Albania tells Washington of willingness to send more troops to Iraq

AP | 4/19/04

[kattracks]

TIRANA, Albania (AP) -- Albania, a predominantly Muslim country, told the United States it was prepared to send more non-combat troops to Iraq, the government said Monday, in a possible expansion of the 71-member-strong contingent patrolling the northern city of Mosul under U.S. command.

Despite the small number of Albanian forces, the public commitment from Tirana was bound to be welcome news to the United States after Spain's weekend announcement that it was withdrawing its 1,300-member contingent as soon as possible.

Albanian Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami made the offer Friday in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The statement did not say what the increase would be. But earlier this month the defense ministry said it was considering increasing its commitment to 200 soldiers, despite the recent terrorist attacks against members of the U.S.-led coalition.

"We have expressed our readiness to positively respond to the request for additional forces and we are working to set the practical details to achieve that," the minister was quoted as telling Powell.

Albania was one of the most vocal backers of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Although it was unable to provide significant military support, it opened its airspace and offered U.S.-led forces the use of its bases.

[Lion in Winter]

You are correct. These poor deluded Albanians are looking for a heritage which is not theirs to claim.

Funny how they would try to lay claim to so many European areas and then... like the "good" muslims that they are ... deny that Israel has a NO right to claim the lands given to them by God centuries before there was anything like a muslim.

Albania is a MUSLIM country and any Christian who lives there is probably in danger just as they are in ANY muslim country.

[Lion in Winter]

According to my 1998 Cambridge University Factfinder, Albania is 70% Muslim (sunni), 5% Roman Catholic and 2% Greek or Albanian Orthodox.

Before 1991 the country was OFFICIALLY atheist.

[nicollo]

Strange how alliances shift.

Nothing strange about it.

For half a century the world revolved around Soviet and communist aggression and the American stand against it. When the USSR collapsed, so, too, collapsed those alignments. Cuba was never more an island than today (outside of certain U.S. congressional districts...), and, OMG, China has written property rights into its constitution.

The disaster of the Clintoon 1990s is that the USA ceded its authority to the United Nations, which was entirely incapable of filling the power void that resulted from the collapse of the USSR. The islamicists stepped in.

No, there is nothing strange in that the nations freed of Soviet rule have sided with America in this hour. We're re-shaping the world. Iraq is but a battlefield in a tremendous, history-making war. It is not the War on Terror, it is a war on humanity that started in 1917 (or at whatever date you prefer to place the origins of the European calamity... 1789 Paris, perhaps?). Unless we let them, Al Queda can do nothing compared to what the communists wrecked upon the world in their seventy-five year reign of murder.

Welcome back, Albania.

[Lion in Winter]

For a newby you are pretty mouthy... creep!

Plus you have the GALL to say ANYTHING about the Resurrection in a post where you wished somebody WHO FOUGHT AND ALMOST DIED IN THE FREEZING HELL OF THE KOREA DURING THAT WAR....TO DIE OF THE COLD!

You are a typical albanian lout!

[Lion in Winter]

Mark my words... albania is NO ally to the USA. They just an opportunists. I will never trust them. NEVER!

[Lion in Winter]

Mark my words... albania is NO ally to the USA. They just a opportunists. I will never trust them. NEVER!

[nicollo]

Is Albania today a Soviet client state?

Case closed.

[Nennsy]

This may answer your question.

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/content_objectid=13700443_method=full_siteid=106694_headline=-WE-BUY-BAG-OF-SEMTEX-FROM-TERRORISTS-name_page.html

[xzins]

It is.....I think somewhere on this thread it has the number 65%. I wonder if that was a pre-war number. I understand that many of the Christians have been killed or sent fleeing.

[eleni121]

So good to hear from you.

People cannot be classifed evil or good without considering their politics, religion or lack thereof, history, etc.

Serbians, Greeks, Albanians whomever - need to understand that sharing faith - Christianity - trumps any other historical disagreements. Jesus Christ brings people together like no other!

[eleni121]

Are you including the Greek Christians living in Northern Epirus as part of your 18%?

The figure I found does not specify. Of course, the Northern Epirus matter has not been solved yet. This region belongs to Greece and most people and ex pats from the region agree. NO question about that!

[GeraldP]

Why Albania Joined the "Coalition of the Willing"


By Ambassador Shaban Murati for Southeast European Times - 14/04/03


The foreign policy of Albania after World War II has had few historic moments when the principles of international relations conformed to its state and national interests so clearly as in the case of the Iraq crisis.The decision to join the international coalition led by the United States against the regime of Saddam Hussein was the result of a wide political and public consensus. In a rare display of unity, the Albanian Parliament unanimously voted on 3 March for a resolution to place airspace, ports and land bases at the disposition of the Coalition of the Willing. When parliament voted on 13 March to send an Albanian military unit to join the coalition in the Persian Gulf, there was only one abstention and no one voted against. Such unanimity in a democratic and pluralistic society is a clear indication of Albania's complete commitment to the cause.

The cohesion of the government, opposition and the majority of the Albanian public on the Iraqi crisis illustrates the desire for Albanian foreign policy and diplomacy to play a greater role in contributing to peace and stability. Albania joined the Coalition of the Willing because it had clear political and diplomatic ideas, platforms and visions regarding the meaning and worldwide effect of the new phase of the global war against international terrorism.

