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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Austin Bay :: Townhall.com Columnist
From Kosovo War to Cold War?
by Austin Bay
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Do you believe that the US needs President Bush's proposed 700-billion-dollar financial bailout plan?

The Kosovo War isn't over.

At the moment, Serbian ballots take precedence over bullets; democratic electoral politics are a blessing in Serbia and Kosovo, just like they are in Iraq.

But make no mistake: Sunday's first-round 2008 presidential vote in Serbia was another battle in the Kosovo War, and it will not be the last.

Tomislav Nikolic, a radical Serbian nationalist and "Euro-sceptic," finished ahead of current President Boris Tadic. Tadic is a Serb nationalist but prefers regional political moderation and (despite occasionally rabid campaign rhetoric) favors EU membership. The runoff is scheduled for Feb. 3.

Nikolic is the protege of Serbian Radical Party founder Vojislav Seselj, who is under indictment for war crimes committed during Yugoslavia's War of Devolution. Nikolic supports stationing Russian troops in Serbia to "bolster the Serbian position in seeking a solution to the Kosovo crisis and remove the potential NATO threat ... ."

Yes -- hot rhetoric intentionally laced with Cold War ice.

Tadic says his Serbia won't "fight senseless wars." He contends that sending Serb troops into Kosovo (an action Nikolic says he will consider) means the end of Serbia's moral claim to Kosovo and will lead to war with the European Union and NATO.

Kosovo's "final status" lies at the center of the Nikolic-Tadic contest. "Resolving Kosovo's final status" has been an intentionally vague diplomatic phrase for the process of determining if Kosovo will become a separate nation, remain part of Serbia or linger as a U.N.-EU-NATO protectorate.

Serbs, other Balkan Slavs and a few Greeks fear a fourth possibility: an independent Kosovo will encourage Albanian ethnic radicals who dream of Greater Albania. After taking Kosovo, irredentist Albanian zealots will demand slices of Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece's Epirus province and Serbia's Presevo Valley.

The murky diplomatic navigation of Kosovar Albanian demands, injured Serbian pride and Russian fears of a establishing a "separatist precedent" for spinning statelets from sovereign nations have divided NATO and the EU. Romania and Greece oppose a "unilateral" Kosovo independence. Spain, with its Basque separatists, isn't enthusiastic. Continued...
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About The Author

Austin Bay Austin Bay is author of three novels. His third novel, The Wrong Side of Brightness, was published by Putnam/Jove in June 2003. He has also co-authored four non-fiction books, to include A Quick and Dirty Guide to War: Third Edition (with James Dunnigan, Morrow, 1996).
 
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Reply # 1
Date: Jan 23, 2008 - 10:59 PM EST
Subject: Leilani writes:
"Seems no one wants to remember this ethnic cleansing war and how we jumped in to save the day. Iraq is another story however, I fear. We also still have troups in Korea and Germany. USA savior of the world and the world does not appreciate it one bit."

Really? Saddam murdered way more people than what occurred in Bosnia. What about gassing the Kurds? Wasn't that ethic cleansing? Actually your real objection is that the war in Iraq was started by a President with an (R) as his political party.
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Reply # 2
Date: Jan 23, 2008 - 7:36 PM EST
Leilanie

"Seems no one wants to remember this ethnic cleansing war and how we jumped in to save the day. Iraq is another story however, I fear. We also still have troups in Korea and Germany. USA savior of the world and the world does not appreciate it one bit."

Save the day? We fought a one-sided war with a country that has been, since World War Two, a supporter of the U.S.. How many times were Nato forces attacked by Serbian forces? Were any Nato forces killed by Serbs? What was the final agreement, after all the bombing, NATO managed to extract from Yugoslavia? As for ethnic cleansing, guess who else was being forced from their homes. There are still hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia and the surrounding areas after being driven from their homes. Google up how many attacks, rapes and murders were inflicted against Kosovar Serbs by the ethnic Albanian KLA. See how the KLA treated moderate Albanians who sought a fair solution to the Kosovo problem. You can't ask them because most of them are dead, murdered at the hands of the KLA.

In truth, there are no clean hands here, but to blame the Serbs for all the troubles of the ethnic Albanians and to hold them blameless is ridiculous.
Now check the facts again and not the rhetoric. Check the U.N. figures and ask yourself who is lying.

I suppose most would think that I am Serbian or perhaps married to a Serb. I am an American, a Hispanic with no family connection to Serbia or the former Yugoslavian republic. I simply saw a wrong being committed. I saw that an organization that was created for defensive purposes had been corrupted into acting as an offensive force against another sovereign country who was not warring against us. If you feel this attack was so justified ask yourself why Nato wasn't used in Rwanda. The whole Kosovo situation was one man's war and nobody seems to care.
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