In his “Safe Area Gorazde” Joe Sacco describes his experience visiting a Muslim enclave during the Bosnian War of 1991-1995. Tragically, this work is based on testimonies of residents of Gorazde, allegedly a UN-protected area where Bosnian Muslims are able to take refuge to avoid the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Serbian army. Gorazde is anything but protected which Sacco demonstrates throughout the book by ridiculing the UN and the US who are able to and responsible for protecting the residents of such enclaves, but instead turn a blind eye to what was going on. “…the U.N. extended safe area status to other Bosnian enclaves, including Gorazde. But the U.N. had yet to work out what the concept meant”, Sacco says (Sacco, 148). These designated “safe” areas are completely abandoned by the authorities who promise to watch over them, despite being some of the most dangerous places on Earth. The entire world seems to ignore the brutalities going on there – the destruction of towns, massacre of men, raping of women, and the murder and neglect of children. The residents have nowhere to go, have no hope, and little or no access to basic necessities. These conditions and the abandonment which leads to them is the central theme of this work. Sacco wants us to feel this situation and he succeeds. By the end of “Safe Area Gorazde” one is left seething. “Safe area”, as Sacco’s title suggests, was a new entry in the Orwellian lexicon during the Bosnian conflict. As Hitchens states in the introduction to the book, “the contempt is reserved for the temporizing, buck passing, butt covering “peacekeepers” who strove to find that swamp of low and “middle” ground into which the innocent are being shoveled by the aggressive” (Hitchens, Introduction). This is a great, if brief, explanation of the evolution of the word “safe”.…
It was an armed combat war that was assaulted by the strength ofthe Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and NATO which lasted from February 28, 1998 until June 11, 1999. The KLA begin in 1991, and held its initial campaign in 1995 where then begun focusing on the law enforcement in Kosovo.…
At the turn of the twentieth century, Europe seemed to enjoy a period of peace and progress. Yet below the surface, several forces were at work that would lead Europe into the “great war”. One of these forces was nationalism and it had an explosive effect in the Balkans. But, nationalism was only one of the many causes of World War I. Historians and eyewitnesses have described the causes of World War I and have tried to assess the responsibility for it. Two causes for World War I are militarism and nationalism. Militarism is when the empires use weapons and armies strength to show who is more powerful. Empires would build stronger weapons to fight other empires to show their strength. Nationalism is pride in one’s country or culture. All countries thought their best. These two causes influenced World War I.…
One of the world’s most devastating and history-changing wars was caused by the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was next in line for the throne to govern over the Austria-Hungary empire in the beginning of the 20th century, and he was rising at a very dangerous and tense time. In the early 1900s, Austria-Hungary was in a stressful conflict with the country of Serbia. The Serbians wanted the land of Bosnia, in which the Austria-Hungarian empire had annexed into their country, and Serbia wanted to unite all of the Serb ethnic groups to form a country known as “Greater Serbia,” (Bodden 19). They wanted to send a message to Austria-Hungary, and they wanted to show that they meant business. So, the Serbian government…
3. Include at least two (2) peer-reviewed references (no more than five [5] years old) from material outside the textbook to support your views regarding the proposed U.S. response to the conflict in Bosnia. Note: Appropriate peer-reviewed references include scholarly articles and governmental Websites. Do not use open source…
These quotes are the answers George w bush gave to Americans on why this war is just, he states that the united states military is in Iraq to disarm Iraq and defend the world from grave danger he also says that Americans don’t have any ambition in Iraq and they are only going into Iraq to help the “oppressed people”.…
A hundred years ago next week, in the small Balkan city of Sarajevo, Serbian nationalists murdered the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his wife. People were shocked but not particularly worried. Sadly, there had been many political assassinations in previous years—the king of Italy, two Spanish prime ministers, the Russian czar, President William McKinley. None had led to a major crisis. Yet just as a pebble can start a landslide, this killing set off a series of events that, in five weeks, led Europe into a general war. The U.S. under President Woodrow Wilson intended to stay out of the conflict, which, in the eyes of many Americans, had nothing to do with them. But in 1917, German submarine attacks on U.S. shipping and attempts…
• Misha Glenny, The Balkans 1804-1999: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, (London: Granta Publications 1999).…
“What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.”…
Thesis: This essay argues that although the response of the Allies was inadequate, there is still much to learn from them. Outline : 1) The Allies did little in preventing the murder and crime that occurred. 2)…
At the turn of the twentieth century, Europe seemed to enjoy a period of peace and progress. Yet below the surface, several forces were at work that would lead Europe into the “Great War.” On of these forces was nationalism, and it had an explosive effect in the Balkans. But, nationalism was only one of the many causes of WWI. Historians and eye witnesses have described the causes of WWI and have tried to assess the responsibility for it. All wars occur because of basic political issues, such as nationalism, imperialism, alliances, militarism, and economics. World War I was no exception to this rule. Each of these played a part in bringing about The Great War. Along with these causes, all wars also have a spark and World War I is no different.…
The Bosnian War was an ethnic conflict that ravaged the former Yugoslavia from 1992-1995. The war was marked by the systematic mass rape and murder of Bosnian Muslims by Serbian nationalists. In order to understand the genocide in Bosnia, one must first examine the recent history of the torn Balkan region.…
Review in detail the key players that were involved in the split of the nations by religious reasons. This includes Milosevic.…
Maass refers to the dark moments in humanity as “the wild beast,’ where inhumanity runs amok and all morality is lost. After reading this story it can be figured that Maass went as a reporter to the Balkans at the height of the salvage war there, but this story is not traditional war reportage. It can be seen that Maass’ brilliantly observed a moving memoir of the worst event of violence in Europe during the Bosnian War, since World War II. In his story of “The Wild Beast” he writes about what he saw during the two years of war in Bosnia for the Washington Post. Maass offers “one of the definitive accounts of Bosnia’s fin de siècle descent into madness” writing in the tradition of Ryszard Kapuscinski and Michael Herr’s Dispacthes (Random House). Mass captures the national, personal, and universal implications of a civil war.…
“History repeats itself” is a phrase commonly heard and used by many people. After World War I, The League of Nations was formed as an international organization to preserve world peace. However, after World War II it became evident that the League was ineffective in its prevention, so it was replaced by The United Nations in 1945. The purpose was to become a collective international organization of countries to prevent events such as war and genocide from occurring, after witnessing the horrific atrocities of WWII. However, even after the formation of the UN, several other wars and genocides had occurred between 1945 to today, and in particular there was a brutal genocide in Bosnia. Bosnia lies next to the Adriatic Sea, paralleling the “boot” of Italy. Bosnia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1878 to World War One. After the War, the geographical area became Yugoslavia. By 1980 the population of Bosnia consisted of 2 million Bosnian Serbs and Croats (Catholic Christians) and over 1m Bosnians (Sunni Muslim), all claiming Bosnia as their homeland.1 After the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, tensions were rising in Bosnia and Herzegovina; between two ethnic groups, the Bosnians (Muslims) and the Serbs. It was clear a war was on the rise, but the UN’s repeated failure on multiple issues allowed what could have been a preventable war and genocide to happen. Firstly, the UN tried to limit their involvement in the war by sending only a limited number of troops for humanitarian purposes. Furthermore, they attempted to set up safe zones, which failed miserably because their forces were too widespread and the areas were open and exposed, easily allowing them to be taken over. Additionally, the Dutch soldiers that were guarding the safe areas were ill equipped and exhausted due to lack…