Wish you were Hitler

I spent a year on a deployment with the Army to Kosovo. In fact, a year ago I was training in my replacement. Kosovars idolize Bill Clinton--literally. There are streets and athletic buildings named after him. Clinton sent in the bombs that ended the war and mutual extermination of Serbs and Albanians from Kosovo. He did this without U.N. approval.

While we were in Kosovo the greatest violence since the war broke out in the March riots of 2004. Serbian churches were destroyed and Serbs were forced from their homes during the riots. Part of our job after the riots were under control was to assess the damage. During this time I was involved in driving a Serbian family back to their Albanian neighborhood to reclaim their damaged home. He had been severely beaten by a crowd of Albanians before being rescued by U.S. soldiers. Another time I went with one of our highest ranking officers to check on the rebuilding process for a family whose home was completely destroyed during the riots.

To the right there is a picture of the ensuing conversation. It is admittedly a poor picture and you can just barely see the two Serbian men that we were talking to. Two of the 'soldiers' with us in this picture are actually local translators. You can see some of the rebuilding occurring to the left. The Serbian men are upset and are scolding us--they are especially upset with our commander.

They are upset that their home is not being rebuilt exactly like it was before the riots. They say that they wish Hitler was in control rather than us. They were reminiscing of a time when he was in control. Things were different then. Things were safer. This is probably true.

Hitler made things safe--for Serbians living in this area. He exercised more control than the U.S. policy in Kosovo would allow. The UN was attempting to help Albanians and Serbians work together to solve their own problems. They are not interested in controlling them like Hitler did. This, however, leaves plenty of room for conflict--something that these Serbians were understandably not happy about. If we were Hitler their home may not have been destroyed.