Posted on 12/30/2008 10:54:30 PM PST by Bokababe
BRUSSELS -- Kosovo's unilateral independence declaration turned into a debacle and a bad precedent, European Voice writes.
In her column for this independent Brussels-based publication, Ilana Bet-El criticizes the EU for what she describes as "disarray over Kosovo, starting from the unilateral declaration of independence in February".
"It was an ill-conceived, amateurishly handled move, lacking consensus in the EU and in the international arena. Regardless of whether Kosovo deserved independence or not, the reasoning behind it was contorted at the best of times, laying open the deep global divisions over international law and its application," Bet-El says.
"From a narrowly EU perspective, it was a public relations disaster that mutated into a substantive one, given the inability to deploy the much-planned EU mission EULEX," she writes, and adds that now that the mission "finally got some people on the ground in the past few weeks is down to another round of doubtful deals rather than clear resolutions".
"But then clear resolutions were not on offer: Kosovo paralyzed the UN Security Council because of threatened U.S. or Russian vetoes. As a result, the entire debacle became exactly that which everyone assumed it would be from the start: a bad precedent," the article continues.
In August, Bet-El says, Russia "endlessly trotted out Kosovo as its excuse for invading Georgia: in its terms, simply a repeat of what the West had done in the Balkan province".
"That Russia undermined its own argument by reaching the outskirts of Tbilisi does not negate the fact that, if it had taken just Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the West would have found it extremely difficult to counter the mirror logic of its own actions," she concludes.
Another Brussels publication, New Europe, also looks at the issue of Kosovo, in an article entitled, "Will mission Kosovo be mission impossible for the EU?"
"Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February, but remains plagued by ethnic hatred, segregation, crime and corruption, thriving amid widespread poverty and a staggering rate of unemployment," the weekly writes.
Gee, who couldn’t have seen this coming? /s
Another Clinton triumph in the race to the stone age.
Clinton started it and Bush sealed it as an utter disgrace to the U.S.
There was window of opportunity for the US to establish harmonious relations with Russia for the foreseeable future and perhaps even strengthen the birth of a true democracy there. Instead Clinton went to war with Serbia, which was not a threat to Americans or American interests, instead of working out a solution to the problem in co-operation with Russia. Clinton then made things much worse by stripping off Kosovo from Serbia. Kosovo to the Serbians, besides being part of their country for 700 years, is like Alamo to Americans. It was the scene of their greatest battle against the Turks, a very emotional term expressing their entire national identity. So far, so bad. Then Kosovo declares independence and Bush comes along and recognizes a phony state. That was a direct affront to Russia, and now you have a situation with there is bad blood which adversely effects diplomatic efforts all over the world, Georgia and Iran come to mind, not to mention possible trouble in Moldova or even Latin America.
BUMP!
Note: You never mention Milosevic...I wonder why?
I mention the whole existing situation when America went to war, that this was a matter for joint diplomatic action with Russia. Clinton passed on Rwanda when the slaughter of innocents was far worse and the solution much simpler, just send in a battalion and show the flag and they could have done that through the UN. Serbia was a rush to war with no clear goals as in Iraq and an improvised ending, the independence of Kosovo, which could haunt the world for generations.
Yep, Clinton sided with Bin Laudens buddies in the KLA.
There is a reason small states have always been apart of another greater entity. Small states are not self sustaining in regards to self defense and pooling enough tax monies for infrastructure. For Kosovo to maintain “independence” will require a bigger entity providing protectorate status (EU) and heavy subsidies (EU). Many Europeans may be wakening up to the fact that Kosovo is and will be into the future their dependent.
“Yep, Clinton sided with Bin Laudens buddies in the KLA.”
Indeed he did...and Bush handed those Mohammedan terrorists independence for their little viper’s nest and a birthday present of $500,000,000.00 of the taxpayers’ money.
Unfortunately yes, and that's not the only place that Bush didn't even try to correct or undo the Nazi leftist disasters/gains made by socialist infiltrators in the US government, from POTUS to dogcatcher.
Well, the EU will be getting the Kosovo national work product in exchange. Drug smuggling, white slave trade, kidnap for ransom facilities, human trafficking, and light skinned Islamic terrorists. All highly profitable enterprises.
Organized crime does a state not make. Nor does it build infrastructure like roads, bridges and etc. I know what you mean, but it will be Hans and Pierre taxpayer paying for those roads and bridges.
I agree with all of your post except establishing harmonious relations with Russia and a true democracy happening there. That wasn’t going to happen no matter what the rest of the world does. Our mistake was to ever trust them and let our guard down. The invasion of Georgia made that clear.
I’m afraid you’re right. Our “masters” have been doing some disastrous things on behalf of the U.S. If we (the people) don’t do something about it someone else will bring the consequences home to us IMO.
You' missing some of the main points as to why the US went to war, i.e. NATO and what had happened previously in Bosnia (not so much Rwanda).
More specifically, the main reason NATO found itself sucked into the the Kosovo conflict was because there was a prevailing belief - at that time - that if the conflict was not stopped, it would soon spill over in Macedonia.
If that happened then that republic's neighbors would be brought in. Albania would invoke its defense treaties with Turkey, Greece would then become involved and there were worries that there might be repercussions in Cyprus.
As such, it was thought that it might be better to become involved too early then too late.
Another point I would make, is that the NATO bombings were a (knee-jerk) reaction to Serbian actions from Dubrovnik to Vukovar, to Sarajevo, to Srebrenica - as I mentioned above.
I don't think that NATO "got sucked into" anything.
NATO was out of a job after the Soviet Union fell. It had gone 50 years without a single deployment and with no Soviet enemy, it's original defensive mission was essentially over. The NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia occurred on NATO's 50th Birthday and gave NATO two things: a new lease on life as an interventionist tool; and a new NATO base of operations in Kosovo named Camp Bondsteel.
The political situation on the ground in the former Yugoslavia was just "an opportunity", not a justification or a necessity. We came, we saw, we took.
If Serbs had not engaged in wishful thinking, they would have realized that the US had already made the decision to build Camp Bondsteel before the first NATO Bomb was dropped in 1999. The inevitable consequence to building Bondsteel was that the US would have to recognize Kosovo independence, otherwise it would find it's base built on territory with no permission whatever to be there.
Kosovo independence was all a done deal more than ten years and the rest was just window dressing to justify the unjustifiable.
I am still an American, but a far more cynical and jaded one today after seeing what we've done in the Balkans.
ANGLO/US foreign policy marches forward based on supporting a re- Balkanization of Europe - fragment it and let Turkey in to repopulate with “good Muslims” -— all for the sake of the NWO’s delusional infatuation with international corporatism.
Solzhenitsyn warned of this coming catastrophe.
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