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I know that the Kosovo business rankles with some, but one needs to realize that Albania was very pro-American long before the Kosovo crisis. Also, there are different cultural realities and political views which differentiate Albania from Kosovo.

The article hints at Albania's long-standing pro-American stance in the article:

Every school child in Albania can tell you that President Woodrow Wilson saved Albania from being split up among its neighbors after World War I, and nearly every adult repeats the story when asked why Albanians are so infatuated with the United States.

Here are some other quotes of interest from the article:

''Albania is for sure the most pro-American country in Europe, maybe even in the world,'' said Edi Rama, Tirana’s mayor and leader of the opposition Socialists. ''Nowhere else can you find such respect and hospitality for the president of the United States. Even in Michigan, he wouldn’t be as welcome.''...

One newspaper, reporting on the effusive mood, published a headline that read, ''Please Occupy Us!''...

But here in Albania, which has not wavered in its unblinking support for American policies since the end of the cold war, Mr. Bush can do no wrong. While much of the world berates Mr. Bush for warmongering, unilateralism, trampling civil liberties and even turning a blind eye to torture, Albania still loves him without restraint....

Albanians’ support for the war in Iraq is nearly unanimous, and any perceived failings of American foreign policy are studiously ignored. A two-day effort to find anyone of prominence who might offer some criticism of the United States turned up just one name, and that person was out of the country....

James A. Baker III was mobbed when he visited the country as secretary of state in 1991. There was even a move to hold a referendum declaring the country America’s 51st state around that time....

It was one of the first countries to send troops to Afghanistan and one of the first to join the forces in Iraq. It has soldiers in both places. ''They will continue to be deployed as long as the Americans are there,'' Albania’s president, Alfred Moisiu, said proudly in an interview....

''President Bush is safer in Albania than in America,'' said Ermin Gjinishti, a Muslim leader in Albania....