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)
Nobody is "justifying it" -- there's a difference between justifying it and understanding it.
A "true conservative" would have never done what Bush did in the first place because "a true conservative" has respect for "national sovereignty" -- their own and that of other countries. We haven't had a "true conservative" in the White House in a very long time, and certainly won't get one anytime soon if McCain wins the nomination!
If I were a Serbian, I would have joined them. If Russia goes to war against the United States, I will support the United States all the way. But it is a war that ought to be avoided and our recognition of an independent Kosovo, very well could lead to such a situation.
I have never understood why we were there. There were REAL genocides occurring in Africa and there still are, and nobody gives a rat's ass about it.
But because White European Christians were killing White European Muslims and vice versa, we took it upon ourselves to choose sides and start bombing the Christian Serbians and protecting the Albanian Muslims.
Frankly I think we are on the wrong side in this matter.
This is not a conservative/liberal issue. This is a survival issue. We may have triggered WWIII by choosing sides in a conflict in which we have no business getting involved in.
If you don't like the fact that a lot of people on this forum truly understand the motivation behind the Serbian riots and sympathize with them, then maybe you should find a new forum.
As a general rule of thumb the answer is “yes,” we get taken advantage of while many in Europe see themselves as victims and lament our every move.
We are economically the number one. We are in security matters the leader of the pact. We are politically the heavy weight. In a leadership role within NATO, ANZUS, the UN, with vast influence in the Middle East, Latin and South America, the Pacific Rim etc.; with capabilities second to none in broad military facets such as force projection, strategic sea and airlift, C2, global communications, reconnaissance, SEAD, etc. which alone pushes us to the forefront in many military aspects. We are in a peculiar situation where we can not shrink or run from our obligations without damaging or even destroying the general framework in security structures present.
We have always, since the end of WWII carried a disproportional weight for the collective security of the West and industrialized free world. ALWAYS! It does not matter if you measure it in percent GDP spent on defense, number of casualties, number of wars, strikes, or other military engagements involved in. It does not matter if you count total military end strengths, size of forces deployed on contingencies world wide or pounds of ordinance dropped. Already in the Cold War, this was a serious issue of contention and Casper Weinberger made numerous statements reference allies that are not paying or doing enough for our collective security. (1988)- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEED7113FF933A15756C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
Think about these scenarios: We leave Afghanistan, how long will that mission go on? We cut off Israel, how long will they survive? We refuse help to S. Korea if the North invades, will they make it; will someone else rush in and fill our void? If any action on Iran is taken, who will lead it? How long would a Western European defense scenario have lasted if the US would have backed out? If we didn’t stop the Khmer Rouge and prop up Thailand, who was? Do you think any European nation would rush in to help the Columbian government in its war against narco cartels?
The Balkans is a perfect example! Had we refused and said “this is a European problem,” where do you think NATO would be today? It would have died on the spot.
On the other hand, Germany which is a nation that pushed for intervention in the Balkans seven years later blocked all moves to get NATO involved with Iraq. If NATO had gotten involved in Iraq, the Germans would have been sucked in, and they made sure this could not happen. They went as far as to sabotage our efforts politically within the UN to get another resolution on Iraq, and they went along with threats from France aimed at those European nations that decided to back us in Iraq but not yet EU members(i.e. Check Republic, Poland, etc). They more or less outbid our offer to the Turks in loans and aid, with a promise for support in leading them into the EU, if they bar US ground forces from Turkey as a staging area to open a North Front. The same nation which seven years earlier screamed for our help, and engaged NATO, was questioning the need for such an organization all together in 2003 onward to avoid any obligations themselves to us; their Green and SPD (left) politicians even debating about denying us over flight rights of military aircraft. The biggest irony of all is that Gerhard Schroeder and Joschka Fischer were in office and the same people who in 1999 were pushing the buttons reference Kosovo for NATO intervention that in 2002 said “Kein Blut fuer Oel.” At the time, under protest of the Russians and Chinese, without UN mandate, Germany pushed for this intervention, and what did they do three years later?
US ships began unloading in Turkey already when the Turks backed out of the deal and took the better Schroeder offer of support to future EU membership: http://www.msc.navy.mil/sealift/2003/May/army.htm
A little timeline of the German political involvement in Kosovo: http://www.deutsche-aussenpolitik.de/index.php?/resources/dossiers/kosovo_timetable.php
But what is the option? Destroy the only viable Western security apparatus? The Poles, Danes, Spaniards (originally), Italians, Brits, Netherlands, they all have troops in Iraq. Do we more or less destroy the only real security system there is because people play political games with it because many do as little as possible?
A Muslim youth snaps a picture of his friend urinating into the ruins of a church freshly destroyed by other Muslims (Kosovo, 2004)
.
And they're exactly right. Very disheartening to see the U.S. gov't reward Islamic terrorists with a state, but this won't be the last time. Next up: "Palestine."
The burning of our embassy is an act of war against the United States and Serbia should be dealt with accordingly. If Russia tries to interfere in either Kosovo or Serbia, then it should be viewed as a declaration of war and we should respond in kind. If Russia is stupid enough to actually use nukes they should be wiped off the map.
BS.
The Serbian government did not burn down our embassy, the Serbian people did.
And if is is an "act of war" then what do you propose to do about it? Invade Serbia?
Thank you for clarifying that. Israel is our only ME ally, and we know the “Palestinians” would never settle for a side-by-side state with Israel, they want it all.
I seriously doubt true Israelis would attack a U.S. embassy either.
Where in the hell do you get the demise of NATO out of NOT getting involved in the Balkans?
That place is a freakin nightmare and if we (the US) wouldn’t have stepped in everyone would have wrung there hands and did nothing and it would have burned out.
There were no major powers involved there!
The only place allied to the region was Russia and at that time they couldn’t do much.
So because we jumped our a$$ in then to something that was none of our business we have a freakin Muslim mess that will never stop until it has taken over Europe. How many will die in that?
I say pick your fights and don’t pick the ones that can never be won!
Russia wiped off the map! LOL
Well I know what they would think of that.
Back at ya.
So we are going to full scale nuclear war over a bunch of Muslims that in the end want us dead?
Really wanting to bring on the End Times are you?
The Serbian government should have protected our embassy better. We should be begin a bombing campaign immediately similar to the one in 99.
Didn’t they say the same thing when WW1 started?
Or at the start of Gulf War 1?
And Gulf War 2?
The U.S. embassy itself has sovereignty, that is what I am saying. Destroying it does not help the Serbians.
What do you suggest the Bush administration does now? Should they withdraw their support of the Kosovo state?
I've seen this tactic used many times by forum posters. It means you are over-involved in the issue and have lost perspective. We are not solving problems here, merely discussing them.
Who can blame them? We violated a UN Security Council agreement in full sight of the world.
I care more about how stupid we look to the world
than I do the embassy burning.
You’re right I was just trying to keep it in context to the Balkans.
It’s sad how fast people forget how the sh-T hits the fan.
At any one time in the world there are how many little wars going on?
I think we have been getting into to many of them.
Islam needs to be addressed. Things like the breakup of Yugoslavia...not so much. It’s sad but was none of our business.
If Clinton would have kept his you know what in his pants we would have never been there.
Role modeling some integrity and credibility would be nice.
This is about stopping the revival of the Soviet Empire with an Adolph Hitler at the helm. This confrontation is inevitable so I would rather have it now than in the future when Russia is stronger. Better dead than red.
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