The ideological truth

Ideological truth by its contents is a continuation of mythological and religious truth. In Father Djujic's assertion we saw what the mythological viewpoint on "God's" Serbian people looks like. In the missive of His Holiness we saw how the Serbian religious, spiritual truth about the Serbian-Croatian war was opposed to the views of world diplomacy. The following case will show us what the Serbian ideological truth about the Croats looks like.

On October 2, 1991, the Regional Council of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) from Chicago sent a message to American Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley. In the three- page document the SDS reports on the "horrors which the Croats committed against the Serbs in Karlovac" in Croatia. The document begins with the usual assertions from the treasury of anti-Croatian propaganda.

The first sentence says that the crime against, thirteen Serbian reserve soldiers was committed by "Croatian Ustashi forces." The second sentence states that the atrocity of the Croatian Ustashe at the Korana Bridge on September 21, 1991, is equal to the most bestial atrocities of the Pavelich Horror State." The fifth sentence transforms these Ustashe into "a Croatian Interior Ministry group of armed men." Then the torments which the Serbian soldiers suffered are described: their "eyes were dug out, ears cut off, head cut off," etc.

While all the media are constantly reporting to the international public about the hundreds of unarmed Croatian civilians killed in Nova Gradiska, Drnis and Split, the SDS describes the death of thirteen Serbian reserve soldiers in Croatia. SDS writes:

The SDS text is a representative sample of hundreds and hundreds of published anti-Croatian texts as well as Serbian messages to the governments of many countries. As a representative, that is, a typical example of anti-Croatian propaganda, this text would not be worthy of special attention if there were not something else in it as well. The SDS does not limit itself to the assertion that the Croats are Nazi-Fascists. The SDS goes farther:

Even this is not enough. The SDS goes even farther and points out the shared responsibility of American politicians for the crimes of the Croats:

Here we see how the above-mentioned "crime" turns into "crimes." Whereas the message describes one incident at the Korana bridge in Karlovac. The secret remains: how does one crime grow into many crimes? And besides that: from where have the "thousands of other crimes" appeared? And finally: which crimes? One would expect, if only for the sake of greater verisimilitude, that at least one case would be mentioned besides the incident at the Korana bridge. But that does not stop the SDS. The SDS goes in deeper:

The list that follows mentions fifteen American politicians, beginning with Robert Dole, Republican leader in the American Senate (who would propose the Resolution on the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia on January 23, 1992), including Denis De Cancini [sic!], Alan K. Simpson, Alfonse D'Amato, and Tom Lantos. After this the SDS promises that a more complete list will be provided later. Then follows the revelation of the purpose of the list of "American supporters of Fascism in Croatia," but also of the message to Helen Bentley. The purpose sounds almost unbelievable, even for the long history of American democratic public life:

In order to achieve the greatest possible effect, the SDS also moves into breadth: the message is sent not only to Congresswoman Helen Bentley, but also to President George Bush, senators, members of the Congress, James Baker, human rights organizations and the mass media.

The SDS message, without doubt, did a great deal of harm to the Serbian cause, and it helped to uncover the operation of anti-Croatian propaganda. Those who read the message drew the logical conclusion: if the Croats are as much fascists as Senator Dole is a pro-fascist, then the Croats are not fascists. Whatever one may think of the conservative Robert Dole and other politicians on the SDS "blacklist, only ideologically short-sighted persons could accuse the most influential American politicians of supporting fascism.

It remains unclear in the sentence cited from the document which extenuating circumstances caused the accusation to change from supporting "Nazi/Fascism" to supporting just "Fascism." Where has the "Nazism" gone?

The message is an excellent illustration of what happens when ideological truth (of the SDS) comes into conflict with the factual truth (the American politicians from the list). The SDS writes that the Serbian community in the USA has already warned the politicians listed about their erroneous view of the war in Croatia, but the warnings were in vain:

The Serbian community in the US has protested US politicians' association with the darkest forces the world has known, namely the "Croatian Young Democrats," but those named above have dismissed these protests and continued supporting the Nazi/Fascist elements in Yugoslavia thus giving them hope that they will with foreign help succeed in their evil plans.

Thus Nazism is once again joined to fascism, but it is no longer reserved only for the Croats, but rather is applied to a broader area of former Yugoslavia. The Croats evidently are not the only Nazi-fascists. This is followed by a threat to both "fascists" and "pro-fascists:"

That is right, Mr. Dragnich they shall never be forgiven, even if they ask to be.

The threat is followed by a suggestion for action, or rather for a political direction for American powers:

The adjective "Nazi" has been lost again, but that doesn't matter. Something else is more important - condemning all the American politicians from the SDS list:

The two sentences cited here demonstrate important traits of ideology. First, one sees the tendency towards total opposition of good ("we" and "all men of good will") and evil (all US "supporters" of the Croats and all Croats). Second, the ideology rests on faith, and not on facts ("we believe..."). Third, the ideology does not allow a person to make a free choice ("all men of good will must support Serbian-Americans"). But why is it that "all men of good will must support Serbian-Americans" in the free American state by supporting a single political position? Why should someone have to condemn the same people they see every day on television screens, the victims of the war in Croatia? Why condemn the American politicians who behave according to principle? They condemn the aggressor in the case of Croatia, as they did in the case of Kuwait.

The ideology demands that all co-ideologues join in the struggle against all enemies. The individual is forced to melt into the all, into the supposed common interest. Anyone who does not accept our common position (which is the incarnation of justice and truth) is either an enemy or a traitor.