As Croatia’s genocide case against Serbia comes up for a hearing, the Serbs are trying to have the case thrown out of court.

Crimes were committed by both sides, [Tibor Varady, chief representative for Serbia] noted. “What happened cannot be reduced to a one dimensional picture,” he said. “The misdeeds of one side were matched by the misdeeds of the other.”

Quite wrong. It was a war of aggression masterminded by a genocidal maniac who held the Serbian nation in his thrall. Indeed, the Serbian defense is acknowledging as much by arguing that Belgrade is “not responsible for the government’s behavior during the Milošević years.”

The Germans were not allowed to make such specious arguments after World War II because the world powers understood that collective guilt was the only way to bring about the necessary catharsis for the modern German state of today to emerge. The mere fact that Belgrade feels comfortable airing such poison goes a long way to prove that the Serbian body politic has not adequately grappled with its recent history.

While I certainly don’t trust the International Court of Justice to come to a competent, honest judgment in this case, arguments such as the ones made by Serbia have to be answered consistently and methodically lest they succeed in muddying the historical record.