Posted on 02/24/2008 6:45:42 PM PST by Bokababe
Once again the Bush administration is sacrificing its conservative principles to satisfy our nation’s seeming insatiable thirst for foreign oil.
The latest victims of our oil lust are the ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo. Until Feb. 18, Kosovo was part of Serbia. That changed overnight when Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.
The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom were quick to recognize Kosovo’s declaration. Russia and Serbia flatly rejected it.
Yes, folks, Kosovo’s independence is all about oil – at least from a Western perspective.
In a press release that gleaned little media attention in the United States, Switzerland’s Manas Petroleum Corp. announced on Jan. 10 that “Independent resource evaluation confirms existence of giant oil and gas prospects on Manas Petroleum’s Albanian exploration blocks.”
The announcement indicated that there are potentially 3 billion barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the areas explored. Some of these areas lie near Albania’s border with Kosovo.
Kosovo’s population is about 90 percent ethnic Albanian. The remaining 10 percent are nearly all ethnic Serbs. Under Tito, in the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo was a semi-autonomous region which enjoyed special political privileges in the Yugoslav system.
During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia’s President Slobodon Milosevic stripped Kosovo of its autonomy and kept a tight grip on the ethnic Albanians through an internal security force composed almost exclusively of Serbs.
Serb domination of Kosovo ended when a NATO occupation force, the Kosovo Force (KFOR), forcibly interposed itself between the ethnic Albanians and Serb forces.
For the Serbs, Kosovo is a place of religious history and national pride. If the Serbs had an Alamo, it would be located in Kosovo. There, in an area that has become known as the Field of Blackbirds, thousands of Serbian “warrior saints” stood their ground in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Polje, only to be slaughtered by the invading Ottoman Turks.
The Serbs continued to resist the Turks during the ensuing five centuries of Ottoman domination, which did not end until 1912, when Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria defeated the Ottomans in the First Balkans War. To this day, the Serbs view themselves as defenders of Christianity who held the line against the incursion of Islam into Western Europe.
During that famous battle, ethnic Albanians fought side by side with the Serbs against the Ottoman invaders. But during the subsequent years of Turkish rule, most Albanians adopted Islam, while the Serbs clung to their Orthodox Christian tradition. Today, Kosovo is the historical seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
During the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia, rampaging ethnic Albanians reportedly destroyed more than 100 Orthodox monasteries and churches in Kosovo, some of which were nearly 1,000 years old. The UK Independent reported in November 1999 that the Albanian destruction of Serb holy sites in Kosovo continued even after NATO’s KFOR arrived.
Kosovo’s neighbor, Albania, is currently struggling to integrate with Western Europe. Islam in Albania today is something less than radical. In fact, the number of Christians in Albania may be nearly even with the number of Muslims.
However, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), a nonprofit, independent, nongovernmental organization that works to resolve world conflicts through diplomacy, reported in July 2006 that “a tiny but growing minority (in Albania) is turning toward Wahhabi Islam.”
This could spell future trouble for the West. The Wahhabis are a violent, extremist sect of Islam that originated in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century. It has been argued that Osama bin Laden had gravitated toward Wahhabi beliefs prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It appears the West sold out the Kosovo Serbs in order to gain assured access to Albania’s newly discovered petroleum reserves. Albania’s strategic location on the Adriatic Sea guarantees the West easy access to Albanian oil, without having to deal with unsavory governments.
In the coming months, look for a growing political support for Kosovo’s union with Albania to form a Greater Albania, something that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.
The West will sit idly by as Albania expands its borders, knowing that a Greater Albania will be inclined to sell oil to the West and is not likely to be influenced by the Serbs and Russians.
After Kosovo, the next target for Albania will probably be its neighbor, the Republic of Macedonia. Ethnic Albanians make up nearly a third of the Macedonian population.
While it is doubtful that a Greater Albania could gobble up all of Macedonia, it may attempt to annex the ethnic Albanian areas of Macedonia contiguous to the Albania-Macedonia border.
Macedonia might just allow this to occur in order to hasten its admission to the European Union.
