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Posted on 11/29/2007 10:18:37 AM PST by UKrepublican
David Cameron: Army must halt Russia threat
Western forces, which could include British troops, must be sent into the Balkans to prevent Russia sparking a new European war, according to David Cameron.
Speaking in Washington, the Conservative leader will issue a stark warning that Russia's increasingly assertive foreign policy is jeopardising Britain's national security.
Mr Cameron fears a diplomatic and military crisis could arise over Kosovo, the province of Serbia which has effectively been a United Nations protectorate since Nato invaded to stop ethnic cleansing by Serb forces in 1999.
The ethnic Albanian government of Kosovo is threatening to declare independence from Serbia on Dec 10. Moscow is backing Serbian attempts to block the declaration, while the United States and the European Union are in favour.
"Let me make it clear: there could be a new crisis in the Balkans by Christmas," Mr Cameron will say in a speech to the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.
"That is a direct threat to our national security, and we must therefore take decisive action now to prevent it. We need to reinforce the military presence in the region now, by drawing on some of Nato's dedicated operational reserve, to prevent trouble later."
Nato members take it in turns to provide a reserve force to back up the alliance's K-For peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The reserve is currently led by a battalion of Italian troops with a German battalion next in line to deploy.
But from Jan 1, Britain takes on responsibility for providing the "lead-ready" battalion for the reserve, putting British troops first in line to deploy.
Tory officials made clear last night that Mr Cameron was not calling for the deployment of extra British troops above and beyond those already committed to the Nato Reserve force. But they also said that the Tory leader had not made his call lightly, saying it was a measure of how seriously he takes the need to prevent more instability in the region.
British diplomats privately share Mr Cameron's fears of a Balkan crisis, but ministers have stopped short of proposing a further military deployment, and the Tory leader's call could dramatically increase the diplomatic stakes over Kosovo.
But he will insist that intervention is vital to British national interest because instability in the Balkans could bring a wave of immigrants to Bitain, and make the region a breeding ground for al-Qaeda.
He will say: "Instability in the Balkans, with all the dangers that would bring, would be a threat to us all."
The last British troops in the Balkans, a 600-strong force of Welsh Guards, left Bosnia in March. Since 2003, a handful of British military officers and police personnel have been in Kosovo training and advising local security forces.
Mr Cameron will make his speech as part of a visit to meet President George W Bush in an encounter designed to rehabilitate the Conservatives after years of isolation in Washington.
Mr Cameron's 45-minute private meeting with Mr Bush at the White House will heap more misery on Gordon Brown as he faces the mounting scandal over party funding and increasingly poor opinion polls.
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PING
I’d give at least a hundred dollars to watch Serbian and/or Russian tanks roll into Kosovo a month before the 08 elections.
Serbian tanks. I don’t trust Russia on anything.
What’s the timetable for NATO troop withdrawal?
Actually, Blair stood strong with the US for years.
Not good for us if Al-Queda increases their presence in Britain as a result of crisis in Kosovo.
If the Serbs can manage to kill ALL of them, it won't happen.
Not very likely.
By supporting ethnic cleansing of Christian Serbs from Kosovo, the burning and trashing of 1400 year old Christian churches and monasteries, and the erasing of Kosovo's Christian- Serbian heritage, which was really what sparked the so called "ethnic cleanzing" by the Serbs in the first place, which it wasn't. It was more a chasing of Islamic fundamentalists out of Kosovo, but don't expect the UN, and Clinton media to tell you the truth.
Absolutely he did - to the cost of his political career.
“The ethnic Albanian government of Kosovo is threatening to declare independence from Serbia on Dec 10. ............, while the United States and the European Union are in favour. “
What the hell for?? Just another gang of ungrateful Muzzies. Let the Serbs take care of them - as they should have when Clinton was President.
In this case, the Russians were right when they opposed Clintons bombing of the Serbs. They knew the truth of what was going on in Kosovo, the fundamentalist Islamic build up that was going on there, and still is under "protection" now of the UN. The problem now is Bush doesn't have the guts to say Clinton was wrong, it's like saying America was wrong to him, although Clinton has no trouble continuously saying Bush was wrong in Iraq.
Ping
Yes, Blair stood strong - despite overwhelming opinion polls of the British populace that felt as the rest of Europe did at the time - that the US was am imperialistic bastard and deserved to lose the war in complete humiliation. I’m sorry, but the world didn’t want us to be it’s policeman, don’t come crying around our door that you want us to intervene in what will likely be a non-UN sponsored incursion. Oh, and one last point: AQ is rife throughout Britian - and Europe for that matter. The brits should get their own house in order with regards to the muzzie threat before taking on something like Kosovo.
And one last point on top of that other one: So Cameron wants the US to commit troops and treasure to what could very likely result in a world war with Russia? OVER KOSOVO? Is he on drugs? Not just no, BUT HELL NO.
The best thing THE US should do is:
1. Take NATO out of Kosovo as soon as they declare independence.
2. Following that the US should continue to NOT let it be a NATO matter, and instead the US should act like its World War II - stay out of it for a long time - making the EU actually get a spine of its own, first. Pay back to the EU for Iraq.
Until the EU itself prepares, really prepares, and obtains sufficient will of its own, if a Russian military challenge actually materializes, the US should NOT lead the way to their rescue - never again.
I would rather see Kosovo in Russian hands than Muslims. The EU and US need to stay out of this and let Russia do some heavy lifting for a change.
Sadly, we have seen our allies as the Labour party. And even this Cameron guy is running on an anti-USA platform.
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