The following are a few notes I took while watching this program along with discussion of what is said and not said in the program.
Introduction
Many prophetic events have occurred, according to Stephen Flurry, but the important of which is that "Germany has taken control of the European Union." (20 seconds.)
"Step by step Berlin is gaining control over other European nations." (1 minute.)
It is said that Germany is now achieving what they tried and failed to do in two World Wars, "Control of Europe". (2 minutes.)
At the start of the program the troubles caused by the financial crisis are alluded to, but what the program says about Germany supposedly "conquering" Yugoslavia is what PCG's writers have been constantly saying since at least 1999.
The program shows images of dead bodies while discussing Serbia enduring World War I. (3:40-3:50.)
Yugoslavia in World War II
Shows graphic holocaust scenes. Alas, Yugoslavia endured numerous horrors and trials during those horrible days. (5:20-5:30.)
This program contains footage of an interview with George Friedman, chairman of Stratfor. It is accompanied with graphic footage from World War II. In the thirty second extract George Friedman states that,
No one can overestimate the fear that Eastern Europeans, people in the Balkans, have of the Germans. The memory of the occupation's still seared in their minds. And the German occupation was unspeakably brutal, particularly in Yugoslavia. And particularly with the Serbians because during World War II the Croatians were allied with the Germans, whereas the Serbs fought them. (5:20-5:50.)Now to be fair it must be stated that it is very likely George Friedman probably said more then the thirty seconds he gets in this program. But as used by PCG's editors here Friedman's words are used by them to simplistically cast the Serbians as "the good guys" and the Croatians as "the bad guys". Friedman's edited words greatly oversimplify the situation in World War II by saying the Serbs fought the Germans. Alas, some Serbs in fact collaborated with the Nazis as will be noted later.
The program also notes relations between the Pope and fascist Croatia which was ruled an astoundingly brutal and horrific regime which was a puppet of the Nazis. This is noted in order to portray these events as a sinister foreshadowing of events in 1991 as will be seen later.
"Yugoslav resistance to the Axis powers in World War II was largely led by Serbian and pro-Serbian forces." (7 minutes.)
I am amazed at how much history is distorted and obscured by that statement. Here are a few facts which that statement so carefully hides away from scrutiny.
It was the Communist led Partisans that liberated Yugoslavia from the Nazis and their ilk. There is no mention of the fact that there was another rebel group, the Chetniks, who were nominally loyal to the deposed King of Yugoslavia. But the Chetniks were overly Serb oriented and did not try to appeal to the other ethnicities. And the Chetniks loathed Communists and in time many Chetniks came to collaborate with the fascist occupiers against the Partisans. It was because of this collaboration that Britain and the Western allies came to support the Partisans instead of the Chetniks. During the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s some Serbs would identify themselves with the Chetniks despite this shameful facet of their history.
Also this program makes no mention of the fact that post-World War II Yugoslavia was Communist.
Croatian War of Independence
At this point the program turns its focus to the Yugoslav Wars.
Shows Schroeder while discussing events of 1991 even though he was not Chancellor until 1998. (9:31.)
Cites Danke Deutschland song. "After Croatia gained its independence in 1991 it acknowledged its indebtedness to its European benefactor by adopting the hymn, Danke Deutschland (Thank you, Germany)." (11 minutes.)
The song is actually taken from a Croatian TV broadcast as was presented in a 1999 Slovenian documentary broadcast in 1999 and later uploaded to YouTube. A link to the video is at the end of this post.
Whether intentionally or not this statement might cause some confusion. Croatia's national anthem is Lijepa naša domovino (Our Beautiful Homeland).
Stephen Flurry then notes that the Papacy also recognized Slovenia and Croatia as independent states in December 1991. No mention is made of the fact Lithuania recognized Croatia earlier on July 30, 1991. But why let facts like that spoil a scary story?
Just as many predicted "soon after ... [as many predicted] civil broke out in Yugoslavia." (12:00-12:10.)
PCG's writers have asserted numerous times that the Yugoslav Wars started when Germany recognized Slovenia and Croatia as independent states in December 1991. But this assertion ignores and obscures many facts which are not mentioned in this Trumpet Daily program.
One of these ignored facts is that both Slovenia and Croatia held referendums in which the vast majority of voters chose to secede from Yugoslavia. Slovenia held a referendum on December 23, 1990 in which 88.5% of voters chose to vote for Slovenia's independence. Croatia held a referendum on May 19, 1991 in which 93.24% of voters chose to vote for Croatia's independence and 92.18% of voters chose to vote against remaining in Yugoslavia. They declared independence after these referendums. All this occurred before December 1991.