Zachary Hubbard is a retired Army officer residing in Upper Yoder Township. He served as the chief of intelligence assessments and senior Balkans intelligence analyst for the NATO Stabilization Force in the former Yugoslavia. Hubbard is a member of The Tribune-Democrat’s Readership Advisory Committee.
Yes, in the book , "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon" that is pretty much how Rebecca West described it. The entire book was about her travels as an English woman through pre-WWII Yugoslavia.
“Believe propaganda from Soros NGO’s all you want. Just don’t expect the rest of us to side with foreigners against our own country just because you and Soros say we should.”
Who funds John McCain’s Reform Institute?
Can you say “Soros”?
The Soros slime is coming out of your mouth, not the author's and not mine.
You can take out your prayer rug now.
Wasn’t Savage talking about this a few nights ago? Something about pipelines thru Kosovo???
Please stop promoting George Soros talking points at FR in defense of your anti-American foreign agenda.
While you're at it, please stop stinking up America with your treason. Put your money where your mouth is. Go to Serbia where your allegiance lies and don't come back.
Thanks for the link. I read all the key words that tell me the link is to an alarmist, Leftist, BS site. “Halliburton”, “Kellog etc.”, “Gunboat Diplomacy”, “War for Oil”, etc., yet when I visit site after site in random search pattern I cannot find any other information about this supposed camp being anything other than what it apparently is. A military camp.
I’ll keep looking around to see if I can find anymore information about this as it is truly interesting to me to know why in the “H” we got involved in fighting over there in the first place. I just don’t trust much of the opinion I see coming from the Left, or the Right. Somewhere, somehow I will find out the truth of WHY.
Patently untrue leftist propaganda.
Not enough oil to worry about.
We never are in it for, or ever get, the oil of the left's standard Marxist accusation.
The Bush Administration, and Bush, is not conservative.
The Bush Administration sacrifices conservative principles for no reason, not horse manure like this.
Our economy will run just fine on any oil, only the leftie envirowackos insatiably thirst for FOREIGN oil.
I've never set foot in Serbia. I am an American and my family never came from Serbia. My allegiance lies with America & what she once stood for in the world --truth, decency & values that were worthy of respect. But she has been hijacked by some very ruthless global interests, and as American patriots, it is our job to point out where she has gone wrong to put her right. It's a messy thankless job, but we all bring what we have to the job. I have knowledge of the Balkans. I don't claim to know a rat's behind about Iraq or Afghanistan, so I don't talk about it. I talk about this because this is what I know because I have studied it from many sides.
Got a problem with that, take it up with the management.
Yes, Michael Savage has known that something has not been right about all of this for a long time. Guess that makes Michael Savage a "Soros commie" in TGJ's pro-Albanian book
I know that sounds weird, but that's how it works NWO.
The Trans Balkan AMBO Pipeline, the President of Albania, and Kosovo
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3793a582649e.htm
I may find the whole thread revealing.
TGJ, IMO the plan for Kosovo independence is a bastard child of our communist infested DOS. Just because the Russians don't like it doesn't mean it's in our interest.
Yet in the article it lists the "Greater Albanian" plan of swallowing up Kosovo and Macedonia.
Thanks for the post. I don’t buy into these oil/Saudi connections yet, maybe for lack of understanding. I do try to be on the right side of every matter. Until some information says otherwise, what’s happening to the Serbs is wrong. Nobody’s stepped up to articulate some justification for the gutting of Serbia.
Until I learn otherwise, I’ll follow my instincts, driven by the information available and common sense, and fight hard (within legal limits) for the Serbs.
That's a very inflammatory charge you're making there chief.
You've been here for what -- two days? Use terms like "tribal monkeys" & "shovel heads", and start insulting people. Think that you might want to learn some manners when introducing yourself. Or is this your "best behavior" and highest level of contribution & it's downhill from here?
"Yet in the article it lists the "Greater Albanian" plan of swallowing up Kosovo and Macedonia.
And they have destroyed over 150 Christian churches So if this is "less than radical", then what?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.