We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Twenty one years ago today… … Croatia’s Operation Storm was in day two of a rapid offensive to recapture the bulk of its territory from Belgrade backed separatists. It was the largest European land battle since the Second World War, ending on 7 August 1995 with the reoccupation of 4,000 square miles of territory. This was a dramatic demonstration of how effective the Croatian Army (HV) had become compared to just a few years earlier, and Operation Storm also represented a strategic victory for the Bosnian government as it broke the long siege of the Bihać enclave.
Like all wars, it was not pretty, but it ended as it started, as an ethnic struggle with winners and losers and there is no point in thinking otherwise, and the less bad guys won in my opinion.
Although Op. Storm did not end on August 5th, many Croatians see the HV recapture of Knin on this date as the most symbolic. It feels strange to me to tag this as ‘historical views’ as saw a great deal of that war first hand. I am getting old 😀
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
For those of us (or maybe it’s only me) who don’t know you, in what capacity did you see that war firsthand?
Long story. tl’dr… in a private capacity. Became friendly with someone from the region in 1992 and spent several months each year there during the entire war. She was well connected with various aspects of the Croatian establishment, and thus I got a series of up close opportunities to see things unfolding from a rather different perspective than just watching BBC/CNN. Also being younger and thus having intimations of immortality, drove around Herzegovina and later into Bosnia proper. Frag wound to the knee 😀
Well, you’re still here, so who can say that you are not immortal? And I hope you got a medal!
Nah, just a couple decades of knee problems 😛 But it did motivate me not to go take a look at the front line in Donbass during my recent trip to Ukraine. I am not nearly as much fun as I used to be.
Agreed Perry – agreed.
Although I was only listening on radio.
A week ago I met the Royal Marine officer mate who took me into Iraq from Kuwait for a day trip in 2004. We both concluded we must have been slightly mad at the time.