneer of civilisation when it comes down to it .

This book is by far, as Sunday Times put it, the best book to have come out of the Balkan War. I am a Serb myself, from Bosnia, and even though I do not approve of some Author's opinions and thoughts, I have to say that this book is most sincere that has ever been written on Yugoslav wars.
I like the book for there is no much preaching in it, no deep politics whatsoever, but true story and his perceptions. I think Mr.Stankovic is one of the very few people in this world that was able to describe and depict all the Balkan's hell due to his origins and background. To be honest, what I liked the best in this book were parts where the Author himself tries to perceive or understand something, which is quite normal or commonplace in Serbs' lives and culture, but fails for he grew up in the UK.
Nevertheless, the book is simply great! Well done, Milos Stankovic! Svaka cast!

This is the true story behind the true stories of the wars in bosnia. The Author was there for most of the major incidents, if you want to learn what a worthless and beauacratic organisation the UN is read this, Stankovic should be bemedaled and a general bynow, His descriptions of Sarajevo and surrounding areas was spot on and his description of the " little people " describing the ordinary people of the city and his journeys to the " dark side " remind me strongly of my time there. I have read most of the modern books detailing the Balkan conflict and I always assumed that martin Bell wrote the best one but now Bell is in second place. My one wish is that he writes the follow up and lets us all know who placed the spying charges against him and why and how did it all end. to summarise get the book now

This book is quite simply brilliant. In painstaking detail, Stankovic relates his experiences during two tours in Bosnia as part of the British UN presence during the war.

This is no "advocacy" literary piece. There are no sentimental biases or hidden agendas - it's so refreshing to read something which just sticks to the facts and tells the story as it is. As an Australian of part Serbian heritage I totally understood the "mentality" that Stankovic tried to convey, he did it so well, but unfortunatly I think this "mentality" is so foreign to your average westerner that a lot of the true gems of this book would be lost on them. Nonetheless, Stankovic has attempted to articulate it, and once you understand this "mentality" that drives the people of the Balkans, you will start to see why this war happened. That is not to justify the horrors of the last ten years in any way, shape or form - but I feel that this innate understanding of the "mentality" is what is perhaps lacking from most books on the subject.

It's a great read. Stankovic has portrayed the nitty gritty reality of the war in Bosnia, and provides an insight into the lives of the "little people" and the behind-the-scenes players that we otherwise never hear about because it's not newsworthy enough, or won't fit into someone's colour-by-numbers view of what is going over there... Or quite simply does not suit whoever's agenda.

This book is an important read for anyone with a serious interest in recent Balkan history. After being falsely slapped with charges of espionage and his military career in tatters, Stankovic has written a probably the best and most important book on the Bosnian war. Put it at the top of your reading list.

This should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the 92-95 conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina!

As General Mike Rose's interpreter, Stankovic had a front-row seat to key events in Bosnia. Those observations alone are worth getting the book. Alas, if only they formed even a scant majority of it.

Informed readers should be ready for some double-takes... and disappointments.

1. Stankovic's grasp of the Bosnian situation is simplistic and at times woefully ignorant. He declares that there was no separate "Muslim" ethnicity in Bosnia until the Western media created it, showing his ignorance of a crucial factor behind the Bosnian wars: the 1974 Consitution and Muslims-as-consituent-nationality issue. He recounts "rescuing" Sarajevans by "slipping" them out in official vehicles, clueless that he and other well-meaning UN personnel were doing the belligerents' ethnic cleansing for them ...and strengthening the Bosnian Serb hand. Perhaps most shockingly, he takes as gospel the Serbs' good faith behind an early "offer" to yield territory later for a cease-fire today. ...Stankevic slams the international community for not jumping on this supposed perfect opportunity.

2. .... His boss General Rose can do no wrong: even Rose's most naive and disastrous moves are depicted with something approaching hero worship. To Stankevic, it's unfailingly "us" (U.N., Britain, Rose) good, "them" (NATO, America, Wesley Clark) bad...Prepare for plenty of adolescent swagger and sneer.... Stankevic simply cannot separate himself from his subject. Any personal angle changes everything. He calls the thoughtful and respected U.S. ambassador John Menzies a "pro-Muslim fanatic," offering no reason for this intriguing characterisation except that Menzies apparently once questioned his judgement. Though he derides the idea that his Serb ancestry affected the performance of his duties, and indeed can criticise the Bosnian Serbs, he appears incapable of ever viewing the Muslim leadership with anything but cold suspicion or painting Izetbegovic et al in any but the most sinister colours.

4. Okay, it's a sideshow, but I for one would like to know the rest of the story behind his arrest. His introduction leaves him in a jail cell from which we never see him released. Was he ever exonerated? Fined? Sentenced? We're never given the opportunity to judge whether his detainment made any sense. We're simply to take his word that it was a trumped-up load of bureaucratic hysteria.

So if you're a subject expert, buy the book. You'll be able to make sense of what Stankevic witnessed, even if he obviously can't. If you're new to the Bosnian conflict, look elsewhere.