The Clinton war against Kosovo did America far more lasting harm than any other war it ever fought. That may sound exaggerated but there was an opportunity for a new harmonious relationship with Russia and it was sabotaged. Kosovo was not only part of Serbia for 600 years, it is the emotional cradle of the nation, their Alamo occurred there. Russia was their protector but Yeltsin let them down. The war would have been okay, but not to strip Kosovo away from Serbia. Bush came along and compounded the error by recognizing the country. As a result Russia feels it now has carte blanche to do it what it likes to protect its minorities in former Soviet states. When Sarkosy wanted to resolve Georgia with Medvedev, Medvedev just kept repeating Kosovo, Kosovo, Kosovo.
That's the thing about narcissism -- narcissists push and push until they find your "red line" -- and then they keep pushing beyond it to see if they can emotionally destroy you. They don't understand that once past your "red line", you become their enemy -- not because they hate you or want to destroy you -- but you have forced them, against their will, into a choice between survival and death.
How the hell did we ever get in this situation, not just with Russia, but with the rest of the world? This is not who we are! This is not who America is!!!
We have friends who live in Georgia, a neighbor who comes from there, and my son spent several years there, learning Georgian.
When Putov says that NATO stripping away Kosovo from Serbia justifies his invasion of Georgia, the only reply that I can make is that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Very sad.
At least Putin is acting in his own self interest (or so he thinks), by expanding the new Russian Empire, frightening his neighbors into submission (he hopes) and seizing the oil pipeline to western Europe to give him further leverage over them. Whereas handing Kosovo over to Muslim terrorists was in EVERY WAY against our national interests.
The only thing I can guess that clinton got out of it was a share of the drug money from the Albanian smugglers, who doubled their imports into the EU. What Bush got out of it I simply can’t imagine. Europe and the U.S. were both losers, as well as Russia.