Actually the war in Slovenia had already ended by December 1991. In June and July 1991 Slovenia fought off the forces of Belgrade in what is called the Ten Day War. After several days of armed conflict Belgrade gave up on retaking control of Slovenia. A major reason for Belgrade's reluctance to continue the war is that Belgrade was uninterested in Slovenia because there were few Serbs there.
Also the war in Croatia had long raged since June, or even Easter if one includes a certain ambush against Croatian policemen that occurred at that time. By December 1991 the Belgrade government had already seized Vukovar from Croatia after a three month siege which killed about 3000 people (August 25-November 18, 1991). All this occurred before December 1991.
Also just a few days later, on January 2, 1992, Belgrade and Croatia madea cease fire that proved to be long lasting. Fighting between Serbia and Croatia was not renewed until next year in 1993. Fighting would break out between Serbia and Croatia intermittently until 1995. Is it not amazing how badly PCG's writers explain recent history?
So it can be seen that blaming Germany's recognition of Slovenia and Croatia in December 1991 for starting the Yugoslav Wars is dreadfully misleading and fails to explain the complexity of these events.
Also there is no mention of the so-called Anti-bureaucratic revolution in 1986-9 which saw the Serbs embrace nationalism and led to Slobodan Milošević's rise to power. This embrace of nationalism by many Serbs did so much to destroy any sense of community among the various ethnicities of Yugoslavia and help propel the destruction of Yugoslavia as the nation fractured along largely ethnic lines. This was a major reason why so many chose to secede from Yugoslavia despite the great risk involved.
But not all Serbs embraced the nationalism Milošević gave them. During the Bosnian War many ethnic Serbs who lived in Bosnia saw through the propaganda of the Milošević, Karadžić and Mladić and chose to take up arms for Bosnia because they refused to turn against the people they had lived with all their lives and perceived. Some of these Serbs gave up their lives in the armed struggle against those led by Milošević, Karadžić and Mladić.
We now continue with Stephen Flurry's program.
The Bosnian War (Ignored in the Program)
Amazingly, according to Stephen Flurry, the criticism on Europe was not for starting the war but for refusing to get even more involved to clean up the mess. (12 minutes.)
As shown above what is presented in this program is very misleading and leaves out a lot of important facts.
Another fact left out is the Bosnian War, which in terms of lives lost, was the very worst of Yugoslav Wars. But PCG's writers tend to ignore the Bosnian War because it does not fit their story of German cunning and duplicity very well.
In April 1992 the United Nations recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina led by President Izetbegović as an independent state. But the Republika Srpska, led by Karadžić and Mladić, proceeded to go to war in order to seize control of as large an area of Bosnia as they could at the expense of the Bosnian Muslims.
In response to these events the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Bosnia. In theory this was supposed to limit the war's severity by making harder for the armed forces to fight. But Serbia sent as many arms as they pleased to aid the Karadžić and Mladić clique, but the Bosnians had no such patron. The Bosnians were unable to buy arms to defend themselves. So the embargo turned the war into a one sided rout in Karadžić and Mladić's favor. For a time Croatia waged war against the Bosnians as well, but later the two sides allied themselves together against those aligned with Milošević.
Many people were saddened that the international community (which includes Germany) had so miserably failed to protect the Bosnians and left them to suffer the ravages of war at the hands of the Karadžić and Mladić clique. Those led by Karadžić and Mladić committed all sorts of atrocities to ethnically cleanse as much of Bosnian territory of non-Serbs as possible in order to take it for themselves. The most infamous of these many atrocities was the Srebrenica massacre in which Mladić's forces seized control of Srebrenica and, in an act of genocide, promptly murdered 8000 unarmed Bosnian men.
While it is true that all sides committed atrocities most atrocities against civilians in Bosnia were committed by those led by Karadžić and Mladić. 83% of civilian fatalities in Bosnia were Bosnian Muslims.
It was not until 1995 that NATO intervened against the Karadžić and Mladić clique. After a relatively short time of bombing the Republika Srpska came to accept terms and the war came to an end with the Dayton Accords. After committing so many terrible things against the Bosnians the Republika Srpska gained possession of 49% of Bosnia.
(Although PCG's writers rarely talk about Bosnia because their selective interpretation of what happened with Croatia and Kosovo serves their purpose of demonizing Germany, but every now and then they do discuss it. PCG's Ron Fraser in 2008 would write that Bosnia was founded to be a "terrorist enclave" for the benefit of "Muslim interests" and accused Bosnia of being "a hotbed of Islamist terrorist training". Both of these accusations are untrue. Also PCG's Richard Palmer in 2010 would belittle the Srebrenica Massacre as just "a crime of passion" as though the vast logistics necessary to commit such a vast atrocity could be committed on a spur of the moment.)
