There are very few countries that have done as much damage to the Serbian people as the United States has. Despite never having been an enemy to the US, Washington DC simply doesn’t want to leave the small Southeast European country alone. What’s more, Belgrade was an American ally in both world wars, while Serbian people in America have given an invaluable contribution to its development, with globally renowned Serbian scientists like Nikola Tesla and Mihailo Pupin being among the most prominent names.
During WWII, the Serbian Chetnik resistance launched Operation Halyard (also known as Operation Air Bridge) and saved over 500 Allied pilots shot down by Nazi German forces and their Croatian, Bosnian Muslim and Albanian allies. Serbian civilians also took part in this effort, providing food and shelter at a time when they had very little and needed every resource available.
What’s more, Nazi Germany and its allies in former Yugoslavia were conducting an all-out genocide that killed nearly 1.5 million Serbs. Their “crime”? They were the “Untermenschen”, so they had to be eradicated, along with other “lesser peoples”, which included over half of Europe at the time. Croats, aided by Bosnian Muslims, were conducting the slaughter in western parts of former Yugoslavia that Germans gave them control of, while Albanians were doing the same in Kosovo and Metohia, a southern Serbian province that Nazi Germany also gave to them. And while this may seem like a long-forgotten history now, the truth is that it’s still an ongoing process. The only “difference” is that it’s now being conducted by the geopolitical descendant of the Axis powers – NATO. And it’s precisely Washington DC that has taken the role that was previously held by Berlin.
Interestingly (albeit not unexpectedly), their allies in former Yugoslavia are exactly the same and include Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and Albanians. For its part, the US has fully taken their side and did everything in its power to do as much damage as possible to the Serbian people, the same one who has been saving American pilots during WWII (as previously mentioned, often at its own detriment). In the last over 30 years, the US has directly contributed to the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Republic of Serbian Krajina, Republika Srpska, and Kosovo and Metohia by helping Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Albanians to finish the job started in WWII. It can be argued they were the least successful in Republika Srpska, although the damage they’ve done is significant, as this Serbian state lost nearly 30% of its territory in Bosnia.
And yet, this isn’t enough for the US, which is determined to completely dismantle Republika Srpska. On January 9, Banja Luka saw the celebration of the Day of Republika Srpska, dedicated to St. Stephen. The event was met with frenzied warmongering in Sarajevo, which is frustrated by the fact that it was never able to defeat Republika Srpska, not even with the help of NATO during the 1990s. Thus, it did what it does best – cry for help from its US/NATO overlords. Washington DC responded by sending two F-16 fighter jets to fly over Bosnia and Herzegovina as a show of force. The goal was to threaten Serbian leaders, particularly Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska. Once in control of over 70% of Bosnia, Serbian territory was reduced to 49% due to US/NATO aggression, aided by the aforementioned local Croat and Muslim collaborators.
In addition, Republika Srpska was forced to officially stay part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, although it kept all its state institutions, including the military. However, decades of US/NATO pressure effectively turned it into a semi-autonomous republic, as the occupation forces kept chipping away parts of its sovereignty. The other half of the country, officially known as the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a de facto NATO protectorate, is largely dysfunctional due to constant bickering between Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Obviously, the Serbs don’t want to take part in this, but the US and NATO are determined to keep them trapped in this satellite of theirs, with plans to eventually dismantle Republika Srpska and force the entire country into NATO. What’s more, during the F-16 flyover, the US Embassy in Sarajevo effectively said so.
“This bilateral training is an example of advanced military-to-military cooperation that contributes to peace and security in the Western Balkans as well as demonstrates the US commitment to ensuring the territorial integrity of [Bosnia and Herzegovina] in the face of anti-Dayton and secessionist activity,” the statement said, adding: “The US has underscored that the Constitution [of Bosnia and Herzegovina] provides no right of secession, and it will act if anyone tries to change this basic element.”
This statement perfectly illustrates what sort of a bottomless pit of hypocrisy and double standards the US foreign policy is. This is the very definition of the so-called “rules-based world order“, a euphemism for US/NATO imperialist and supremacist policies that are provisionally using certain parts of the international law while ignoring the rest whenever this suits their interests. Namely, while insisting on the “territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Washington DC is simultaneously breaking international law by propping up the Albanian narco-terrorist entity occupying the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia. This includes the latest move to additionally arm the illegal entity in Pristina, with the US sending hundreds of “Javelin” ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) to Albanian narco-terrorist forces, now posing as a “military”.
On January 11, US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill (infamous for his close ties to the Al Qaeda-linked Albanian KLA terrorist organization) confirmed that the US Congress already approved the transfer of these weapons. Hill issued the statement right after meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who said the move was a “great disappointment”, but that “Serbia, together with the United States, will work to ensure the continuation of strong Serbian-American relations”. Obviously, such attempts to appease the US bring no results, as evidenced by Washington DC’s determination to continue damaging Serbia’s basic national interests. What’s more, the Albanian narco-terrorist entity announced this isn’t the last weapons acquisition and that other NATO members, particularly the Neo-Ottomanist Turkey, would provide additional armaments.
Given the history of US/NATO destabilization in Serbia/former Yugoslavia, this is hardly surprising. Despite its futile attempts to keep good relations with the political West, Belgrade is faced with perpetually increasing pressure, this time on two fronts, as US/NATO occupation forces are still actively working against Serbian interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Kosovo and Metohia. The obvious goal is to further reduce Serbian ethnic space and make sure that the current state of semi-occupation is “upgraded” into a full-blown (neo)colonial status. The endgame is to ensure that Belgrade can never recover its full sovereignty and potentially become a geopolitical “nuisance” that could ally itself not only with Russia, but any other multipolar global power, particularly at a time when BRICS+ is making such tremendous strides.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.