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NATO bombing over Kosovo 'right thing to do': says US envoy Holbrooke
Google News ^ | March 21, 2009 | AFP

Posted on 03/21/2009 9:17:56 PM PDT by Ravnagora

BRUSSELS (AFP) — US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Saturday that NATO's air attack on former Yugoslavia a decade ago was "the right thing to do" and had improved the lives of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs.

Speaking at the Brussels Forum conference, Holbrooke -- former envoy to the Balkans -- recalled how 10 years ago this week he had given the final ultimatum to former strongman Slobodan Milosevic to comply or face air strikes.

"I look back on it and I think that sometimes it's necessary to use force, and the result was good in the end," the new US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan told reporters.

"The people of Kosovo are better off than they were as part of Serbia, and Serbia is better off facing the future rather than working back to a mythic past," he said.

"I look back on that extraordinary last meeting with Milosevic, with a feeling that what we did was necessary and the right thing to do."

_________________

(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bushesfolly; clintonswar; holbrooke; kosovo; nato; serbia

1 posted on 03/21/2009 9:17:56 PM PDT by Ravnagora
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To: Ravnagora
The only upside of this whole wag-the-dog episode was the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy.
2 posted on 03/21/2009 9:22:34 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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To: Ravnagora

The Serbs will never trust us again, and Russia hates us for it. It was Europe’s problem, and Europe should have handled it. Yeah, we done real good there. /sarc


3 posted on 03/21/2009 9:23:17 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: joan; Smartass; zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; vooch; ...

4 posted on 03/21/2009 9:24:25 PM PDT by Ravnagora
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To: Aliska

Holbrook is a real SOB.


5 posted on 03/21/2009 9:27:07 PM PDT by unkus
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To: Ravnagora

Why not call it like it was - “The Bubba Klintoon bombing.”


6 posted on 03/21/2009 9:27:35 PM PDT by Rembrandt
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To: Aliska

And the radical Muslims said “thank you.” Or would have, if they didn’t hate everyone not like them.


7 posted on 03/21/2009 9:35:56 PM PDT by the anti-liberal
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To: Ravnagora

Clinton’s vanity war.


8 posted on 03/21/2009 9:36:21 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: Ravnagora
The entire Clinton administration should be stripped naked and let loose in downtown Pristina for the locals there to decide their fate.
9 posted on 03/21/2009 9:39:50 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Aliska

Serbs don’t trust anybody. Russia hates us? What else is new? And who cares?


10 posted on 03/21/2009 9:43:47 PM PDT by Joey Silvera
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To: SeeSharp

Here’s a story about Richard Holbrooke, as told to me by well-known Serbian-American.

In 1998, Clinton persuaded NATO to attack Serbia to “protect” Kosovo from genocide. The Serbian-American, being a supporter of Clinton, called the White House to dissuade Clinton from doing this, knowing no genocide was occurring. Clinton refused his call and referred him to Holbrooke, who he also knew. Despite pleas, Holbrooke refused to listen to him and wound up hanging up on him.

As it turned out no genocide actually occurred and after 10 years (with no exit strategy), the US military and NATO continues to “protect” Kosovo, which this Serbian-American said will be the next Islamist terrorist stronghold.

Now that Holbrooke is Obama’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, can the words crisis, disaster, quagmire, lies be applied be applied to the Obama strategy?


11 posted on 03/21/2009 9:46:18 PM PDT by chrisinoc
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To: Brad from Tennessee
The only upside of this whole wag-the-dog episode was the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy.

What makes you think it was accidental?

Does one attack a vacant lot from three sides or are we to believe Wesley intended to attack three different building bordering the "vacant lot".

It was perfect execution of realpolitik. Chinese anger extinguished the fire Clinton was under for his pro-Chinese activities!

12 posted on 03/21/2009 9:51:53 PM PDT by Nonperson (Live Free or Die!)
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To: Ravnagora
"US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Saturday that NATO's air attack on former Yugoslavia a decade ago was "the right thing to do" and had improved the lives of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs."

Oh yeas, strafing and bombing a bunch of Serbs fleeing down the road with their meager possessions really improved their lives.

Creating an Albanian Taliban force has really improved their lives as well. Those now burned out and otherwise destroyed 14th century monasteries were just eyesores anyways, and in the way for all those mosks they've built in their places.

Wjo are you trying to kid Holbrooke? Americans figured out long ago that MSM were lying to protect Clinton from the truth of this major bungle and Serb genocide from getting out.

13 posted on 03/21/2009 9:58:21 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: SpaceBar
The entire Clinton administration should be stripped naked and let loose in downtown Pristina for the locals there to decide their fate.

Why? Is there anyone but Albanians left there now?

