Bosnia and War Crimes

From the Soldier side: When I look back on my "military" times, I wonder if the time I spent doing things overseas was worth me being gone. Yeah, it was kind of exciting and interesting at times, but the deployment we did in Bosnia kind of seems like we just spun around in circles and never really got much done.

Then my old buddy Sergeant Grumpy posted something on Face Book (I barley use that thing, but once in awhile there's something I read). His post was about one of the assholes we were looking for in Bosnia.

The news article started with:

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general held responsible for the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, was arrested on Thursday, signaling Serbia’s intention of finally escaping the isolation it brought on itself during the Balkan wars, the bloodiest in Europe since World War II.

I went to Srebrenica many times. One of the times we noticed that they were building something. It turned into a giant graveyard for all the folks murdered there. We went by one of the buildings where they'd line folks up and kill them.

Warehouse of death

Each time we went back, we saw they'd added more and more grave markers. The field was large enough to bury a lot of people...a hell of a lot.

I will NEVER forget one day we were driving around after first arriving in Bosnia.  One of my very young SECFOR (Security Force) guys saw all the empty and blown up homes and asked: "How come all the people haven't moved back home?"

I thought the question over for a few minutes and said: "well, I'd assume they are all either dead or ran to another country to be safe." 

CI Roller Dude at the "new graveyard"

I hope my grand children can grow up in a world that's not so messed up.  Bosnia is at peace now...but how many people had to die and how long did it take the UN and NATO to get their shit together to stop it? 

If you have Netflix, there are a few movies about the war in Bosnia that are worth watching just so "you know."