New York, NY

Dear Sir,

Your editorial, "Signs of Progress in Bosnia" (1/29/98), hails the new Bosnian Serb prime minister, Milorad Dodik, as a "moderate." Is that a new "politically correct" term for a traitor, quisling, or  stooge? Or all three - a "PC hat trick?"

For, a "stooge" was exactly what Dr. Vojislav Kostunica, the leader of the Serbian Democratic Party, called Mr. Dodik in a recent statement. He said Dodik was a stooge of a man whom your editors have spent almost as much time and ink castigating, as they had in the case of Saddam Hussein - the Serbian "strongman" (another "PC" term), the former communist dictator, Slobodan Milosevic.

Never mind that Dodik was appointed to his post by another formerly "dreaded nationalist," Biljana Plavsic, the Bosnian Serb President? Guess the mere fact that you're now in her corner suggests that she has also been bought and turned into a vassal of the NATO occupying forces?

Your editorial also claims that such "moderates (do not) lack support."

Hogwash! Over 60% of the Bosnian Serb voters have been disenfranchised by Mr. Dodik's appointment as prime minister. Do you care to know how many seats Mr. Dodik's party won in the November elections for Bosnian Serb parliament, however fraudulently? Two! Two seats, including his own, out of the 83 seats in the parliament!? And that's democracy? That's "Progress in Bosnia?"

No wonder it took heavily-armed NATO troops to usher the newly "elected" Bosnian Serb prime minister into office.

For, unlike the New York Times editors, the Bosnian Serbs have seen that kind of "democracy" before. And they were not fooled, even if gullible Americans might be with your editorials.

For five centuries, such a breed of "democracy" was administered against the Orthodox Christian Serbs by the Islamic "Ottoman Empire." And then, later on, by the Austro-Hungarian Habsburgs in the 19th century. And then, during the World War II, by the Croatian Ustashe and the Nazi occupiers. Some million or so Serbs perished in WW II, according to an Aug. 21, 1997 OpEd in the London Times by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Where is a "Holocaust Museum" for these innocent Christians? One would think that, if the New York Times editors were as "liberal" as they claim to be, that they'd be leading the fund-raising drive for the (Serbian) people who had saved so many Jews from the Croat-Ustashe and Nazi pogroms.

Instead, you lament that, the "international community is rushing aid and loans to the Serb Republic?"  Is continued genocide preferrable to you, such as against the innocent Iraqi civilians, for example?

The Dodik "Demo Farce," which your editorial applauded, was bad enough. But the preceding statement was equivalent of saying that Bill Clinton was not guilty of adultery because he was a lesbian. It is an insult to the intelligence of your readers.

For, the New York Times editors must have known that, when they attacked the "international community's rushing aid and loans to the Serb Republic." Because 98% of the "international community's'" investments in Bosnia had ended up in Muslim-Croat hands. And, therefore, the Orthodox Christian Serbian half of the country got only 2% of it. Along with about a 90% unemployment which accompanied such genocidal U.S. government policies.

Nor are the above figures just opinions. They are the well known FACTS, cited by Gen. Charles Boyd, no less, in a FOREIGN AFFAIRS essay, "Making Bosnia Work" (Jan-Feb/98 issue), among others.

So I suggest you consider changing the famous New York Times slogan, "All the News That's Fit to Print," to "All the Hogwash America Can Swallow." Because taken at its face value, i.e., the "Signs of Progress in Bosnia" editorial is your hogwash, pure and simple. You may be able to sell it as "news" in Manhattan, where most people have never seen a live hog. But Heartland America will see it for what it is - hogwash, Manhattan style. In other words, it's "red" pork. And who has ever heard of a darn fool thing like that, this side of the Hudson River?

Best regards,

Bob Djurdjevic

Also check out... "Let the Bombing Begin?  Not!" , "What's Good for the Goose..."  and "Journal's Rotten Apples" (Wall Street Journal); and "Stock buybacks: Wall St.'s duping of Main St.", Business Week).