IRANA (Reuters) - Albania will increase the number of its soldiers in Iraq to 120 from the current 70, a government spokesman said on Friday. Posted on 02/26/2005 1:12:24 AM PST by M. Espinola
IRANA (Reuters) - Albania will increase the number of its soldiers in Iraq to 120 from the current 70, a government spokesman said on Friday.
The decision takes effect in April, when soldiers currently serving a six-month stint under U.S. command return home.
Albania has been a staunch supporter of the United States since Washington led a NATO bombing campaign against Serb troops accused of killing and expelling ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo.
Albanian public opinion supports its contribution to the U.S.-led force in Iraq, where two Albanian-born U.S. Marines have been killed.
(File photo) Two Albanians in traditional dress flank an Albanian military officer and a U.S. non-commissioned officer who are carrying their respective national flags. [State Dept. photo by Robert Manga, U.S. Embassy Tirana, April 14th, 2003]
photo/graphic added
Thank you Albania. Maybe France (insert other anti american countries here) can learn something...
Albania is predominantly Muslim, and they're planning to have a great Albania that will include Kosovo... With the decision of Kosovo is coming, I can see why they try to win influence...
Now, that's an original picture! A true worm :)
Very Good Albania very good Thank you
Albania honors emigrant killed in Iraq as U.S. Marine
Associated Press
TIRANA, Albania - President Alfred Moisiu on Tuesday awarded a medal of honor to an emigrant who died fighting as a U.S. Marine in Iraq.
Cpl. Gentian Marku, of Warren, Mich., was killed in Fallujah on Nov. 25. He emigrated to the United States at age 14.
Moisiu awarded Marku, 22, with the Golden Medal of Eagle for the "sublime sacrifice in the fight against terrorism, for the protection of the values of democracy, peace and freedom, by glorifying the honor of his nation."
On Friday, Prime Minister Fatos Nano declared Marku an Albanian martyr.
Marku's body was expected to arrive in Albania Tuesday evening for burial at his native village of Piraj, 42 miles north of the capital, Tirana, accompanied by Marines who were to hand him over to the Albanian troops.
A short military ceremony was to be held at Mother Teresa International Airport attended by Albanian Defense Minister Pandeli Majko and the U.S. Ambassador to Tirana Marcie B. Ries.
Marku was the second Albanian emigrant killed fighting with U.S. troops in Iraq. Pfc. Ervin Dervishi, 21, of Fort Worth, Texas, died Jan. 24 after attackers in Baji fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the vehicle in which he was riding.
Albania, a small, predominantly Muslim country, backed the U.S.-led campaign and has sent 71 of its own troops to Iraq. Three Albanian soldiers were wounded in July when their car ran over a mine in Mosul.
Marine Lance Corporal Marku's casket is covered by American and Albanian flags before a joint memorial ceremony conducted by Marines and the Albanian Army in Marku's native village in Albania.
One Marine. The other was U.S. Army PFC Ervin Dervishi--one of the soldiers in the unit that captured Saddam Hussein.
Marine Lance Corporal Gentian Marku is indeed a hero to America as well as his native Albania.
Little Albania suffered so greatly under the Nazis and communists, maybe that's why they understand and value freedom.
Solutions need to be developed.
The situation is very similar to the Kurdish people's dilemma being geographically spread across national boundaries.
France are you watching all this?
"Al-Azhar University , the Federation of the Islamic Organizations in Europe , and Turkish institutions have tried in vain to make the dream come true."
Thanks to the green light now given by the Albanian government, their dream will soon come true!
"The idea of building an Islamic university in the country was first raised by Prime Minister Fatos Nano..." Fatos Nano, the Prime Minister, is Orthodox Christian. He joins another Christian--President Alfred Moisiu, a Catholic--as the two most important leaders in Albania.
Sheikdom Chairman Selim Muca has stressed to Nano the importance of establishing an Islamic university in the country so that young Albanian Muslims would not have to travel abroad and be influenced by other dogmas and ideologies. The Albanians do not want their Muslims to be radicalized.
Observers believe that the government has turned crimson after the opening of the Catholic University , while Muslims, who make up the majority (around 75 percent) of the 3.5 million population, do not have their own university. The Catholics already have a university and Orthodox Christian schools are common in south Albania.
The number of churches in the country also outnumbers that of mosques, which are estimated roughly at 270 out of 1667 established before the Communist era.
So let's recap: more churches than mosques, Christian prime minister and president, Catholic university, Orthodox schools, and Albanian Muslims upset that their children studying in overseas mosques are getting radical ideas, so they build their own university.
And Albanian soldiers are fighting alongside us in Iraq & Afghanistan, we are using Albanian training areas & ranges for our Marines, and they vote the American position in every international forum. Your attachment reinforces the basic post that Albania, while small, is one of the best allies we have.
Political Islam, having shown clear intentions to reestablish itself in the Balkans, naturally sees fertile ground in desparately poor and predominantly Muslim Albania. Counting on a continuing petrodollar bonanza, organized Islam can reasonably hope to outspend Christian, secular, American or pro-western institutions in northern Albania & Kosovo. The "Islamic University", as other Islamic institutions, will be funded by middle eastern sources (as the article hints) and will thus obviously be prone to islamic radicalism.
The reasons that Nano and other Christians support the Islamic University are complex and related to the delicate and potentially explosive balance between Toscs - Gheqs and Christians - Muslims. Whatever the reasons, it is a clear indication of the ascendancy of Islam in Albania. Pictures of American flags next to Albanian pretty traditional dresses will do nothing to change the reality of a predominantly Muslim, inherently unstable and geopolitically opportunistic and unreliable Albania.
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