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“The entrance by provocation, exaggerations, and fabrications were in the planning stages long before.”

I realize that it was all planned, and the general foreign policy is the same regardless of the change of presidents. There might be a different style and window dressing type of differences – for instance one president might gloat and talk a lot about it (Clinton) while another is rather quiet on what happens (Bush), but the same anti-Serb pro-non-Serb separatist agenda goes on the same.

You can find Bob Dole in 1986, before Milosevic and the curbing of Kosovo's autonomy (enacted due to Albanian violent and separatist behavior in the early-mid 1980's and before), using language that is a subdued precursor to the war language later used to attack and bomb Serbia.

Things were being planned, though the time was not ripe, it was down the road a decade or so.

http://www.siri-us.com/backgrounders/Archives_Kosovo/KLA-Dole-Kos-Res.150_6-86.html:

In June 1986, more than four years before the suspension of Kosovo's Albanian-Muslim dominated autonomous government, Senator Robert ("Bob") Dole of Kansas was the Republican Majority leader in the US Senate. On June 18th of that year, he submitted the inflammatory Concurrent Resolution #150, the complete text of which is reprinted below (Exhibit #1), along with Senator Dole's introductory speech. Joseph DioGuardi, a conservative Republican of Albanian ancestry from New York's metropolitan area, sponsored a companion Resolution in the House of Representatives, ("concurrent" means a resolution is deliberately submitted in both houses) to be found elsewhere in the same volume of the Congressional Record for June 18, 1986.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE; June 18, 1986

Page 14439 (Vol. 132 Part 10, June 11-19, 1986)

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 150 - EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER THE CONDITION OF ETHNIC ALBANIANS LIVING IN YUGOSLAVIA

Mr. DOLE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

S. Con. Res. 150

Whereas there are more than two million ethnic Albanians living within the borders of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;

Whereas the ethnic Albanians constitute one of the largest ethnic groups within Yugoslavia;

Whereas there are reports that several hundred ethnic Albanians have been killed in communal violence and the Government's efforts to control it

Whereas there is evidence that several thousand more have been arrested by the Yugoslavian Government for expressing their views in a non-violent manner;

Whereas most political prisoners within Yugoslavia are ethnic Albanians;

Whereas many of those arrested have been sentenced to harsh terms of imprisonment ranging from one to fifteen years;

Whereas many ethnic Albanians have been denied access to full economic opportunity because of alleged "Albanian nationalist" activities;

Whereas Amnesty International, a respected international human rights organization, has published allegations of torture and assassination of ethnic Albanians in exile by the Yugoslav secret police;

Whereas the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is a signatory to the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe [CSCE, now OSCE], known as the Helsinki Final Act;

Whereas one of the provisions of the Act states that "the participating States on whose territory national minorities exist will respect the rights of persons belonging to such minorities to equality before the law, will afford them full opportunity for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms and will, in this manner, protect the legitimate interests in this sphere;"

Whereas the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has failed to protect fully the rights of ethnic Albanians, in accordance with its obligation under the Act;

Resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives Concurring, That Congress:

1. is deeply concerned over the political and economic conditions of ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia and over the failure of the Yugoslav Government to fully protect their political and economic rights;
2. urges the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to act so as to ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms as expressed in the Helsinki Final Act and the Concluding Document of the Madrid CSCE Follow-Up Meeting are respected in regard to persons from all national and ethnic groups in Yugoslavia;
3. calls upon the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to review in a humanitarian spirit the cases of all ethnic Albanians currently imprisoned on political charges and to release all of those who have not used or advocated violence;
4. requests the President of the United States to direct the Department of State to convey the contents of this Resolution to the appropriate representatives of the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

* * * *

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I rise today to submit a concurrent resolution expressing the concern of the Congress about the conditions of ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia. Congressman DIO GUARDI of New York has introduced a similar resolution in the House, and I am pleased to be working with him to focus attention on this important matter.

Mr. President, there are approximately two million ethnic Albanians living in Yugoslavia, making them the third largest ethnic group in that country. They have extensive ties of ancestry and common culture with the growing ethnic-Albanian community in the United States.

Regrettably, the Yugoslav Government has not granted to the Albanian community the full protection of their political and economic rights. While many ethnic groups in Yugoslavia have suffered at the hands of the government, the Albanian community has been singled out for particularly harsh treatment.

Under the guise of responding to the greatly exaggerated threat that ethnic Albanians might try to assert political independence from Yugoslavia, the government in Belgrade has arrested thousands of Albanians, hundreds this year alone, often for doing no more than peacefully expressing their commitment to the preservation of Albanian culture. In fact, the Helsinki Commission and other knowledgeable, independent observers have reported that more than one-half of all political prisoners in Yugoslavia are Albanian.

And when arrested these ethnic Albanians face the harshest kind of penalties. Prison sentences of from 1 to 15 years are common for offenses that may be no more than holding up a placard at a public gathering pledging to uphold elements of Albanian culture.

Many Albanians have also been fired, or denied access to particular jobs, because in some way they have expressed their Albanian heritage or manifest some element of Albanian culture. A number of university professors, for example, have been fired solely for teaching courses on Albanian history or culture.

Finally, and most disturbing of all, hundreds of ethnic Albanians have died in recent years as a result of communal strife and the government's often violent efforts to put down communal unrest. These dead have become martyrs within the ethnic Albanian community. Even admitting that the government's actions in all cases were not unprovoked, the strong evidence is that the government has vastly overreacted, as part of a conscious campaign to stamp out even any sign of Albanian ethnocentrism or any inclination for ethnic Albanians to develop a stronger political self-identification.

Mr. President, as I noted, the Albanian populations [sic!] is not the only group that suffers. But it appears that it may well be the group that suffers the most.

For that reason, I believe we have a responsibility to express our deep concern about the plight of these suffering people, in the hope that the influence we can bring to bear will encourage the Yugoslav Government to meet its solemn commitments under the Helsinki Accords to grant ethnic Albanians --and all other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia-- their full rights and freedoms.

Mr. President, I send the concurrent resolution to the desk and ask for its appropriate referral.