Philadelphia, PA

Dear Sir,

Trudy Rubin's July 1 column, "Clinton Fiddles While Milosevic Burns," is long on emotion and short on geopolitical knowledge and common sense.

First, she said the U.S. should get rid of Slobodan Milosevic. From her pen to God's ears! Bu alas, the U.S. government has created Slobodan Milosevic. Which is why Washington has propped up this former communist dictator any time freedom-loving Serbs tried to take him down (in March 1991, June 1992, December 1992, Winter '96/'97). That's because the Bush and Clinton administrations needed the villains like Milosevic so as to cover up their unflagging assault on the Orthodox Christian Serbs - both in Bosnia and in Kosovo.

Without Milosevic as a bogey to kick around, or "Saddam," as Ms. Rubin suggested - brazenly plagiarizing Belgrade anti-Milosevic protesters' posters from March 1991 - the sanctions, both old and new, would be obvious for all to see. They were and are a genocide against an entire nation. The greatest victims of "ethnic cleansing" (the Serbs) were and are unceasingly being accused by the U.S. government and the establishment media of "ethnic cleansing." That's like the Jews being accused of organizing the Holocaust.

Second, Ms. Rubin's solutions for the Kosovo problem are downright silly. "So stir up trouble in Belgrade, Mr. Holbrooke," she says. "Talk to the generals. Court the opposition and the Montenegrins. Make NATO bomb some military sites, if necessary."

Let me paraphrase Ms. Rubin's "solution" to illustrate its ludicrousness. Imagine the same advice being offered to Dennis Ross, for example, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East (as was Holbrooke to the Balkans), so as to force the Israeli government to fall into the State Department's line on the Middle East peace process:

"So stir up trouble in Tel Aviv, Mr. Ross. Talk to the generals. Court the liberal Jews in the opposition and the Hamas. Make NATO bomb some of Israel's military sites, if necessary."

How does that shoe fit on Ms. Rubin's foot? If it's making a blister on it, she'd better get a new pair of shoes for all seasons and regions. Best if they were a non-racist kind. For, the racist Serbophobic politics, such as that being conducted in the Balkans by Mr. Holbrooke, not only tend to make blisters; they tend to kill. As did the Nazis' racism.

Best regards,

Bob Djurdjevic

Also check out..."You Were Wrong About Gen. Perisic", "New York Times' Kosovo News Manipulation",  "Plus, Another Kosovo News Cover-up",  "Embarrassed About Such 'Serbs',"  "Put the UN Justice on Trial",  "Another Wall Street Bailout, Another Main Street Sellout", "Does WSJ Dance to Wall St. Bankers' Tunes?",  "Clinton Fiddles While Milosevic Burns",  "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).