Dragan Bursać: Go away, Milorad, so we can start over!

Last night, Mr. President said we all need to start over. You said it nicely, Mr. President Dodik, and I agree with you. Just this time without you. Without all of you. That wouldn't be bad.

But, you threaten with a referendum, you blackmail, you invoke the specters of war. And that is unforgivable. Do you know why? I don't know if you watched the series "Two and a Half Men" where the younger brother, Alan, says to the older Charlie - "I don't know how, but whenever you screw up, I get screwed." Well, it's the same with the people, Milorad. Whenever you pull your pre-election and other stunts, the people get screwed.

And that is no longer forgivable.

And I could forgive you for stealing, for disfiguring this country, for turning it into a huge social case. And that 80,000 people leave this backwater every year, I can forgive that too. That the incompetent sycophants, capable tycoons, insane ideologue scribblers are around you in the system... Forgiven. You are neither the first nor the last with such a recommended entourage.

But that you invoke war, just to stay in power and freedom, that is unforgivable. It is not human, Mr. President Dodik, to play a game where the poor give their sons, and the bosses give their oxen. An idealist wrote the other day, bless his heart, that whoever invokes war, may war be in his house and may he send his children to the front lines. Unfortunately for the people, that game is not played that way.

The entire wartime leadership of Republika Srpska did not lose their children in the hills of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead, fattened in the post-war period, they bought them apartments from Milan to London, from Moscow to New York. You know this best. Or don't you?! Ah, yes, during the war you bathed and dealt in high-excise goods, so you didn't even feel it.

You are not like the disfigured generation from the seventies who tasted the salty taste of blood, stale Ikar, rotten earth, the slight sting before the realization that you were wounded... You didn't have post-war panic attacks caused by PTSD. You didn't wake up traumatized in a delirium. Fuck it, I understand, you didn't have traumas. That's probably why you didn't become a drug addict or an alcoholic. Probably because you don't know what it's like to sleep in a trench with the corpse of your best friend. But, hey, you know how to give your child a few million marks in loans, so they don't become drug addicts.

And that's nice.

They say you have five grandchildren. May they be alive and well. But Milorad, there are still a million people in this entity, along with their wives, husbands, children, and grandchildren.

And it is unforgivable that they pay for your political sins. Because who will fight and for what in the evil war that is raging above our heads? A handful of disenfranchised wretches against the entire international community, justice, and people thirsty for revenge in the Federation? Thousands of people will perish in a few days for the sake of your ass in a blitzkrieg apocalypse.

With what will you defend the people and with what will you guarantee them peace? With the same words as Karadžić in '91? With your 200 Praetorians? Well, I don't forgive you for that.

You see, I had a Milorad in my family too. My father. He died near Bihać. He and the other ragamuffins were crammed into trucks like sheep and taken to slaughter. Just like that. So that you and others like you could say that they gave their lives for Republika Srpska. But you see, they didn't!

They were just ordinary people who died. And that is unforgivable.

So, will you, at the cost of your referendum, load the poor into trucks to "fall for Republika Srpska"? Will you round them up? I know you care about the people as much as last year's snow and I know your positions and opinions are more flexible than cheap chewing gum, but really? Will you send people to war?

Republika Srpska will cease to exist! Fuck it! Just as it should cease to exist along with the Federation, the stupid cantons, and other administrative vampires.

I forgive.

However, I do not forgive a mother's or child's tear, a father's drop of blood, a dead body, a stump of a leg or arm, a mentally ill person, a hypertrophied and drugged nation... I do not forgive all that will result from your poking the bear for the sake of staying in power.

Selimović says that alcohol, gambling, and power are the greatest vices. Again, he says that you can somehow get rid of the first two, but not the third.

And I still believe, somewhat pathetically and naively, that you have grandchildren, children, a healthy family... Play with them! Live. It's time for your retirement. You say you can still go on politically, and I believe you. But don't, I beg you.

Your past, your present, I can somehow digest, but the future as you have planned it, damn it - I CAN'T!

And let's all start over now. Here, some new kids are starting school. Come on, for God's sake, really start over. But without you, without Bakir, without Čović, without your satellites.

You are too dangerous for the safety of children in traffic, which is called life. Like a drunk driver in front of a school, with the difference that you apply danger en masse.

We don't have to wait for war for a restart. We are human. Go into retirement nicely, while retirement hasn't come for you.

And don't worry about the people, Milorad. They will forgive you everything, just retire, go to the village, to a villa, anywhere.

Go away, Mile, everything is forgiven!

Dragan Bursać is a journalist and columnist for BUKA portal