2 + 2 = 5

     In his famous essay On perpetual peace, Immanuel Kant offers the following thought: "No State Shall, during War, Permit Such Acts of Hostility Which Would Make Mutual Confidence in the Subsequent Peace Impossible.” It is a pity that Kant has found so few followers in the Balkans. Balkan contenders seem not only to completely disregard Kant’s advice; they actually compete in annoying one another so intolerably and poking each other in the eye so painfully as to make any future normalization of relations on reasonable terms a virtual impossibility.
     The Srebrenica affair is a glaring case in point. By an unspoken convention, in war propaganda is permitted to take outrageous liberties with the truth. It is a pity that in Bosnia’s case, long after the conflict’s end, what began as propaganda has now evolved into an unquestionable cannon of political correctness, or a ruthlessly enforced intellectual straightjacket, whichever you prefer. It is demanded of the other side [and of the world at large, of course] to endorse a mathematical equation, which is supposed to represent what happened in Srebrenica, which is manifestly false. As an inducement for bowing to that falsehood, there is not even a promise of anything resembling peace and reconciliation. At the most, and only perhaps, there is merely the chance of a slight toning down of the shrill and derogatory rhetoric.
     That is clearly a recipe for perpetual distrust and latent conflict, if not for outright war, but certainly not for peace. It is illusory to think that the side which lost several thousand of its own will calmly accept that its victims be thrust into historical oblivion while their adversaries’ inflated claims are being used to construct a myth of victimhood for political advantage. There may, indeed, be several other equally valid geometries, besides Euclid’s, but it so happens that there is only one mathematic. The false Orwellian equation of 2 + 2 = 5, which one party in the Srebrenica controversy is ruthlessly trying to impose upon the other, will simply not stand. And if indeed it must fail, that means that the simple people of Srebrenica, whatever their ethnicity and religion, will never regain their feeling of security and enjoy a normal environment in which to live, interact, and raise their children.
     The ruthless abuse of Srebrenica as a political trump card, callously utilizing not only the dead, but also the living and potentially the unborn, is one of the most shortsighted and foolish tactics of the corrupt Bosnian Moslem leadership. That leadership, to be sure, is not gifted with intellectual brilliance, but there are some things that it does not take a rocket scientist to see. For example, that the successful wartime Srebrenica propaganda charade was not a product of their own cleverness but entirely the result of their Western strategic partners’ pragmatic need to use the Srebrenica narrative as a pacifier for their otherwise strained relations with the Islamic world. The facilities which were placed at Sarajevo’s disposal to propagate the myth can just as easily be withdrawn, at any time. That was stated quite openly, and at another level somewhat cynically implied, on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria interview program by one-time partner Richard Holbrooke when he said that the purpose of American interventions in Bosnia and later Kosovo was merely to reassure the Islamic world that the US was not unalterably opposed to Islam in every corner of the world. [CNN, April 19, 2009] Apparently, nobody ever informed the “rocket scientists” in Sarajevo that strategic partnerships are notoriously unstable and that strategic interests are always in a state of creative flux.
     The corollary of that proposition is that the strategic environment changes. Today’s angels may be tomorrow’s devils, and vice versa. The current “angels”, of course, have no independent control whatsoever over either the political or the media mechanisms that are necessary to make their 2 + 2 = 5 Srebrenica story sustainable over the long term. The moment their strategic patrons judge that their interest have diverged and they consequently remove the props from under their Bosnian protégés, the Srebrenica narrative will collapse unceremoniously like a house of cards.
     Are the Sarajevo leadership prepared for that exceedingly likely eventuality? What is their Plan B for when that happens?
     Well, here is a suggestion, and they may take it from Kant should they resent being lectured by Srebrenica Historical Project. Step one, try to talk to your neighbors. Step two, try to find out what is hurting them. Step three, depoliticize what is essentially a moral and human issue and give equal time to pain and grief on all sides. Form a joint commission composed of persons of impeccable character and credibility, give them enough time and resources, and let them research, calmly and without pressure, what happened in and around Srebrenica during the course of the entire conflict, from 1992 to 1995.
     Wartime propaganda, which regrettably often turns the truth on its head, is a natural extension of warfare and therefore an act of hostility par excellence within the meaning of Kant’s warning. Unless it is modified or withdrawn by wise leaders as soon as military necessity is over, it may have a lasting and adverse effect on the restoration of peace. Foreign sponsors and occupation forces come and go, but as the people of Bosnia know from historical experience, neighbors must remain forever living side by side. Therefore, the responsibility for shaping their neighborhood and for securing a safe and peaceful future for their children is theirs, and theirs alone.