This is pretty bizarre - even for the Balkans. Bosnian Serbs unveiled a statue yesterday honoring Gavrilo Princip, the teenager who pulled the trigger in Sarajevo 100 years ago today killing Archduke Ferdinand - heir to the throne of the Hapsburg Empire - and his wife. The event touched off a series of blunders, misjudgements, and misadventures that culminated in the great powers stumbling into a war that few of them wanted and none could foresee the consequences for. By the time the dust settled in November, 1918, the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires had disintegrated, Russia had gone Communist, and Germany, Great Britain, and France had been bled white. Nearly 40 million died, both soldiers and non-combatants. Ands yet, the man who is largely responsible for starting the conflict is honored as a hero? You have to be pretty obtuse to ignore the massive bloodletting and celebrate the national impulses that drove Princip and his Clown Car Posse of hapless conspirators to carry out...(Read Full Post)