testimonies from Jasenovac comernlargely from the Jewish survivors whornwere spared as valuable professionalsrnand craftsmen. Between 500,000 andrn600,000 Jasenovac Serb inmates did notrnhave such luck.rnAlso, Cardinal Stepinac has beenrnrecorded by Nazi newsreels as the prelaternwho blessed the Ustase troops (dressed inrntheir best SS-type uniforms), and he isrnon record as the man of God who sawrnno reason to oppose the mass forced conversionrnof Serb Orthodox Christiansrnto Roman Catholicism. Some 300,000rnSerbs were so converted between 1941rnand 1945, and many of them subsequentlyrnmurdered, for all their docilityrnand loyalty to Ante Pavelic’s NationalrnSocialist government.rnBut, Cardinal Stepinac’s record—controversialrnas it may be (many Serbs considerrnhim a war criminal)—is not what isrnmost disturbing in Mr. Anger’s missive.rnFar more disturbing to me—as a Christianrn(of the Serb Orthodox kind) and arnconservative (of the European and Westernrnbent)—is Mr. Anger’s belief thatrnevil can be legislated, organized, orrnignored away—by policies, techniques,rnor attitudes correct and well-meaningrnenough. Of course, this view of Creationrn—and human affairs in general—isrna widespread one, and has even seepedrninto what many still consider the conservativernmovement—in the United States,rnamong other places.rnUnfortunately for this worldview,rnnothing we so far know of history supportsrnits tenets, nor does anything contradictrnthe fact that precisely this type ofrnidealistic “well-wishing” has producedrnmore actual evil than any other humanrnattitude. After all, communists were eminentlyrnwell-intentioned, their rage andrnhomicidal frenzy whipped up time andrntime again by the failure of the humanrnanimal to accept solutions that would,rnpurportedly, raise all mankind above itsrnown, God-imposed condition. Evenrnwere Cardinal Stepinac (for instance) arnveritable saint (there are persistent attemptsrnby the Catholic Church to canonizernhim), he would—like all saintsrnrecorded so far—have failed to alterrn(much less end) “the interminablernslaughter” of Mr. Anger’s perception,rnand anguish.rnHuman (and all other) life on thisrnplanet, however, has, since the Genesis,rnbeen nothing but “interminable slaughter”rnall along. The Iliad, among otherrnworks of human (and divine) spirit, isrnnothing but a paean to this “slaughter,”rnas are many other works of human (butrndivinely inspired) genius. Whether wernlike it or not, “interminable slaughter” isrnhere with us to stav, at least until thernAtonement. God, it seems, has somernreasons of His Own to keep it up, and ifrnwe (Mr. Anger included) cannot recognizernthem, so much the worse for us.rnWhat, mercifully, mitigates death inrnour lives is chivalry and heroism. In Serbrntradition, elucidated best by the Montenegrinrnwarrior-turned-writer of the lastrncentury Marko Milyanov Drekalovitch,rnthere is a definite—and preeminent—rnplace for both, and that is why murder,rnmassacre, and torture are regarded withrnhorror, and loathing, by most Serbs Irnknow (including the “Old Man” 1 wroternabout, judging by his wounded, half-insane,rnpale blue, subdued eyes, immersedrnin remorse, guilt, and suffering). For, despiternMr. Anger’s attempts to relativizerneverything about the “desperate combatrnbetween Serbs, Croats, and Muslims” (inrnthe best liberal, humanist tradition),rnwhat is not relative—and can never he relativern—is the God-created relationshiprnbetween the cause and its effect.rnIt may be true that in some other universesrn(God’s foremost) there is no timernand, therefore, no consequentiality (inrnEternity, for instance, everything is—rnso to say—simultaneous), yet, in this valernof tears, who started what, why, and howhasrnall the import that our Greater hasrnassigned it. Evil causes are supposedrnto be punished, and good ones rewardedrnin kind, and there is no way anyonerncan equate Serb effects with Muslimrnor Croat causes, for all the sophistryrnand “moral” philosophy in the world.rnWhether we want to or not, we exist—rnit seems—above all to choose sides, asrnwe choose our lives, mates, and friendsrn(exactly as God has chosen us, to live andrndie as we see—or can—best).rnThe problem with the Serbs seemsrnsimple enough—they are rocking thernboat of the New World Order by not lettingrnany human agency take from themrntheir freedom to choose, and to act onrntheir choice. Maybe an internationalrnpolice (in the form of UNPROFOR,rnNATO, or whatever) could enforce therndecisions of an international judiciaryrn(World Court, or a new Nuremberg Tribunal,rnetc.), reached by adhering to thernlaws enacted by a Worid Parliament (thernU.N., for instance), but, so far, the recordrnof such institutions has been dismal andrnoffers little hope of improving, as long asrnthere is a Supreme Legislator, Judge, andrnEnforcer.rnNo one has recompensed the Serbs forrnclose to (or over) one million dead inrnWorld War II (one-eighth of the populationrn—compared to the one-tenth of, say,rnthe German population, or less thanrnone-twelfth of all the Croats of WorldrnWar II). Moreover, these losses—causedrnby Croats, Muslims, and Germans (inrnthat order)—have never even been recognizedrnby the “International Community.”rn(Just as this “community” hasrnchosen, so far, to ignore the Armenians’rnthree million dead—one half of all thernArmenians living in 1915—or the morernthan two million Greeks expelled fromrntheir native Turkey by Ataturk in 1922.)rnGenocides, or holocausts, seem to haverntheir own monopolists—both amongrnthe victims and the perpetrators—andrnthe Serbs, it seems, have no reason torntrust anyone but themselves and no recoursernbut to “take justice into their ownrnhands” (the abomination of all abominationsrnto a liberal, “well-meaning” mind).rnBut, if justice cannot be dispensed byrnothers, we—as individuals, and as peoplern—are responsible for it on this Earth.rnSo, when the massacres of Serbs startedrnonce again, in 1991 (in Croatia), and inrn1992 (in Bosnia and Herzegovina: thernfirst massacre of any kind in Bosnia wasrncommitted in the Serb village of Sijekovac,rnon March 27, 1992, when regularrnCroatian troops from Croatia—just overrnthe Save River from Sijekovae—murderedrnand dismembered over 50 Serbrnvillagers, obliterating whole families),rnBosnian Serbs could do nothing but preparernfor the war that came a week later,rnwith the Muslim-Croat proclamation ofrn”independence” (supported by Germanyrnand the United States), against thernSerbs’ wishes. Characteristically, thernCroatian rebellion against Yugoslaviarncame exactly 50 years after the Ustasernrebellion against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia;rnthe Sijekovae massacre occurredrnon the anniversary of March 27, 1941,rnwhen Serbs demonstrated against thernNazis in Belgrade; and the outbreak ofrnwar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, uncannily,rncoincided with April 6, the date whenrnNazi warplanes bombed undefendedrnBelgrade in 1941, killing several thousandrncivilians. Like many Americans,rntherefore, in today’s New World Order,rnthe Serbs have the choice of perennialrnvictimization or of striking back.rnAs for the “Croatland” of Mr. Anger’srndisapproval, I used that name to signifyrnOCTOBER 1995/5rnrnrn