men, however, were being sent back to their families.rnI ask the soldiers why these peoples cannot live together inrnpeace. “Maybe the Serbs and Croats could do it some day, butrnwith the Muslims, never.” Since many Serbs believe that it isrnthe Catholic Church that has inspired the Croats with hatred,rnI ask them if their priests have ever stirred up resentmentrnagainst Serbian Orthodoxy. This was a chance to ingratiaternthemselves with their captors, but they both denied it, vehemently.rnThe only solution, explains one of the Croats, would be torngive part of Bosnia to Croatia, part to Serbia, and leave the centerrnto the Muslims. Anyone who has looked at the Vance-Owenrnmap realizes that it would have the opposite effect of continuingrnthe “Bosnian experiment in multiculturalism,” that is tornsay, it would prolong the slaughter.rnMonza, LombardiarnThis former bastion of the Holy Roman Empire is a beautifulrntown, unspoiled by tourism, but the clean, attractive streetsrnseem too American, too domesticated after Serbia. There isrnmusic in the street, but it is a group of Peruvians playing theirrnmonotonously cheerful music. My friends tell me that I drankrntoo much shlivovitsa with the Chetniks, They are probablyrnright, or perhaps it was the wine of Czar Dushan. I went to seernthings from the Serbian perspective, and 1 succeeded all toornwell. 1 went from being a sympathetic if skeptical observer tornbeing a partisan. I call it Stoic journalism—or even Zen journalismrn—^you let what happens happen and find yourself suckedrninto a stream of events you could never have planned or anticipated.rnAs an America Firster or even, as Pat Buchanan jokinglyrncalled me, a Serbia Firster, would 1 recommend to ChristianrnAmerica that we go in and help the Christian Serbs? Absolutelyrnnot. Western Christendom has given the Serbs enoughrnhelp to obliterate any other people: from the Vatican, whichrntried to convert the kings and whose persecution of the Bo-rnCo/. Gushitch and one of his officers.rngomils in Bosnia helped drive them into the arms of Islam;rnfrom the Austrians, who rushed in to protect Bosnia, once thernSerbs had expelled the Turks, and stayed to annex the region torntheir empire, a stupid and immoral decision that led directly tornWorld War I; from the French and the Americans, who compelledrnthe Serbs to abandon their dream of a unified Serbia andrnforced them to accept the mongrel state of Yugoslavia; fromrnChurchill and the English, who abandoned the Christian patriotrnDrazha Mihajlovitch and installed Tito as communist dictator;rnand from George Bush and his advisors, who, up to thernarmpits in “fees” from Yugoslav clients, tried desperately to savernthe doomed federation, demonizing first the Croats for wantingrnto break away and then the Serbs for turning nationalist.rnWhat, ultimately, is the interest of America and its NATOrnallies in Bosnia and Kosovo? Bill Clinton says it is to contain thernconflict, but intervention is the surest way to widen it. Overrnand over the Serbs asked me why America hates them. I thinkrnthey are right. I think our ruling class does hate them, becausernit sees in them what we used to be. It sees Achilles and bravernHoratius, Robin Hood and Jesse James; real men who settlerntheir own accounts, fight their own battles, sing their ownrnsongs, and worship their own God, and because we havernlearned to hate ourselves and all that we have been, we want torndestroy these presumptuous braggarts who think they havernthe right to their own identity.rnYugoslavia was an ill-conceived project from the same brainsrnthat hatched the League of Nations, and as it breaks up, so doesrnthe whole international order jury-rigged at Versailles. Bosniarnis a microcosm of the microcosm Yugoslavia. It is not a nation;rnit is only a multicultural experiment. Let them fight it out,rnonce and for all, and establish defensible borders behind whichrnthey may learn in time to endure the sight of each other. ThernCroats and Serbs are not dogs and cats; they are two closely relatedrnbreeds of dogs: too different to love each other, too closernfor respect. They can never forget what they have done to eachrnother, and if I believe the Serbs have been the more injured party,rnI say it makes no difference anymore, once they are free ofrnthe imposed embrace that has made them mutually detestable.rnWhen each of the sides can have its own country, its own identity,rnits own religion, only then will there be peace.rnThis article could not have been written without the generousrnassistance of many Serbs, in and out of government, who wastedrnhours and days in trying to help a foreigner whose Presidentrnkeeps threatening to kill their people. I can only mention a fewrnof them. In Belgrade: Boda Markovitch of Radio Belgrade, arnreal Atlas of a man; Vesna Hitch of the Foreign Press Office;rnpoet and editor Blazho Perovitch and Dragan Gachitch of thernMinistry ofCiJture, who both helped to arrange the trip tornKosovo; and Chaslav Ocitch, who accompanied us to Kosovo.rnI cannot mention all the people who helped us in Prishtina, butrnI cannot fail to pay tribute to Slobodan Kostitch and the directorrnof monuments. In Herzegovina, the journalist Misho Vujovitch,rnwho traveled with us, was indispensable, and nothingrncould have been accomplished without the generous help ofrnColonel Gushitch and his men, especially our driver Bora, whornhas a career waiting for him in the States if he ever wants tornrace on the NASCAR circuit. My friend Bill Mills took thernphotographs and was a trooper throughout. The greatestrnthanks goes to Memo and Anna Selic, hosts, translators, tourrnguides, instructors in the language, history, and culture ofrnSerbia, and—above all—friends.rn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn