Posted on 12/10/2006 12:21:12 PM PST by sergey1973
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Alexander Bogatyrev) - The other day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it would be counterproductive to introduce UN sanctions against either side in the Kosovo conflict.
Before that, the Russian ambassador to Belgrade had said that Russia would veto any "harsh" UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo.
The sanctions in question are directed against Serbia.
According to the Kremlin, the Kosovo dispute can be resolved only at the negotiating table and there should be no deadlines. The sides involved in the conflict need time to resolve their problems.
Criminal organizations have taken over the province's authorities since 1999. Youth groups in Kosovo are growing increasingly radical, so much so that on November 27, the Albanian Flag Day was marked in Kosovo under circumstances of tightened security guaranteed by the presence of nearly all the Kosovo Force's (or KFOR, the province's multinational peacekeeping force) troops and police.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.rian.ru ...
Of course - all our fault.
Well we did bomb them for no other reason then to protect the "innocent" muslims. It wasn't that long ago.
Just as we told them we would back in 1992 when President Bush issued our "Christmas Warning" to Milosevic.
We'd have thought the Serbs would have learned from their experiences in Croatia and Bosnia, but, alas, such was not the case.
Some folks, you just can't reach.
But if you want to still believe it, well knock yourself out.
We would indeed be wise not to sanction Serbia at this point in time...
I recall reading a novel many years ago (long before the break up of Yugoslavia) where there was a scene with two British diplomats were discussing the Balkans with a (pre-Revolution) Russian and American diplomats.
In the book (I can't recall the name of it), the British were talking about how various other countries in the world were demanding "spheres of influence in the Balkan region" and how they thought they could "satisfy all the interested parties" with a plan that they had developed, including a map where they had redrawn borders. The Russian & the American listened quietly to all of this until they finally asked the Russian what he thought of it. (The British assumed that the American would agree with them.)
The Russian responded, "Your solution is arrogant and insane. You will solve nothing in the region until you quit treating the Balkans as though it a box of chocolates that you have the right to pass around for your chosen political pets to be granted a piece of! It is not yours to take or to give, it is the lands that the people who live there, who've spilled there blood for the right to decide their own fate, not to have some failed politicans-turned-"diplomats" to decide for them. You don't know these people, we do. When they say, "Sloboda ili Smrt" (Freedom or Death), they mean it!" Finally the British looked to the American diplomat for reinforcement, and the American said to them, "The Russian is right. What you tried to do here to the people of the Balkans is what you tried to do to us in America years ago. That's why we had a damned Revolution! It really is amazing how a Cambridge education can knock all the common sense out of you -- did you really think that we would ever agree to this?" And the American & the Russian (who had looked at each other with intial suspicion) both walked out of the meeting together.
In fact, the only that is different from the book and today's real life, is that it is EU & UN bureaucrats "developing the plan" instead of just the British, and America has switched sides. What the Russian character said still is spot on.
Let us lay all the blame on the Serbs, I see now.
Not all, but not none either. Responsibility for what happened during Yugoslavia's disintigration wasn't the work of one group, but theories of equal blame just aren't credible.
Babem you just earned a karma point!
Your description is maybe the bast description of balkans ever.
And just let me add Bismark opinion on Balkans:
"The whole of Balkans is not worthy of a life of a single Pomeranian grenadier, nut if world war starts it would start on balkan, over insignificant reason"
Keiser sacked him. He believed that Balkan is important starting a war over it.
Needless to say, Bismark is remebered as mastermind politician and statesman, and Keiser as a las german Keiser...
And what's the other option? An American vassal? How about nobody's vassal?
Your "simple solution" is the simple-minded path to Dhimmitude.
I guess you have a distorted view of the world from those kneepads.
The Serbs would have corrected the "problem" on their own; 9/11 reminded us that it is our problem as well.
After bombing of Serbia, the damage to infrastructure was $60-90 Billion and Serbia never recovered. Millions are unemployed or pretending to be employed not receiving salaries for months. The only businesses that operate are the ones in foreign hands. It is not very likely that U.S. Government will impose sanctions on U.S. Steel and Philip Morris.
You can always count on me.
Proud to be Infidel, Allahu Fubar !
Wrong, US foreign policy has been on obstacle unto itself, it has a habit of tripping over itself.
"It can be the Balkans' Kaliningrad."
I really admire your optimism, Hoplite, but under Muslim rule it's more likely to be Balkans' Afghanistan or "Palestine" or any other crappy Islamic state that exist in the world. I think the world has more than enough crappy terror spreading Muslim states and it does not need any more.
To be more specific, independent Muslim Kosovo will surely be another Islamic hell hole spreading Islamic rule and all the misery associated with it in the region. While I have no sympathy for Milosevic regime, giving Muslims yet another state in the region known as Europe's powder keg is a long-term self-defeating strategy for 'infidels' that will surely backfire and already backfiring.
Try re-reading the relevant posts.
Tried already. I made a mistake in previous post thinking you were referring to Kosovo as "Balkan's Kaliningrad" rather than the entire Serbia. This was my mistake in reference but my message is the same: independent Muslim Kosovo will be another victory for Islamists and defeat for the civilization.
The world is full of Islamic states and whenever Islamic laws rule in full, it brings misery to all, especially to women and infidels. I don't want to see Islam spreading either in Balkans or anywhere in the world, and I don't buy these optimistic songs of 'moderate' or 'liberal' Islam. Islam at its core is a totalitarian political-religious ideology and letting Muslims to create more of the Muslim states is a slow civilizational suicide. I think enough is said.
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