Posted on 02/14/2007 4:12:36 AM PST by Serb29
Kosovo: a hypothetical question by Doug Muir
Because we just can’t get enough.
Imagine the US and Europe went to Putin tomorrow and said, “Vladimir, this Kosovo thing has gone on long enough. We want to get it off the table."
“So, we’ll agree to letting you annex Transnistria and those dangly bits down in Georgia. Abkhazia and, what, South Ossetia, right? All yours -- they can join Russia tomorrow. All by free and fair referendum of course, cough cough."
” In return, we want you to sign off on Kosovar independence. No veto, no nothing. And full independence, too -- ambassadors, an army, the works."
“Deal?”
Putin: “Da.”
There is a possible concern with China too, but let’s handwave that. [handwave] China very rarely casts a veto anyway anyway -- only five times in nearly 40 years -- and could probably be bought off with a resolution condemning the Dalai Lama or some such. So say China abstains.
A strong resolution on Kosovar independence flies through both the Security Council and the General Assembly. A Kosovar ambassador would take his seat in the UN a few weeks later.
This would be:
A) Cool. The UN is the most important source of legitimacy in world politics. If the UNSC reaches an agreement, it can grant sovereignty, and that sovereignty is totally valid. Don’t look too closely at how the sausage is made.
B) Evil. Sell out the Georgians and Moldovans to a raw, old-fashioned grab for territory by Putin’s authoritarian and xenophobic Russia? That would be totally immoral.
C) Sensible. The EU has very little interest in Transnistria or Georgia, while Kosovo is a continuing pain in the butt. And Putin’s Russia may be obnoxious, but it’s not going away. Cutting a deal makes sense.
D) Irrelevant. Who cares what the UN says? Kosovar independence is about facts on the ground, not resolutions and recognition.
E) Other.
Discuss.
B. Sealing the fate of whole nations on a whim is pure evil.
What does Russia want from us? Should we pull out of Kosovo and turn it over to EUFOR, the unified European Union Military Force as we have done in Bosnia? That would not rid Kosovo of foreign troops. Would it really be in Russian or Serb interests to empower a unified EU military force independent of the US?
Discuss.
I agree with your point. I'm not sure nowadays what Russia wants. Is it using its defense of Serbia as a bargaining chip? I know it wouldn't be in Serbia's interest to go against the US, and they are not trying to. America is the only one that can really help, even by staying neutral, in my opinion. If Russia sides w/ Serbia and we don't, we'll bomb the hell out of them if they retaliate to the loss of Kosovo, and Russia may stand idly by, like they did before. The confusion lies in why we don't admit our mistakes, and will we ever? Russia frightens me...on one side they have their own issues with Muslim infestation, yet they aid Iran w/ arms. I just don't get it.
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