Posted on 03/12/2008 12:03:09 AM PDT by Bokababe
Please ping the list, I cannot access my copy of list right now.
They sided with fascist forces in the Western provinces of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Catholics,Orthodox and Muslims.
Natural allies of any Western country would be the Catholics.
Of course current Foreign policy does some incredibly stupid things.
“Arrogant American?” That term again....hmmm, from a kraut who 2 generations ago invaded European countries because they were deemed inferior to their race...
I would prefer to be an arrogant American instead of a pu**y Euroweenie who sticks his head in the sand when threatened.
Bump! Some good points.
Amusing article. The revisionary version of the Balkans project is that it’s American Imperialism at work, the result of Republicans like Bob Dole in Roman senatorial togas listening to God whisper in their ear. Elite European Christophobia and anti-Americanism on display. Two for the price of one.
Kosovo of course is now under the jurisdiction of the EU, not the US Congress. Their currency is the EURO, not the Dollar. I forget the title used but the proconsul is an EU official.
Our intervention in the Balkans was Tony Blair’s project. He almost literally had to drag Bill Clinton along. Had there been no benefit to Bill Clinton of a low-risk foreign distraction I am skeptical Tony would have prevailed.
Under the facade of fighting “ethnic cleansing” we rid the region of a Russian ally and toe-hold. The resurgence of Putin/neo-Stalinism shows this was pushing the Russians further back was a good strategic idea. The author is in that respect correct about securing the lines of communication, but it was a joint US/EU strategy and more to the European benefit then of the US.
Our intervention in the Balkans was Tony Blair’s project.
Sorry but this is wrong.
Maddy Albright made quite an efford to find anyone in europe to help her plans to counter milosevic with a war.
England and France decided to take a waiting position - Russia wanted to be of help, but saw no possiblitly without loosing it face then to take a counter position - but promised to not interfere severly.
Germany alone - on the way to find a new self definition after the fall of the iron curtain - joined her in her effords - forcing the others to jump in.
the War on the balkans was inniciated by the USA.
Remember that this was written in 2001 and addresses US policies begun under the first Bush. That policy survives 8 years of Clinton and 8 years of the second Bush. Why that is is something I can't deduce.
...the War on the balkans was inniciated by the USA.
'Prosecuted' would be better than 'initiated.' The European troops were there but not doing much. The slaughters were proceeding and the US grew impatient with the inaction of the Euro nations.
btt
Our involvement in the Balkans - of all places - seems to be tracable to some fondness of Bob Dole for the Albanians plus Madeleine Albright’s pique against the Serbs, tracable to Heaven only knows what cause. So now, out of habit or inertia we are busy promoting the creation of another independent Moslem state in Europe. Sometimes I think we are simply out of our minds.
Well at first maddy was quite impatient with her own congress - that also wanted less action then her.
The military strength or weakness is not a thing freepers think much about - it’s dutyful US here and lazy EU there.
Surprisingly the world isn’t that simple - although I have to grant you that the actions against Milosevic would never have happened if the US didn’t grab the lead - it’s also tru that the US are actively taking the role to be a world super power with the attitude to allow no european super power next to it. (That’s what condi only recently said)
So there you are - you won the price. Now live with it.
I've not well explained myself. I don't see there being a prize, I don't see any particular winners in this affair and I have never understood our (US) policy.
I don't like referring to a movie for a serious matter but I thought No Man's Land. to be quite good. As an American, I particularly liked that the movie covered the period before the US took the lead. IIRC, the only mention of the US was the British commander telling a French officer that the Americans were becoming impatient.
Apparently, it isn't just FR that gets disjointed over just what the hell happened, who did it, and why it got done to the Balkans.
FRY/Kosovo and the Mexican/American border strike me as opposing poles of stupid American diplomatic tricks. The aggressive and the submissive means of attacking friends and enabling enemies.
The balkans previewed, in reverse images, the substitution of news reporting for serious intelligence that dogs us in the middle east today.
Yes, and with Germany's WWII fascist Balkan allies -- but for the life of us, we couldn't figure out why the US would chose to side with those Balkan ethnic groups who had been US enemies, against those who had been American allies. But, according to this, the US didn't do the choosing -- Germany did -- which makes some sense of this lunacy.
I’ll bet this schlemiel thinks America invented Auschwicz and Treblinka, too.
Yes, however, Camp Bondsteel -- which is a permanent US Base -- went up in a heartbeat after NATO entered Kosovo. There is even talk of it replacing Aviano. Doesn't matter if the currency is the Euro or the Dollar -- we are not there for the sake of the local economy. We are there for strategic military purposes. We bombed a country that didn't attack us, seized the assets, sold off what we wanted, and gave the land to another people, keeping the air base for ourselves. In short, we "conquered Kosovo" and stole it from Serbia. The rest is just window dressing. And this is not the American way!
"Under the facade of fighting “ethnic cleansing” we rid the region of a Russian ally and toe-hold. The resurgence of Putin/neo-Stalinism shows this was pushing the Russians further back was a good strategic idea."
Quite the opposite -- Serbia is not "Russia"-- and Europeans know this even if Americans don't. We turned Serbia into "a Russian ally" when we didn't have to, Serbs would have preferred to turn West and not East, but we gave them no choice when we backed them into a corner and Russia came to their rescue. I hate that this is the case, but Russia is on the legal and moral high ground in all of this and we are legally & morally in a pit, causing much resentment toward us in Europe.
Unlike Americans, Europeans don't hate Russians for being Russians, they hated the Soviet Union for being brutes. Now we are the brutes, breaking every international law and steamrolling a small country to get what we want. This is not going to go smoothly and I fear that we have lost far more than we have gained by this.
Germany and GB were the primary political instruments behind the war. NATO was simply the executioner.
It was when you had 250,000 refugees sitting in camps all through Germany when “your” government began knocking on NATOs and others door because the so-called peace keepers under UN authority before that were failing.
YU was still on the map when Genscher declared proudly that Germany would recognize Croatia as a sovereign state.........
Russia didn't want to be of “help,” they sided with the Serbs whom they had been arming and had ties to historically and even present day. The Russians did everything they could to stop any intervention since ultimately intervention meant that Serbia would be pressured. In fact the infamous Pristina airfield incident where it almost came to blows between US/Russian troops was more or less Russia throwing 200 men at at airfield and seizing it so they could maintain a back-door line of logistical communication outside the oversight of others.
You're completely clueless.
Yawn...
anti-german rant without appropriate source no.5021 brought to you by bile mouth 6.
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