Posted on 03/07/2008 10:59:31 AM PST by dvan
With the support of the United States and the opposition of Russia and China, Kosovo has declared its independence from Serbia, and in doing so, has laid hold of Serbia’s most celebrated Christian shrines.
The Kosovo declaration of independence oddly puts the United States and several of its allies in direct support of establishing the third Islamic state in Europe, in addition to Albania and Bosnia. The move fans the flames of a struggle between Christians and Islamists that dates back to the Ottoman Empire takeover of Serbia in 1389.
Over the next 400 years, the Islamists controlled the former Christian empire of Serbia. According to historic accounts, many Christian Albanians converted to Islam to avoid high taxes and persecution from Muslims. In the 1870’s the Christian Serbs once again tried to retake Serbia, but were defeated and over a quarter of a million Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Kosovo between 1876 and 1912 by Turkish and Albanian Muslims. Fighting continued through the 1900’s until the area became a segregated part of Yugoslavia and later, part of Serbia. Enter communist Slobodan Milosevic who rose to power and took over Kosovo, which was striving for independence in the 1980’s.
(Excerpt) Read more at watch.org ...
Meaning that Pres. Bush is completely impotent and couldn’t alter the criminal course Bill Clinton set? Bush had no choice but to recognize Kosovo independence even though the UN agreement set earlier specifically said that there would be no Kosovo independence? What is he a robot?
Research shows estimates of Bosnian war death toll were inflated
The Associated Press Published: June 21, 2007
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Estimates of the number of people killed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war were severely inflated, and the true figure was half that of what was previously believed, researchers said Thursday. Although more than a decade has passed since the end of the war, only rough estimates on the number of casualties existed, ranging anywhere from 25,000 to 300,000, said Mirsad Tokaca, head of the research project — the only scientific research conducted into the issue so far. The widely accepted figure was about 200,000.
----break----
According to the group's research, 97,207 people were killed during the Bosnian war. Of those, about 60 percent were soldiers and 40 percent civilians. Some 65 percent of those killed were Bosnian Muslims, followed by 25 percent Serbs and more than 8 percent Croats. Of the civilians, 83 percent were Bosnian Muslims, 10 percent were Serbs and more than 5 percent were Croats, followed by a small number of others such as Jews or Roma.
In all my exploits while on active duty, I never went to the former Yugoslavia or, later, Bosnia, Serbia, or Kosovo. So I can’t speak first hand to its problems and how to address them. I can say I thought back in the late 90’s that Clinton/Albright were looking for a place to exercise military might for the sake of political gain, and they decided to do so on the wrong side of the fight going on in Europes back yard. Maybe we needed to do something, but Albright made it a personal vendetta, with a personal aggenda that was short sighted and selfish.
So the events that unfold were not George Bush’s doings.
Could he alter the previous actions of the Clinton admin? I dont know, but I’d make the same argument I made more than 10 years ago....this is really Europes concern...its their back yard....and they are the ones who believe that Kosovo is today, defacto, independent....and they do not believe its worth any more effort.
So if they dont, if they want Kosovo declared independent, and they ask the US, their partner, I guess I can understand why we might agree simply out of courtesy at this point...the other option is to poke them in the eye and say “no, you backed the wrong horse...and so did we”.
And it appears that that would have bought them another civil war in Serbia. With all the other things going on, I can again understand why we might decide to pick and choose our own fights instead of having to rescue Europe again.
I particularly have a problem with the precedent of using NATO offensively in this nation building BS. But Pres. Bush didn't do that FWIW.
Could he? Well, he did! UN resolution 1244 reaffirms the sovereignty and integrity of Yugoslavia. Bush completely ignores that!
UN Resolution 1244 (PDF)
The little sh#$s that run around yelling "anarchy" are going to get what they asked for. I hope they enjoy the real manifestation of it. Gangs like MS-13 and the Mexican Mafia are going to seem downright civilized in retrospect.
Ostensibly, so do you...seems you were (previously) banned.
In case you haven't noticed (lately) there's a lot of rumors going around here, Hoplite.
I guess our village missed having its designated idiot so they lifted the ban.
That would imply that he’s capable of learning new things and he’s long since disproved that.
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.