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Summary: I have been to Bosnia too
Review: I have been to Bosnia as well. I HIGHLY recommend this book to people who seek to understand this country's war. I think Peter Maass did an excellent job of showing the deception that the American public was given concerning the war in Bosnia and of the true role the US played in Bosnia. Most americans do not understand that role and they should read Peter's book to gain a better and further understanding. I have spoken to many Bosnians, Serbs and Croats personally about how they felt about each other before the war and they responded to me "We did not think a war in Bosnia was possible because we lived together...inter-married with each other and went to school together" I think Peter Maass received some kind of prestigious award for this book and he certainly deserves the award he got. When I was in Bosnia I had the misfortune of having to do some dirty work of recovering remains from mass graves. It is sad that the world turned a blind eye towards this repeat of history. This says something about our society and it shows that we must seek to further understand why we as people allow such planned programs of mass exterminations to take place and why the rest of the world can easily turn a blind eye to it. Me personally...words cannot describe my utter disgust for Clinton and Peter Maass's book will help us to understand ourselves much better.
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Summary: An Unforgettable Accounting of the Serb Invasion of Bosnia
Review: I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the modern Balkans, particularly the Serb aggression that began with the rise of Milosevic in the late 80's.Love They Neighbor is a telling of Serbia's horrific war against Bosnia and Bosnia's Muslim population as seen firsthand by Mass while he was there. Maass begins this book with a journalistic attempt to remain impartial and simply tell what he sees, however, it soon becomes clear to him that the Serbs are the aggressors and the horror the Serbs are perpetrating against their Balkan brothers and sisters is something not seen since Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. This book is not an impartial accounting of what was going on; it is an accounting of the atrocities that were perpetrated by the Serbs and tolerated by the West. In my opinion, the best part of the book was Maass's detailing of how first the Bush administration and then the Clinton administration failed to take relatively easy measures to end the aggression. Maass also details how the U.N., instead of helping protect those being slaughtered actually implemented policies that helped the Serbs carry out their terror and ethnic cleansing. Maass tells the truth in this book, but the fact is telling the truth, in this case, can not leave one impartial. Maass also explains thing that our cookie cutter modern new services do not explain; like how the Muslim's the Serbs were persecuting were not any more religiously extremist that your average American. One interesting moment Maass notes is when Clinton is dedicating the Holocaust museum, stating that the museum is a reminder that we can't let this happen again, while his administration, NATO, and the U.N. were actively letting it happen again. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to learn about recent events in the Balkans. While not an academic work, it is well-written and lends much insight into the failure of the West in quickly ending what would have been easily stoppable had they made the effort. I would also recommend this book to readers of Robert Young Pelton. If you take out the political commentary, one could easily see Pelton writing similar things about many of the situations that Maass experienced.
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Summary: Great Work
Review: In the aftermath of the war in the Balkans, it became quite a "fashion" to be reading about the Bosnian war and it seemed like alot of people started writing about the history, politics and cultural background of an area that was largely neglected before. Peter Maass' book could easily have been another telling from a Western journalist's/ politician's mistaken perpective, where they accuse the Yugoslav -- Muslims, Serbs, Croats and everyone of having been fighting and killing each other from day one. Instead, he has a produced one of the best personal accounts of the Bosnian conflict. Rather than confronting the issue in a me vs. them scenario, Maass crosses the line and tries to identify with them, the victims of conflict, and an indifferent international community. Maass sets a background for readers who have zero knowledge on the war or countries involved and his strong, frustrated, bitter and angry voice moves readers to the suffering that went on in the region known as the Powder Keg. A phenomenal book on a complex situation, Maass has done justice to the countless nameless people who were affected by the war by bringing their story to the surface and telling the truth as he saw and experienced it.
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Summary: To the writer of the book "Love Thy Neighbor", Peter Maass.
