New Knick: Darko Milicic and Serbians Played On, Even as the Bombs Fell

“What More, in the Name of Love?”

On April 4, 1999 NATO forces refused to halt the bombing campaign in recognition of Orthodox Easter in Serbia, as US backed forces had done in December of 1998 in order to recognize Ramadan after then President Bill Clinton ordered the bombing of targets in Iraq that were suspected as sites of WMD’s.  (Air raids on Iraq would continue throughout most of 1999.)

That though, was the beginning of when I began to distrust the “mass media.”  Though I do not claim to be an inherently better journalist, I do believe that I can say things different from what they say, because forces that can and have hindered the “mass media” do not affect me, such as office politics, paychecks, and fans that dictate what they want to hear and see.

Honestly, I do not blame the journalists per se; I blame those who do not want to hear the truth, because the media only sells what the viewers and readers want to hear and read.

I would like to believe that even non-Christians would be greatly and deeply offended by the bombing of innocent civilians on one of the holiest days for Christians.  Especially when the same accommodation had been made for Ramadan less than six months earlier.  The killing of civilians–many of whom opposed Slobodan Milosevic—whose only “crime” was to be under the thumb of an incompetent dictator, was clearly a war crime.

For those of you who do not know, April 4 is also the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, and is a day that Bono referenced in the U2 song, Pride (In the Name of Love) but has also reminded me of, Sunday, Bloody, Sunday.

Other Songs

It does then seem sadistically ironic that the United States would mark such a tragic day with such a horrendous act.  I know I will not be popular for saying this, but I immediately thought of April 4, 1999 when I heard Rev. Jeremiah Wright proclaim, “God damn, America!”

The atrocities by NATO against the Serbs however, especially on April 4, was truly just Serbia's September 11, but two-years before. 

Do you know the way to Constantinople?

I do not want America to fail.  I want those who order and defend the murder of innocent civilians to fail, especially when they call it a, "clean war."

I am left to wonder if historians and world leaders will one-day demand that the United States and NATO should apologize for the atrocities committed against the Serbs, just as Turkey has long been implored to apologize for the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) against the Serbs and Armenians around the end of the First World War.

If you ask me, the Ottoman Empire collapsed from karmic retribution (well, I could do a dissertation on why, but this is not the venue for it) from being unwilling to accept what they had done, after standing as an empire for over six hundred years.

Finally...

People will and may argue that Milicic was “lucky” to win a ring as a backup in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons, because his playing time was insignificant.  After what Milicic and other Serbs have had to endure not only to live, but also to fight back by playing the sport they love—there is no way you can tell me that Milicic did not earn what he has accomplished.

Food for Thought, Pilot TV Show Predicts September 11 on March 04, 2001:

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