Posted on 06/27/2007 9:04:29 AM PDT by Bokababe
WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- A U.S. lawmaker says the United States and its allies would recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo.
The comment by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., came during a heated discussion with Russian lawmakers in Washington last week and highlights sharp differences with Russia over the future of Kosovo, whose majority ethnic Albanian residents want independence from Serbia.
Lantos and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said the United States supported the U.N. plan for Kosovo independence drawn up by Finnish diplomat and former President Martti Ahtisaari.
Russian officials have opposed the plan, wary that it might set a precedent for many of the ethnic enclaves in their own country. As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, Russia has a veto and could block the plan.
"We will solve the (Kosovo) problem either via the United Nations," said Lantos, "or the Kosovars will declare their independence unilaterally.
"I can assure you the following day, the United States will recognize Kosovo as an independent country, as will the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Denmark and all the others."
Both he and Engel sought to reassure the visitors from Moscow, members of the Russian Parliament, or Duma, that independence for Kosovo would not set a precedent.
But they did not appear to succeed, and the Russian parliamentarians pointed out that independence for Kosovo would be the first time in post-World War II European history that the boundaries of a unitary nation-state had been redrawn against its will.
"Why can't Kosovo be seen as a precedent for Abkhazia or Transnistria or Southern Ossetia?" asked Alexander Kozlovsky, deputy chairman of the Duma's International Affairs Committee, referring to three ethnic enclaves in the former Soviet Union with independence movements.
"If Kosovo achieves independence, there won't be a single Abkhazian or Southern Ossetian (who) will not understand why can't he achieve independence," he concluded
What part of that don't they understand? Should Serbia recognize the independence of Hawaii?
Tom Lantos is a scum, but I’m sorry to say that he may be right. President Bush supports it, the State Department supports it, and conservatives seem to be in a coma about it.
The only thing holding it back if Vladimir Putin. He won’t let the Security Council approve it, but he can’t easily stop idiots from recognizing Kosova (Albanian spelling) if the Albanians just go ahead and do it.
Kosovo is 82% albanian...
Not supporting Kosovo independence is same as not supporting US independence back when it was a british colony.
Lantos, Bush and the State Department are WRONG! Lantos has been bought. We’ve alreasdy seen the beginnings of blowback at Ft. Dix, as all but one of those terrorists were Kosovo Albanians. We are attempting to create a Caliphate in the Balkans just to kiss Saudi butt!
I’d like to know at what point the United States of America became nothing more than “the muscle” for Saudi Arabia? And if that is all that we are — because that’s what the State Department thinks we are — then God Help Us!
Lantos was part of an anti-Nazi resistance movement during the German occupation of that country and sought refuge in a safe house established by Raoul Wallenberg. In 1981 Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
Lantos considers himself a secular Jew and is the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the House.[7] Upon immigrating to the United States, he attended the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 1953).
(Wikipedia) Considering his past it is amazing that Lantos is supporting the Islamofascists who are the sons of those to sought to exterminate his ancestry. To him it’s worth throwing Christians to the dogs to get the Islamic monkey off our back so we can prove to the world that we don’t hate Islam.
I would happily debate this man in an open and public forum about Kosovo.
People need to flood his office with calls, e-mail and faxes opposing the Nazification and Islamization of Kosovo. People must oppose the ethnic cleansing of Christians from Christian lands. This is proof that Atheists (aka secularists) are hardly in the position of being objective and neutral as most idiots think.
Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot where all Atheists too and they helped bury 100 million under their unjust ideology.
So I guess California should belong to Mexico too, by that reasoning!
...following decades of an ongoing terror campaign against the Serb, Jew, and Roma citizens there combined with a massive wave of illegal immigration from Albania.
There, fixed that for you.
So, when do you want to hand Aztlan back to the Mexicans? Hmmmm?
Sovereignty is much like private property.
I may own 20 apartment buildings with 5 units each, housing a total of 100 people. I bought that apartment building, I paid for it, my name is on the title, it is mine, even though 100 other people live there. You can argue that this arrangement is “unfair”, “undemocratic”, but in fact that entire argument is rooted in a Socialist ideal, not in the right to private property.
Ultimately “sovereignty’ IS founded in the idea of “private property”. If sovereignty doesn’t matter, then the idea of private property goes down the toilet with it, and global socialism wins!
What planet are you orbiting?
Dummy, then lets refer to other locals such as the South West and California. Canucks and Albanians don’t understand the concept of sovereignty and property rights, that’s why they prefer fascism and socialism.
Remember, Soros is a Hungarian Jew. How much you wanna bet they're buddies?
Recognition of second Albanian state on Serbian soil is illegal and U.S. can do nothing about it.
Except building higher capacity helipad this time.