The Kosovo War
From this point onwards the program discusses the Kosovo War in which an ethnic Albanian guerrilla force called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1998 launched an armed uprising to create an independent Kosovo.
The program what appears to be KLA fighters standing over a dead body. (14 minutes.)
Kosovo War was the first time German air force was used in war since World War II. (15 minutes.)
Map of Yugoslavia is shown which does not show Montenegro. (16 minutes.)
Speaks of "eastern leg" thus insinuating that the dissolution of Yugoslavia and entry of some of the successor states into the European Union fulfills the idea that the foretold European Empire will be composed of a Western and an Eastern component within Europe. (17 minutes.)
Talks of how most formerly Yugoslav states are trying or have even joined the EU, which is viewed as a very bad thing by PCG's writers.
PCG Obliquely Boasting to be "the True Church"
Boasts that, while hardly anyone talked about what was really happening, Gerald Flurry did so in 1999. From this point the program cites several articles and a telecast by PCG since 1999 supposedly "exposing" Germany's malevolent plan against the Serbs.
It even shows a 1999 broadcast of The Key of David entitled "Serbs' Greatest Fear", in which Gerald Flurry states that Germany was the hidden mastermind behind NATO intervention over the Kosovo War. (18:50-19:25)
The fact that PCG only appeals to writings dating back to 1999 in this program indicates that this position of portraying NATO intervention as helping Germany was only taken up by PCG's leaders in 1999. On the other hand Gerald Flurry's booklet on this matter, Germany's Conquest of the Balkans (formerly entitled The Rising Beast), quotes earlier news articles. At present, because there is little information regarding what PCG said about Yugoslavia in its early years, it is hard to discern what PCG said about Yugoslavia in those early days.
Stephen Flurry boasts that "biblical prophecy" is the only way to understand why Germany's supposed intervention against Yugoslavia is so threatening.
Fear mongers that the Pope will be behind the European Empire. (22 minutes.)
Cites HWA's words to portray him as miraculously foreseeing the rise of the European Union. (22-23 minutes.)
Cites HWA saying Yugoslavia will be part of the future European Empire. It seems to escape Stephen Flurry's notice that HWA did not foresee Yugoslavia disintegrating. HWA assumed Yugoslavia would survive to join the future European Empire intact. (23 minutes.)
Stephen Flurry complains that people are distracted by petty things to not notice prophecy (as defined by PCG's leaders) being fulfilled. (24:50-25:05)
Stephen Flurry ends this program with advertizing for Gerald Flurry booklet, Germany's Conquest of the Balkans. That booklet has been discussed previously on this blog (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Essentially this program is an adaptation of that booklet.
Needless to say the Yugoslav Wars are a vast and very complicated topic. Alas, PCG's writers have simply used these painful and terrible events simply to demonize Germany and the Pope. PCG's superficially pro-Serb stance can be summed up in one paragraph by Stephen Flurry written in 1999.
As pointed out in “The Unseen Danger in Kosovo” (page 6), Germany stood against the whole world in 1991 by recognizing Croatia. That, not Slobodan Milosevic, is the reason civil war has erupted in Yugoslavia. That point cannot be overemphasized. (Stephen Flurry, NATO: Why Bomb Serbia, The Philadelphia Trumpet, May 1999.)As pointed out earlier war had erupted between Serbia and Croatia long before December 1991. Also a truce between Croatia and Serbia that lasted over a year was signed on January 2, 1992.
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Here are some other posts regarding the topic of the Yugoslav Wars and how PCG discusses it:
Reading PCG's Booklet, Germany's Conquest of the Balkans (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
PCG Using the Yugoslav Wars to Demonize Germany and the Pope
PCG Advertizing Flurry's Yugoslav Wars Booklet
PCG Exploits Yugoslav Wars to Demonize Germany
PCG's Support for Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars
Watching PCG's Telecast, Putin Remembers Yugoslavia
PCG's Ron Fraser Demonizing Bosnia as a "Terrorist Enclave" (2008)
PCG Calls Srebrenica Massacre "a Crime of Passion"
Serb War Criminals Convicted
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Although I have some misgiving about posting this I will do so. Please note that other parts of the video contain graphic war footage. This is the video of a Croatian singer thanking Germany. The audio from it is used 11 minutes into this Trumpet Daily program: Video (36 minutes, 34 seconds).
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