Album

1999, TWENTY YEARS LATER
An Unforgettable Friendship

It is clear to anyone with anything in his head that this was a turning point year and situation. The aggression of nineteen countries of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization and heroic resistance of small Serbia brought many crucial reversals in the world, both visible and invisible. Already during the course of all those events, it was obvious that the meaning of Serbian resistance and sacrifice is much larger than Serbia. Today, even movie commercials state that the Serbian heroic resistance in 1999 ”crucially accelerated the rise of Putin and Xi Jinping”. Time will come when decent world universities will teach that the Serbian resistance from 1999 showed the world that there is no choice: you must oppose and fight. You cannot ”leave silently into the dark night”. World military academies are already teaching the amazingly creative techniques of Serbian defense in almost imposable circumstances.
If Serbia had really fallen ”in two days and three nights” that 1999, as the Headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization planned, many things in the world would be much more unfavorable than they are now. Especially in Russia. It marked the beginning of changes in the world, so great that even today we are unable to perceive them completely.
We, of course, have memories living in us. And, despite restrictions, growing into a culture of memory. We remember heroisms reaching archetypical depths and heights, all the way to holy warriors of Dečani and Manasija. We remember bombarded maternity hospitals, schools, passenger trains, bridges, TV station and embassy, centers of our towns on market days. Through those memories, we filter every sentence about ”our western friends and partners”.
Contributing to the memory are these few photos in National Review’s Album. (B. M.)