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.
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.
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.
I’ll bet this schlemiel thinks America invented Auschwicz and Treblinka, too.
Bump!