By Mark Mix
Home day care providers would be forced into unions
Croatia's national independence finally has been secured. This is the real meaning of the recent ruling by the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague to overturn the conviction of Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina.
Croatian soccer fans burned a European Union flag and paraded around with posters of a convicted war criminal before their team faces Italy at the European Championship on Thursday.
Pope Benedict XVI gave strong backing to Croatia's bid to join the European Union as he arrived in the Balkan country Saturday, but he said he understands those skeptics who fear the EU's "overly strong centralized bureaucracy."
Croatia is headed toward another war. The Balkans - again - will explode with violence. It is only a matter of time. And the so-called "international community" has been pivotal in stoking the flames of ethnic conflict.
A commander hailed by Croats as a hero of the Balkan conflict was convicted of war crimes by a U.N. court Friday and sentenced to 24 years in prison for a campaign of shelling, shootings and expulsions aimed at driving Serbs out of a Croatian border region in 1995.
"We all are disappointed," he said. "We all believed ... that we would be taking the general home today."