Review: May 5th 1999 - One surviver of Bosnian war - I read this book six months ago, and gave it to my friends who are from the same city in Bosnia as I am. I survived a part of Bosnian hell and will never forget it. The book gave me a beautiful feeling that there were people who cared about Bosnians during the war and did their best to inform the world about the horror which was happening there. The book is honest and I couldn't believe somebody has written it in the same way I would do it. I would like to thank Peter Maass from the depth of my heart and wish there were more people in this world who really care about our planet.
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Summary: Excellent.......former UN Peacekeeper in Bosnia
Review: Mr. Maass writes an excellent book. simply excellent. He documents his time in the insane asylum that we called Bosnia in the early 90's. His writing is exceptional and the stories he tells are heartbreaking. Great books are either average writers who witness extrodinary events or extrodinary writers who witness average events. Maass is an extrodinary writer in an extrodinary situation. This is the best book I have ever read of the Bosnian fiasco. As a former UN Peacekeeper it brought back old shivers and memories. Like anything people can read a bias or a slant into things, but Maass has truly captured the whole debacle in one book. The blame side of it Maass points the fingers at those inside the country who helped destablize it, the various diaspora who essentially bankrolled it, the politicians who encouraged it, the non-Yugoslav politicians who just ignored it and hoped it went away. An awesome read, not a boring blow by blow historical analysis but a look at the people caught in the worst atrocities in Europe in 50 years
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Summary: powerful, chilling
Review: Peter Maass presents a chilling story about the horrors of the War in Yugoslavia and his terrifying moments as a journalist covering another episode of man's inhumanity to man, ethnic cleansing, murder, war. This book haunted my sleep and changed my life. After reading Maass' book, I was driven to visit Sarajevo, Karlowac, Srjebenica. My life will never be the same. As Americans, we repeatedly, through history, have looked the other way while genocide destroys cultures. Peter Maass brings the nightmare of ethnic cleansing to the reader in ways that creep through the comforts of your life. READ IT, you will never stand by quietly again!
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Summary: An astounding read...
Review: This astonishing book tells the story of a journalist who was sent to Bosnia to cover the Serb invasion of that country in the early 1990's. The story the author has to tell is amazing, sad, and troublesome. It is absolutely incredible that this could happen in 'civilized' Europe in the 1990's, and no one intervened to stop it. The author tells the stories that you did not read in the newspapers, and gives the perspective of someone who suffered with the Bosnians. A highly engrossing, highly recommended read!
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Summary: Gripping, shocking, and simply terrifying!
Review: This book showed how terrible the War in Bosnia really was. The media failed to show us the bloodbath that it became. I am sorry that we as a nation did not do more to help the Muslims in Bosnia. Whether we are Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Atheist we have a moral responsibility to help defend a small country from genocide. The shocking truth in this book opened my eyes but it also deeply depressed me. One is tempted to give up hope in the face of such monstrous reality. We live in a very unpredictable, hostile, and politically unstable world and Peter Maass shows just how evil it can get.
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Summary: A little editing would do wonders
Review: This is a fascinating book. Unfortunately the author has a habit of referencing other books (most notably Black Lamb Grey Falcon and Catch-22) far too often, usually just when you've lost youself in the book. His insight and explanations of what he experienced are great but they often stray back and forth in time. This sometimes gets a little hard to follow. All of these could be cured with just a little editing. Other than that the only problem I had with the book is that I wanted to know more of his experiences.
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Summary: Gripping, shocking, and simply terrifying!
Review: This is not the difinitive history of the Bosnian war. It's one journalist's account of his experience covering the war, published soon after the Dayton peace accords, making it one of the first books out on the subject. The story Maass tells is accurate, informative, emotional, and gripping. He's not a historian and doesn't portray himself as such. He tells the story of his struggles to get interviews, and portrays the people of Sarajevo and Bosnia, the politicians, and military & paramilitary leaders, the mistakes of the United Nations and the international community, etc. as he witnessed them. There's probably hundreds of books now on the Balkans. This one will sere your heart.
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