Posted on 02/21/2008 11:04:42 AM PST by 11th_VA
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serb rioters broke into the U.S. Embassy Thursday and set fire to an office after a massive protest against Kosovo's independence that drew an estimated 150,000 people.
Masked attackers broke into the building, which has been closed this week, and tried to throw furniture from an office. A blaze broke out inside one of the offices and parts of the facade also caught fire.
Authorities drove armored jeeps down the street and fired tear gas to clear the crowd. The protesters dispersed into side streets where they continued clashing with authorities.
The neighboring Croatian Embassy also was attacked by the same group of protesters.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack strongly urged the Serbian government to protect the U.S. Embassy. He said the U.S. ambassador was at his home and was in contact with U.S. officials.
More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
But the declaration by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has been rejected by Serbia's government and the ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo. Russia, China and numerous other nations have also condemned the declaration, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.
Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, has not been under Belgrade's control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has governed Kosovo since, with more than 16,000 NATO troops and KFOR, a multiethnic force, policing the province.
But Serbia — and Kosovo's Serbs, who make up less than 10 percent of Kosovo's population — refuse to give up Kosovo, a territory considered the ancient cradle of Serbs' state and religion.
Earlier Thursday, police estimated that about 150,000 people had attended a rally in the Serbian capital. The crowd waved Serbian flags and carried signs reading "Stop USA terror." One group set fire to a red-and-black Albanian flag.
The U.S. embassy in Belgrade burns after masked attackers broke into the building and set an office on fire at the end of a massive protest against Western-backed Kosovo independence, in the Serbian capital, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008. More than 150,000 Serbs gathered at the rally vowing to retake the territory which is viewed as Serbia's religious and national heartland. (AP Photo)
Would you be happy if part of our country was given to Aztlan terrorists?
Maybe the Germans and the French can send their islamos to Kosovo. Of course, back to Saudi would be fine too.
The same is true of Palestine. These are not a people who are ever content with what they have. They are totalitarians.
He’s not giving them anything, I don’t think.
Instead, we’re upping our 70 million to Kosovo to 300 something million.
Another bit of largesse with OTHER PEOPLES MONEY from our Glorious Conservative President Bush.
Spew those lies Johnny boy. Side with the invading Jihad.
He didn't recognized Kosovo as a sovereign nation, Bush did.
Spot on.
And we are supporting a Stalinist Albano Wetdream..
Enver Hoxha, a communist, embraced ideas of internationalism and brotherhood among different peoples. This point of view made Hoxha very close to Yugoslavian communists during World War II and afterwards until the break-up of 1948. Such ideals are thought to be the reason why Hoxha decided to fight against Albanian nationalists who pushed for a greater Albania. However, especially in the 1980s, Hoxha used several speeches to gain popularity among Albanians in Yugoslavia. During the demonstrations in Kosovo in 1981, ethnic Albanians of Yugoslavia largely identified with Enver Hoxha as a symbol of nationalism, and regarded Albania, which they had no opportunity to visit, as a very prosperous country where human rights and equality were widely respected.[9]
From Wikipeia
Anybody could have seen this coming. Anybody except a liberal..................
“This is in fact, an act of war, folks.”
Bill Clinton and George Bush are partitioning their country. Are you really surprised?
Shut up. Just shut up.
We are living in a complex and dangerous world, and you have been blessed to have a President who has done his utmost to keep you safe for the last seven years, despite opposition and difficult circumstances.
It’s easy for you to sit there at your computer and bellyache, but you could not have done better.
This country needs fewer whiners and more patriots.
Now I’m off to do things that matter. Goodbye.
clinton sould have been done for war crimes like the left says about Bush
thousands were killed to help ethnically cleanse a country i.e. kosovo.
through immigration more and more albanians moved into kosovo, they then started to force the serbs out of their country by force.
When the serbs said enough and I am not sayinbg they were right how they did it then we decide to ethnically cleanse the country so as to think we would have a better time with muslims.
I don’t blame the serbs for what they are doing, they are seeing hteir country being split up.
Bush and clinton has no right to have done what they have done.
I served over there and saw first hand how the serbs were living in fear and how the albanians were terrorizing them
Britian and America should have stayed out of this from the start and where is the left.
The far left were upset about the war in Iraq yet they were happy to kill innocent serbs to help albanian muslims
Arizona, nothin’. Arizona came into the picture pretty late in our history. This is like the Mexicans trying to make off with Virginia. Lord knows there are enough of them here to make a go of it.
Bill did all the dirty pre-work.
I think if that happened, most Americans wouldn’t have the balls that these folks have.
That was a diplomatic blunder of immense proportions. What did we get in exchange for giving our diplomatic recognition to Kosovo?
What was in it for us?
Was it worth alienating the Serbians and the Russians?
Now that a putative state of war exists between Serbia and Kosovo, who is going to stop the Serbians from exacting judgment against the rebels in Kosovo?
Are we going to send in troops to fight the Serbians when they and their Russian "advisors" invade Kosovo with tanks and artillery?
Are we willing to kill Serbs and Russians in a ground war over this postage sized future European Palestine?
Both Overpowering lefties.
Whatever their true definition, I think you’re right on target with your comment about recognizing a national identity for them. We’ll regret it. It will cost Israel dearly. And we’ll come off looking like the enabelers of evil, which we will certainly have been.
Erm, ok, lessseee here. We bombed them in order to capitulate defacto control of a chunk of land that has been theirs since 1300s, handed it off to the Muslim insurgents, and now recognize said land as an independent country redrawing borders in Europe for the first time since the WW I. Any of this sounds like a good idea we’re doing ? Would we be slightly pissed, say, Mexicans declare their own state in southern CA, and France and Germany recognize them ? C’mon. Redrawing borders ANYWHERE invites chaos. It’s already started. Palestinians have said ‘Kosovo’s no more special’. Basques in Spain have been fighting for their independence for decades. How are they less worthy ?
Russians have about 20 places that others could start peeling their territory off, while there’s Russian minorities in Georgia, Ukraine that could say ‘we want to go to mother Russia’. And we’re gonna say ‘no, can’t do that, but Kosovo’s ok’ ? What about the Kurds ? Chop off some Turkey and some Iraq and give it to them ? Maybe they’ll declare unilaterally too.
How big of a mess this is. Jesus Christ can’t believe we’re being this stupid. Especially as our military is stretched with deployments. Mark my words, if Russians retaliate somewhere where we are weak (and they’re masters of linkage, and have been really pissed by this), we’ll look like real idiots. And we don’t want to look weak, as Islamists are watching.
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