14 posted on 03/21/2009 9:59:13 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: Joey Silvera
"Serbs don’t trust anybody. Russia hates us? What else is new? And who cares?'

I care. And the world cares when the truth of the matter is exposed. All Clinton accomplished there was to create another Islamic stronghold, and set the Serbs up for genocide, after surviving 200 years of Islamic occupation and a 100 year war, and survive another attempt by Hitlers Muslim Pal, Hussiani to exterminate them along with the Jews, only to have Clinton bomb them to smithereens and hand it all back to the Muzzies.

15 posted on 03/21/2009 10:06:46 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: SeeSharp
"Why? Is there anyone but Albanians [muslims] left there now?

All the more reason.

16 posted on 03/21/2009 10:11:32 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: unkus; antiliberal; Joey Silvera
Holbrook is a real SOB.

Glad you said it first.

Or would have, if they didn’t hate everyone not like them.

When they're not busy hating everyone not like them, they seem to love to hate their own. Human nature.

And who cares?

I was kind of hoping we could get along with the Russians. The Serbs I don't know, never knew much about them until I got on the web and Kosovo. Not much point in caring now I guess. I don't think we were told the whole truth.

17 posted on 03/21/2009 10:39:42 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: Ravnagora
and Serbia is better off facing the future rather than working back to a mythic past

Holbrooke is the one looking back to a "mythic past" of do-no-wrong Clinton foreign policy.

And now Obama is looking back to a "mythic past" of do-no-wrong Carter domestic policy.

18 posted on 03/21/2009 11:12:37 PM PDT by DTogo (Time to bring back the Sons of Liberty.)
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To: Ravnagora

Holbrooke is one sick MFer.


19 posted on 03/21/2009 11:15:33 PM PDT by TigersEye (Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: Nonperson
[It was perfect execution of realpolitik.]

One story, probably fictitious, blamed CIA personnel in an office that tracks nuclear-biological-chemical weapons in the Third World. Allegedly Valerie Plame worked there at the time. They believed the Serbs had chemical weapons in a warehouse in Belgrade. They used an over-the-counter street map to locate the address and determine coordinates from their office in Virginia. Then they submitted a NATO targeting order containing their apparently erroneous numbers.

20 posted on 03/21/2009 11:21:34 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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To: Ravnagora

7.62mm head shot....to all islamic terror appeasers.


21 posted on 03/22/2009 6:28:12 AM PDT by gitmogrunt (Respect Islam? ..Impossible.......Genocidal Islam respects no one.)
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To: Joey Silvera
Here's another reason, it may be over your level of comprehension:

Chrisitan Serbs were the early warning system to what lay in store for the West/USA in the war against Islamic Terror. But the West/USA chose to align itself with Islamic Terror groups like the KLA and bomb the Serbs in what amounted to a combined 5th Crusade against Orthodox Christians.

The West/USA was sent a Thank You Card postmarked 9/11,sent via air mail delivery, ironically from followers of the" religion of peace" it sought to appease.

22 posted on 03/22/2009 6:40:25 AM PDT by gitmogrunt (Respect Islam? ..Impossible.......Genocidal Islam respects no one.)
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To: Joey Silvera
"Serbs don’t trust anybody. Russia hates us? What else is new? And who cares?"

Well maybe you ought to care because the NATO action against Yugoslavia led to setting the precedent that Russia used to invade Georgia.

Or because, in Bosnia, Holbrooke helped empower the al Qaeda Islamists that eventually attacked us on 9/11.

Or because once this Soros clown, Holbrooke made his name nationally known for screwing the Serbs, he then had as platform to screw the American people & destroy our economy: Holbrooke on the AIG Board

Now I am wondering just how much more serious damage this piece of crap Holbrooke will be allowed to do before he is done!

23 posted on 03/22/2009 9:07:57 AM PDT by Bokababe (Save Christian Kosovo! http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: All
All anyone has to do to see what's been going on re "the Serbs" and the US State Department, is to listen to the story of what happened to the 500 American airmen rescued by the Serbs during WWII.

There was a cover-up then and there's one going on now -- and it is NOT to the benefit of the American people; instead it is a CYA game, protecting the careers of idiot bureaucrats!

24 posted on 03/22/2009 9:29:02 AM PDT by Bokababe (Save Christian Kosovo! http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: Joey Silvera

You better care. If not, the laws and treaties that make the foundation of this great land are meaningless.


25 posted on 03/23/2009 5:44:54 AM PDT by SQUID
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To: Ravnagora

TOXIC WASTE IS GOOD FOR YOU. Holbrooke says the bombing was good for Serbs and Albanians.. Let’s hope he gets a taste of the good stuff in Afghanistan...


