perfectly aware that Tudjman had regularrnCroatian troops in Bosnia, and quietlyrncondoned his intention to violate allrnagreements in order to destroy the KrajinarnSerbs. Accordingly, “There was thereforernno feeling between us of resentmentrnat being let down Vv’hen he did attackrnacross agreed ceasefire lines.”rnAlija Izetbegovic is treated with similarrncharity. We are not told what Owenrnknows: that he had ordered variousrnbomb-stunts against his own peoplern(e.g., the “breadline massacre” of Mayrn1992, and the Markale market massacrernof February 1994) in order to gain Westernrnsympathy and support. Even whenrnhis Muslim militiamen prove to be “capablernof killing in cold blood U.N. troopsrnin blue berets,” Owen is careful to blamern”someone in political authority, thoughrnnot necessarily Izetbegovic.” The Muslimrnleader’s loyalty “to multiethnicrnBosnia” is taken at face value, and Owenrnselects a benign, bland quotation to illustraternthe tone of Izetbegovic’s magnumrnopus, his Islamic Declaration. Owen doesrnnot give us the true Izetbegovic, whornproudly proclaims that “there can be nornpeace or coexistence between the Islamicrnfaith and non-Islamic societies and politicalrninstitutions,” and who warns hisrnfellow Muslims that “the Islamic movementrnshould and must start taking powerrnas soon as it is morally and numericallyrnstrong enough not only to overthrowrnthe existing non-Islamic power structure,rnbut also to build a great Islamic federationrnspreading from Morocco to Indonesia,rnfrom tropical Africa to Central Asia.”rnDavid Owen boasts that his job “wasrnto think the unthinkable and to challengernconventional attitudes.” His abilityrnto make the claim with a straight facernis truly unsettling. Rebecca West wasrnright to warn that “one can believe littlernof what people say of each other, butrneven less of what they say about themselves.”rnOwen’s sole complexity seemsrnto be his grimness; “Dr. Death”—hisrnnickname from the old. Labor days—rnrings eerily true to form. When he is duplicitous,rnwhich he is often, one sensesrnthat the Welsh Puritan in him secretlyrnlongs to be unmasked. When he is at hisrnmost arrogant, he is also, curiously, hisrnmost pitiful.rnFar from being “unconventional,”rnDavid Owen is the paragon of the aging,rnneurotic yuppie. His inner void is paperedrnover by thousands of hours of longhaulrnflights, dinner parties, and pressrnconferences. He is reliant upon bands ofrnassistants and piles of meaningless memos,rnaddicted to make-do conferences andrn15-hour working days. In the end, leftrnalone with himself, he is seemingly asrnvacuous as the decade, and just as sad.rnHis exercise in self-aggrandizement isrndoomed, and we sense that he knows it.rnOwen’s greatest claim to “unconventionality”rnis his alleged discovery thatrnMilosevic had never been the “Serbianrnnationalist leader” of 1,000 Western editorials,rnbut a cynical apparatchik whornhad never identified with the nationalistrnagenda. But by promoting an intra-Serbrnsplit, Owen did not accomplish anythingrnthat Milosevic had not been ready andrnwilling to do anyway. The Serbs ofrnBosnia and Croatia, unwilling to submitrnto Tudjman and Izetbegovic but unablernto resist without help from Serbia itself,rnwere doomed to defeat once Milosevicrndecided that they could pose a threat tornhis undisputed authority.rnDavid Owen has failed in the Balkans.rnHe and I would probably disagree on thernnature of his failure, but that is a part ofrnhis tragedy: this need not have been so.rnHad he genuinely dared to “think thernunthinkable” and to “challenge conventionalrnattitudes,” Owen would have beenrnremembered as—at worst—a controversial,rntroublesome Brit; but at best (andrnjust maybe) as a genuine hero inrnGoethe’s eternal war against Dummheit.rnHis unheroic refusal to play this role furtherrnreduced the possibility of a genuinerndebate on the Balkans in the West, andrnin “Europe” in particular. It helped promoterna bogus consensus, and it facilitatedrnthe temporary triumph of a narrowminded,rnvindictive Mitteleuropa overrngenuine European understanding.rnDenying the validity of any Serb claimrnthus became the corollary of excludingrnEastern Orthodox nations—above all,rnRussia—from the New Europe.rnThe fruits of David Owen’s labors belongrn—for now—to the Clinton administrationrn(which has stabbed him in thernback by torpedoing his beloved peacernplan), and to the Germans (who despisernhim). The final result may well prove tornbe fatal, not only for the interests of thern”wrong” type of Slavs but for what remainsrnof the ability of Western civilizationrnto remain cool and detached in thernface of interventionist hysteria and thernmanufacture of enemies. crnHelp Us Fight To SavernOur American Heritage!rnSouthern heritage is a part of American heritage butrn”civil rights” groups want to remove ALL Confederate symbolsrnfrom public property. Join HPA today and help us fightrnpolitical correctness and cultural bigotry against the South.rnHeritage Preservation AssociationrnHPA is a nonprofit, national membership organization that utilizesrneducational resources along with political ana legal action to protectrnSouthern symbols, Southern history, and Southern culture.rnAnnual dues of $39.95 include: HPA membershiprncard, bi-monthly newsletter, quarterly reports,rnConfederate Shopper’s Club”^^* and the Heritage-BBS’^”rncomputer system. Mention this ad to save 10%rn(VISA, Mastercard, AMEX)rnTo join by phone or request free information, callrn800-86-DIXIErnHPA • P.O. Box 98209 • Atlanta, GA 30359rn(404) 928-2714 • Fax (404) 928-2719rnOCTOBER 1996/25rnrnrn