Politics over Dinner

I mentioned to a number of people that I had never been to a country where war was such a recent part of history.  You see lots of display's  of Croatian nationalism, a wedding party walking by the restaurant tonight is proceeded by someone waving the Croatian flag.  None of us could imagine an American counterpart.  Our guides started early on saying they were open to questions, so I started early on asking what did they call the violence that Americans call the Serbian-Croatian wars?  They explained that the Croats call them the Homeland wars and that the Serbs, who still yearn for a united Yugoslavia call them the Civil War. We decided to talk with our guide Dani at dinner tonight and he shocked me by professing his admiration for Tito, for all he accomplished keeping the Slavic republics together and lumping him with Nehru, and Nassir in standing up to the US/NATO and the Soviet empires after WWII.  I told him that I never pictured Tito and Nehru together as one is thought of as a respected post colonial leader and the other as a bit of a troublemaker. Dani fought in the Homeland War and said many of his friends have PTSD from their service.  I asked Ivana what memories she had of independence and she said that it was mixed because independence was immediately followed by war. We talked about EU membership, due for Croatia in July 2013 based on a 65% majority referendum in January.  I asked Dani how he felt about the EU, given their current issues and he said he wanted someone to straighten out Croatia for his children and he saw the EU as something with bureaucratic rules which could do what Croatians had not proven too adept at that in their 20 years of independence. Those of you who know me, know I like nothing more to have my perceptions of history turned on its side.  I suspect I could be in for a week of such conversation.  I am smiling ear to ear as I write that sentence.