An Open Letter to my good friend, Patrick Buchanan – by Stella Jatras

20 February 2003

The American Conservative 

An Open Letter to my good friend, Patrick Buchanan

(from Stella L. Jatras)

Dear Pat,

There was no one more dedicated than I and my husband, George, in support of your candidacy for President of the United States. Long hours opening mail and enjoying the company of fellow volunteers. Pleasant memories. If you remember, George and I had a fund raiser in our home on 30 July 2000. In a write-up of the event in The Washington Times, reporter Steve Miller insinuated that our home was nothing more than a hovel when he wrote, “Even senators have roomier digs for fund-raisers, but these are the travails of sprouting political movements,” a nasty remark considering that although our home may not be a mansion, it certainly is not a hovel and is located in a lovely area of Northern Virginia.

One reason for our dedication was that you were the only candidate who openly opposed the bombing of Yugoslavia, i.e., the Serbs. You were the only candidate who showed compassion for the Serbian people who were suffering because of Clinton’s ill-conceived foreign policies in the Balkans.  Before your presentation at the Virginia Reform Party state convention near Afton, VA in 1999, I handed you a copy of my “Open Letter to Lieutenant General Michael Short,” Commander of Allied Forces in Southern Europe, who commanded the air campaign against Yugoslavia.

When I handed you my letter to Lt. Gen. Short prior to the Reform Party meeting, I had intended for you to read it when you had the time, possibly on your way back to your home. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised and enormously pleased when, within a half hour of receiving it, you quoted from my letter in your presentation.

If you to go to the Free Republic link http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3820cf4d2861.htm, you can also read the over 90 comments that the letter generated, many from active duty personnel. The letter also contains much information dispelling many of the atrocities alleged to have been committed by the Serbs when, in fact, they were committed by Bosnian Muslim forces. The letter also shows that we deliberately targeted civilians in order to break the Serbian spirit. “I think no power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can’t get to work because the bridge is down – the bridge on which you held your rock concerts — and you all stood with targets on your heads. That needs to disappear at 3 o’clock in the morning.” – Lt. Gen. Short, 12 May 1999.

Now it seems that you, like so many in the media, want to forget what we did in Yugoslavia. On 17 February, you were a guest on Donahue’s program for the entire hour. The only mention of the Balkans was when you said that if we continue with our immigration and illegal alien policies, our country could become Balkanized, a term used negatively and certainly, not a very promising prospect for our country. However, what prompted me to write to you was your comment (to paraphrase): “The United States is not a nation that attacks a nation that has not attacked or threatened us.”

Pat, have you forgotten Yugoslavia, i.e., the Serbs? Clinton was the first in our history to have a pre-emptive strike against a sovereign nation who had never attacked us. France and Germany want more proof of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, yet both nations had no qualms of following our wag-the-dog president in his cruel war against the Serbian people. You oppose the war because you say that Iraq has never attacked us and that Iraq is not a threat to us. Remember that the Serbs never had weapons of mass destruction. The Serbs never attacked us, nor were they ever a threat to us, yet we bombed the Serbs back to the stone age. General Charles G. Boyd, USAF (Ret), said, “The Serbs are not fighting to conquer new territory, but to hold on to what was already theirs.”

Tearfully, Susan Sarandon says, “What have the Iraqi people ever done to us?” I never heard her say, “What have the Serbian people ever done to us?” and yet she and her ilk were beating the war drums along with their “I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky,” president. In addition, we denied the Serbs the same right to defend themselves against Osama bin Laden’s terrorists, that we claim for ourselves.

In this next issue, Pat, I must include you. Pundits who talk about wars discuss World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Gulf War, The Afghan War, and now the 2nd impending Gulf War. What’s missing? Absolutely no discussion of what we did to the Serbs by bombing Yugoslavia and destroying its infrastructure in an immoral and unjust war. It’s as though our strafing and killing Serbian civilians were insignificant. “After all, they were just Serbs, and they got what they deserved,” was America’s brainwashed sentiment.

The civil war in Bosnia was one of images. We all saw the blood and gore CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, (who is married to James Rubin, Clinton’s former mouthpiece for the Department of State. It should also be noted that Ms. Amanpour’s father is Iranian), CBS’s Peter Jennings, (whose former wife is now married to Richard Holbrooke, the architect of the pro-Muslim Bosnian Peace Accord), and ABC’s Mike Wallace, who fed us their daily portion of swill. This is the same Mike Wallace who, along with twenty one other “journalists” went to the alleged site of mass graves near Srebrenica. When they found nothing, Wallace and the others were silent. Not one reported that the claim of mass graves was a lie.