First, Albania has linked its participation in the Coalition of the Willing with democracy and with the democratisation of international relations. Its choice between Iraq's oppressive, terrorist regime and the United States conforms to the principles and the western civilised values that contributed to the overthrow of Albania's communist totalitarian regime 11 years ago. Albanian President Alfred Moisiu, in his 25 March speech at the Council of National Security, stressed that in the opinion of Albanians "the war in Iraq is a war against the war, a war for peace, for a world many times more secured and with more freedom. We do not consider this war as a war of the United States and United Kingdom, but as a war for protecting the peace and the values of civilised humanity from the threat of international terrorism."

It is encouraging that Albania, having taking its position on the Iraqi crisis, is in step with the majority of the Eastern European states that also emerged from the communist dictatorship. The ugly experience of long years of oppression has guided Albanian foreign policy towards being more sensible and more sympathetic in the fight for human rights and against dictators such as Saddam Hussein. Albanian Foreign Minister Ilir Meta, together with nine foreign ministers of the countries of the Vilnius Group, signed the declaration supporting the stance of the coalition on the crisis in Iraq. The presidents of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia joined in a common declaration on 12 February that supports the coalition.


In a letter to Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano US President George W Bush stated that the United States highly regarded Albania's willingness to support the coalition and its role as an important contributor to regional and global security. President Alfred Moisiu (right), along with the presidents of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia joined in a common declaration on 12 February that supports the coalition. [AFP]

One of 45 states that have joined the Coalition of the Willing, Albania was not led by economic interests in arriving at its position on Iraq, and it has no interest in that country's oil. It was led by democratic principles and it even may be said that one of the motives in supporting the international war against Saddam Hussein has been an idealistic feeling that is nourished by those principles.

Participation in the US-led coalition presents to Albania a new turning point with regard to international affairs and the equality of states in the world family. Through this participation, Albania is understanding and discovering a more effective and more concrete role that small states can play in international relations and global security.This is an important element of the real democratisation of the relations between states and of the need to consider more and more the voice of the smaller countries in international problems, institutions and organisations. In a letter to Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano on 19 March, President George W Bush stated that the United States highly regarded Albania's willingness to support the coalition and its role as an important contributor to regional and global security.

In today's world, the interdependence of individual, regional and global security increases with every passing day. The actions of the international coalition in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq during the entire post-Cold War period are three examples of positive turning points in establishing new international democratic relations, where the principle of aid and humanitarian intervention takes priority over the formality of the imposed legitimacy of terrorist and dictatorial regimes. Albania strongly supported NATO's intervention against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo. That relationship was further strengthened when Albania supported the intervention of the international coalition against the terrorist regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan by sending a unit of its military forces. In Tirana, the Albanian soldiers in Afghanistan and in Iraq are considered soldiers of peace and democracy.

In its stance on the Iraq crisis, Albanian diplomacy remains loyal to an old and traditional code of the Albanian nation -- the code of loyalty and gratitude. This has to do with the deep and popular gratitude that Albanians feel toward the United States as a country that helped Albania gain independence at the beginning of the last century and as a country that saved the people of Kosovo from genocide and ethnic cleansing. Historic memory plays its role in the motivation of diplomacy and of the foreign policy of each state, and it is not by chance that all the Albanian leaders have forcefully emphasised it these days.This gratitude towards the United States is a characteristic not only of the Albanians in Albania, but also of Albanians in Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and wherever they live. Official ceremonies were held in Tirana and Pristina on 24 March on the fourth anniversary of NATO's action against the Milosevic regime.

That Albania joined the Coalition of the Willing was a choice that stemmed from the independent action of Albanian diplomacy.Supporters and opponents of the war in Iraq share the idea that international relations from now on will not be the same as before. However, Albania is convinced that such developments will lead to a world with more freedom, more security and more democracy.

[GeraldP]

Mon Apr 12,10:30 AM ET
An Albanian commando stands guard in front of the American flag at Mother Teresa airport before he leaves for Iraq (news - web sites) to participate in the U.S. led coalition, Tirana, April 12, 2004. Albania, a staunch ally of the United States is sending a 70-strong brigade of its elite commando troops in Iraq. REUTERS/Arben Celi

[GeraldP]

--from a very Albanian Orthodox, God Bless America, type of dude

Well, I'll be... Somebody must have cloned me!!

[ValerieUSA]

I, too, cannot be quick to welcome this limited Albanian help because of the real possibility that its military is thoroughly infiltrated with Islamic KLA terrorists.

[BJClinton]

Thank you (x3) for the information.

[Alter Kaker]

[i]And you hate Greeks, according to your own posts in which you called them numerous names = but = you support Arabs. [/i][p] I do? This is surprise. [i]Here to support the Albanians no doubt, because you probably hate the Serbs too? [/i][/p] No, just individual Serbs. I support the Albanians as US allies in Iraq. Why don't you?

And you think Destro is on the side of terrorists?

Yes I do.

[Alter Kaker]

Guns to the Albanians!

[Capt. Tom]

Religions:
Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10% note: all mosques and churches were closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November 1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice

[MarMema]

Well hopefully you'll become enlightened. But if you think Destro supports terrorists, and you hate individual Serbs, and are so intensely pro-Albanian, I think I know a lot about you.

One has only to check back on your posts to see what you said about Arabs and Greeks. That is telling in itself.

Personally I think Albanians tend to be easily seduced by evil.

FL, keep that warning handy for posting.:-)