26 posted on 03/24/2009 10:03:42 PM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Accidental, my foot. Are you so trusting of media and gov’t BS? “Out of date maps” more BS. The USAF uses GPS, hasn’t used maps since the 1960s. Three Tomahawks, entering windows, hit the embassy. Canadian Ambassador Bissett believes that the WCs (Clinton & Clark/hero of Waco TX) thought Milosevic was sleeping there. The Chinese will not forget the bombing of their territory.


27 posted on 03/24/2009 10:11:00 PM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: maher
[The USAF uses GPS, hasn’t used maps since the 1960s. . .]

I didn't say it was the Air Force using the map if you read what I said. I didn't say the story was true—I just said the story was out there. Incidentally, a Tomahawk has a 1,000-lb. HE warhead. The missile minus the warhead weighs about a ton. So, three of these things fly (wingspan about 9 feet) through the windows of the embassy at 400 mph and detonate and there's only three dead Chinamen? Think about it.

28 posted on 03/25/2009 12:21:25 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“Out there”? Spit it out, man. What do you want us to infer? Don’t be shy. Please do the checking for us:
What missiles hit the Chinese embassy?
Were they fired by USAF or US Navy?
Or Serbs from the mountains above Sarajevo”
Or the IRA?

“Chinamen”? I haven’t heard that antique term in 60 years.


29 posted on 04/06/2009 3:41:22 AM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: Ravnagora

Toxic waste, he sez, is good for Albanians and Serbs.


30 posted on 04/06/2009 3:43:35 AM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Bombing an embassy is a good thing? How about Tanzania & Kenya 1968? Which other embassies would it be a good thing to bomb?


31 posted on 04/06/2009 3:46:50 AM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: SpaceBar

Can they keep their wrist watches?


32 posted on 04/06/2009 3:47:37 AM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: maher
[What missiles hit the Chinese embassy?]

I never mentioned missiles, that's your theory.

“Three Tomahawks, entering windows, hit the embassy.” —Wednesday, March 25, 2009 00:11:00 by maher

33 posted on 04/06/2009 4:45:51 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

My theory and Roget’s or Webster’s of “Missile” is an object THROWN and hitting from a distance, as opposed to hitting with a fist OR anything held with the hand — club, axe, stone...

Yoo no spikka da English?


34 posted on 04/08/2009 8:02:41 PM PDT by maher ( Klinton's Blitzkrieg)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

How was that an “upside” dumbass? Bill Clinton, in hitting the Chinese Embassy (whether deliberate or not) attacked the sovereign territory of a foreign nation (the second one in the conflict, alongside Serbia itself). He pissed off the world and made the USA look arrogant, or foolish and incompetent (or both).

It also gave Bill Clinton even more opportunity to wag the dog, on top of the initial bombing campaign itself. (It began coincident with the Juanita Broderick allegations, and in the wake of the impeachment humiliation, while the Embassy bombing occurred in concert with accusations against Bill Clinton’s China policy.)

As we saw from Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton’s humiliating failure and public evisceration in the 2008 Presidential campaign, they’re political opportunists who’ll stop at nothing in the service of their own power.

It’s difficult to know whether or not the 1999 Embassy bombing was deliberate, but it undoubtedly helped Clinton’s political plans, intentional or not, and was at best an idiotic attack on another sovereign nation. If you’re truly stupid enough to defend a Clintonian f**k-up on that scale, then perhaps you should put out a special request for Monica Lewinsky’s kneepads.


35 posted on 04/11/2009 1:13:37 PM PDT by Javeth
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To: Javeth
You read a lot into a one-sentence statement by somebody you don't know. Bill Clinton and the UN used one-sided or bogus numbers to whip up the world news media against the Serbs and justify the NATO bombing campaign. Clinton believed he could take full credit for a “positive” outcome in Yugoslavia that would help balance out his retreat from Somalia. (Clinton's inept Defense Secretary Les Aspin had stripped assets from U.S. forces in Mogadishu leading to “Blackhawk Down.”) But the blame for a bad outcome in Yugoslavia could be pinned on NATO. I don't know if the bombing of the Chinese embassy was premeditated. NATO’s behavior was so ruthless in Serbia a lot of people were led to believe the embassy bombing was intentional. Personally I don't care that the Chinese embassy got bombed or who got upset about it. It probably helped end the bombing. Chinese advisors were with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge while they killed 2 million people. The Chinese continue to rape Tibet. The PRC is expansionist, anti-democratic and anti-Christian. Maybe that will change before we are in a major war with them.

When Reagan bombed Libya in 1986 France, Switzerland and Romania said their embassies in Tripoli were damaged. That doesn't make it right but it is a consequence of war.

Calling people names like “dumbass” and accusing them of taking political positions when you don't have any proof is childish.

36 posted on 04/12/2009 5:41:42 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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