In 1995, we bombed the Bosnian Serbs over the 1994 Markale market place massacre. Of the massacre, Yossef Bodansky (author of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America) wrote in1995 book, “Offensive in the Balkans,” “Phase Three started with a self-inflicted major terrorist provocation. On February 5, 1994, a major explosion rocked the Markale – Sarajevo’s main market place – causing heavy casualties. What was immediately described as the ubiquitous ‘Serb mortar shell’ was actually a special charge designed and built with help from HizhAllah experts and then most likely dropped from a nearby rooftop onto the crowd of shoppers. Video cameras at the ready recorded this expertly-staged spectacle of gore, while dozens of corpses of Bosnian Muslim troops killed in action (exchanged the day before in a ‘body swap’ with the Serbs) were paraded in front of the cameras to raise the casualty count.

This callous self-killing was designed to shock the west, especially sentimental and gullible Washington, in order to further raise the level of Western sympathy to the Bosnian Muslims and further demonize the Serbs .” [my emphasis].

Other [EUROPEAN] newspapers corroborated the fact that Bosnian Muslims had slaughtered their own people on more than one occasion in order to hook Uncle Sam into supporting them. Americans, however, were not told the truth neither by our politicians with a pro-Muslim agenda nor by the U.S. media.

Today, Bosnia is al Qaeda’s corridor into Europe, complete with crime and drugs. Recently the head of an Islamic charity in Chicago was caught funneling funds to terrorists in Bosnia and in Chechnya.  No one wants to admit that if we hadn’t supported the Bosnian Muslims, al Qaeda wouldn’t be entrenched in the Balkans as they are today.

As for Kosovo, Serbia’s Jerusalem, there are those in Congress who now seek to grant ethnic Albanians their reward for having ethnically cleansed the Serbs from their holy site. With all due respect to Congressman Henry Hyde whom I respect, I believe he is being led by the nose by Congressman Tom Lantos, who has his own political agenda for Kosovo.  Both Congressmen are co-sponsors of House Resolution 28, (H.R.28) for the independence of Kosovo.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was armed and trained by Osama bin Laden and is engaged in sex slavery, prostitution, kidnapping, murder, and drugs. Of the KLA, Senator Lieberman said, “The United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation Army stand for the same human values and principles . . . Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights and American values.” (Washington Post, Apr. 28, 1999).

More churches were destroyed after KFOR entered Kosovo than were destroyed during 415 years of Ottoman occupation. As though that were not enough, U.S. foreign policy has condemned the remaining Serbs to live once again under their Islamic masters. And the killings and murders of Serbs continue, as does the destruction of their 13th and 14th century churches and monasteries, yet not one word of condemnation from our illustrious Congress nor from the media. Considering that the Serbs were once the majority in Kosovo, who has been ethnically cleansed?   It took NATO and in particular the United States to finish the job that Hitler started.

In my opinion, there are several reasons why we betrayed our Christian Serb allies of two world wars in favor of the Bosnian Muslims. The first reason is because Saudi Arabia wanted the first Muslim state in the belly of Europe and we wanted Saudi oil and money. Pure and simple! Saudi Arabia had signed a letter of intent to buy $6 billion dollars worth of Boeing aircraft. The day after we bombed the Serbs over the trumped up excuse that the Serbs had bombed the Markale market place, the Saudis signed on the dotted line. A coincidence? I don’t think so. We wanted to please the Saudis and to appease the Muslim world with, “See Muslims of the world? We don’t hate you. After all, didn’t we destroy a Christian nation for you?”

The second reason is because Clinton had to take the heat off of himself because of his sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and the third reason is because Clinton needed a war. And he needed a successful war to improve his tainted image of being the draft dodger that he was. Nineteen NATO members, with a population of over 900 million, attacked a tiny nation of 10 million and we thump our chests in triumph. During World War II, the Serbs rescued over 500 downed American pilots at great sacrifice to themselves. Their reward? We bombed the very people who returned our airmen back to their families.

Returning to your original comment, that “The United States is not a nation that attacks a nation that has not attacked or threatened us,” since when, Pat do we punish people for atrocities they didn’t commit? When did we become that kind of nation? When did we become that kind of people?

Pat, I barely skimmed the surface of the treachery against the Serbia people but for the sake of brevity, I have merely given you a glimpse of a disgraceful record that goes all the way back to the first Bush Administration.

I, for one, will forever remain ashamed for the uncivilized conduct of my country in the destruction, the devastation, and the humiliation of a once proud people.

So there you have it, Pat. When talking about your opposition to the war in Iraq, it would behoove you to also mention what we did to a sovereign nation and its people, the people that we have forgotten.

It’s great seeing you back on television. By the way, you are too easy on Press.

God Bless America,

Sincerely,

Stella