Kosovo is a province of Serbia. Clinton fought the war on the wrong side, and tried to give Kosovo to a bunch of drug-running thugs and terrorists. I don’t approve of what’s going on. I’m just afraid there’s no one standing up for justice here in this country. Tom Lantos is an extremist in this area, but who will fight it? Bush favors a deal. The UN favors a deal. The State Department favors it.
It will certainly lead to trouble down the line, and maybe another war. But nobody in authority in our government seems to be doing anything about it.
The Albanians just gave Bush the most enthusiastic welcome he’s ever had anywhere. As their TV commentator said, it’s because they expect him to give them Kosovo.
Aztlan does.
It is interesting how Albanian terrorist supporters on this forum are ready to insult anyone who opposes their views.
I understand your pessimism, Cicero -- but what ever happend to "We the people"? Bush & Congress report to us! Have we forgotten that?
The State Department favors it, so Bush favors it. We are strong-arming the UN and EU into it -- Kosova is OUR US project, not theirs. It isn't as though they all came to this conclusion independently.
I am fighting this not because it is "for Serbia" -- the fact is that I have never set foot in Serbia. I am an American! But I know in my bones that we are going to regret this if we don't stop it.
I and many others said over 15 years ago that radical Islam was on the move and sooner or later it will hit here -- and we were proven right in 1993 & on 9/11 -- and again in Utah last year (a Bosnian Muslim), and again at Fort Dix (Kosovo Albanians) and NY airport.
When is SOMEBODY going to listen & stand up and fight -- not "for Serbia", but for America? We have legal means to do it now. Are we going to wait until that legal right is taken away?
Sovereignty is sovereignty. If Serbia's sovereignty doesn't matter, then neither does ours. This immigration bill and Kosovo are the SAME issue. What Bush can't do here, he is trying to do with Kosovo. This needs to be stopped in both places.
As for how to stop it: "If not now, when? If not us, who?"
People must understand that this thing isn’t about the Serbs or the Albanians. They couln’t are less about both. This is an opportunity for NATO to express their fairness to Islam. Kosovo is the carrot and Iraq is the stick. NATO is desperate to convince Islam that this is not a war against Islam. What is it then?
George “Soros” Schwartz is an insult to the Jewish people who fight against Islamofascism which he is helping. He doesn’t give a damn about Israel. He blamed America and Israel for renewed anti-Semitism in Europe. He is a self loathing liberal.
So how is he incorrect in his assessment? You proved his point.
I disagree. Only our sovereignty matters to me. Protecting Serbia's sovereignty (or Kosovo's) should not be America's job.
You don't get it -- it is the US that is threatening Serbia's sovereignty. Serbia is prefectly willing to handle this themselves but we won't let them. We are the ones backing the Islamists who want to steal a piece of Serbia, and we are the ones demanding that Serbia give it to them. It is the same mentality in DC that says that Serbia's sovereignty doesn't matter, that is saying US sovereignty doesn't matter. They are the same globalist morons threatening both.
That reasoning is illogical. US sovereignty depends on our willingness to defend our sovereignty -- and that "willingness" is weak at the moment because our legislators don't think that it is important. They'd rather pander to the globalists. But our sovereignty is in no way enhanced by attacking someone else's sovereignty halfway round the globe from us -- especially when there is really nothing in it for us.
We cannot undo the past. The fact is that a US pullout from Kosovo would not end the occupation of Kosovo. Even Russia now wants us to turn it over to the EU military force, as we did with Bosnia. Empowering a unified EU military force independent of the US and NATO is not in US interests.
When you are ready to pull it out, maybe we can have a mature discussion? BTW, there are a large number of native Hawaiians who want independence. Dummy!
I can think of a couple hundred reasons to go toe-to-toe with the Russians and Kosovo ISN"T one of them. We were and are wrong in this, we are behaving like imperialists. And by some weird stroke of luck, Russia is right. What we are doing is illegal, immoral and down-right stupid!
There was an American law professor a while back who made the point that the only way that Kosovo could be ours to give away is if NATO was to be considered "the conquerer of Serbia" -- in which case, it was NATO's leadership who should be sent to the Hague for trial and not Milosevic or Serbs!
Now I know that from a neo-con perspective, the moniker "imperialist" actually might sound like a compliment, but it is not -- it is contrary to our values as a country and a society to march around the globe like a bunch of Nazis treating the entire world as though it is all ours to take or give away as we see fit.
America is our country and Serbia is their country. That a single American life should be put at risk to defend the illegal theft of land from Serbia by Muslim Albanians, is beyond all reason. Let Serbia defend Kosovo and don't make Serbs have to shoot Americans to do it!
Next time there’s a referendum in Quebec, I’m voting OUI.
When was it ever a US interest? US has no business is in deciding who’s borders needs to change, especially internationally recognized borders. The US should have never gotten involved in the first place.
He’s Canadian eh.
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