Nothing would serve the Islamic cause more effectively than a military confrontation between the West and Russia, and Russia has said that any breach on the NATO mandate on Kosovo would provoke an armed response.
Hitler was determined that the battle for Stalingrad be "won" at all costs, even though its strategic value was negligible at best. That gave the Russians the opportunity they needed.
The Russians did not pour troops into the defense of Stalingrad; they only sent what was absolutely necessary to prevent its total collapse. That way they ensured that the German forces would stay committed to a lost cause.
Tying the Germans down in a battle that had no strategic advantage for either side suited the Russians.
While the Germans fought house to house, street to street, to "win" in Stalingrad, the Russians built up their forces for a devastating counter-attack which saw hundreds of thousands German forces (and their then allies) destroyed and taken prisoner.
Now please, before the knee-jerk reaction condemns in any way comparing the Germans to the United States, I am comparing here military strategy, not ideology.
That said, let’s see where the Bush Administration has led us in the War on Terror.
When Bush initiated his War on Terror, he said that there would be no hiding place, no "safe-haven," for those intent on doing us harm. This would not be another Vietnam.
But has he been true to his word?
I shall start in Iraq. Without going into the fact that the justification for the War in Iraq was, as I predicted in my article "The Unspoken Case for War in Iraq," built on quicksand, once Bush found himself embroiled in that war, he found excuses for being there in the first place. Apart from the fact that he seemed to have a sudden attack of conscience for the plight of the Iraqis under Saddam, he discovered that Jihadis had flocked to Iraq to defend Islamic soil. Some were no doubt al Qaeda, and indeed their presence grew rapidly (many from Saudi Arabia).
Thus, according to Bush, Iraq had become the central battleground in the War on Terror. To back up such a ridiculous claim, Osama bin Laden provided Bush with the "evidence" to prove that his assessment was correct – videos and tapes from bin Laden and his henchmen confirmed this. American intelligence even "intercepted" communications from bin Laden to Islamic fighters in Iraq confirming Bush’s assessment. Even more telling were communications from Islamic fighters in Iraq to bin Laden expressing their fears that without further forces they were unlikely to succeed in driving the United States out of Iraq. What more proof do we need??
Regrettably, it simply does not seem to have occurred to Bush that perhaps that is exactly what bin Laden wanted us to think. As long as he could tie American forces down in Iraq, and lots of them, he would be free to regroup and retrain in Pakistan, and make progress in regaining territory in Afghanistan.
And that is precisely what has happened.
As I reported in my article "Obama vs. McCain" (apologies for mentioning McCain again), even the Director on National Intelligence (DNI), Mike McConnell, has admitted that al Qaeda and the Taliban have established a “de facto safe haven” straddling the Pakistan and Afghanistan border.
And we are still embroiled in arbitrating between the various factions in Iraq on who gets what, and trying to suppress al Qaeda as it moves from one area to another to keep our forces tied down.
And then we have Muqtada al-Sadr (or whatever his name is). We are so pleased that he has extended his ceasefire for another 6 months. Of course he has. He knows it is only a matter of time before the United States leaves, then he can unleash his forces in what he sees as the most important conflict to come. If the United States does not leave after, or soon after, the general election in the United States, don’t expect Sadr to maintain his ceasefire.
So the summation of the War on Terror to date is that we have become "determined to win" a battle that really has no strategic value, while the Islamic forces have regrouped and retrained in what the DNI calls their “de facto safe haven” in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Now if the bankruptcy of our strategy for the War on Terror ended there, I’d say that all is not yet lost. But that is not the case. We have now fallen for what I expect may well go down as one of the greatest military and foreign policy blunders the United States has even made.
In the midst of this War on Terror we have somehow managed to provoke a confrontation that could spell the end of Western Civilization as we know it. And I have no doubt that we have provoked that confrontation on the urging and advice of our Islamic "friends."
Nothing could serve the Islamic cause more effectively than a military confrontation between the West and Russia. The United States would not be suffering military casualties of 4,000 over six years, but thousands per day.
Of course, military "experts" claim that Russia is not capable of confronting the West. That was also the assessment of Hitler’s ‘experts’, and Napoleon before them, and Britain before him. Russia is the graveyard of political and military miscalculations.
For the last sixty years Russia has been at pains to avoid conflict in Europe, or indeed any direct conflict with the United States. Even in Cuba, Russian pragmatism prevailed. Even when the Soviet Union was falling apart, Russian pragmatism prevented what many other states may have done (including the United States, I expect) – lash out.
So how on earth have we managed to provoke Russia into openly threatening armed conflict with the West?
Because the idiots sitting in power in the West have succumbed to appeasement, and in doing so, crossed a line that anyone with even the remotest understanding of the Balkans, and Russia’s commitment to that region, should have known is a line that cannot be crossed.
But so eager have we become to appease Islamic sentiment that we have disregarded the far greater danger, and succumbed to what we expected would be another Russian roll-over in order to ingratiate ourselves with Islam.
Now that Kosovo is a de facto Islamic state which, I wholly expect, will do the bidding of its Islamic masters, the initiation of a catastrophic conflict between the West and Russia lies in the hands of the very people we were supposed to be fighting in the War on Terror.
Russia has said that any breach on the NATO mandate of Kosovo would provoke an armed response by Russia. And it now lies in the hands of the Islamic forces to provoke a confrontation with Serbia which would result in precisely such a breach of the NATO mandate.
We have handed the Islamic forces a "casting vote" on whether the West goes to war with Russia – and we should be under no doubt that they will cast their vote.
Many analysts claim that Russia would not risk a conflict with the West over Kosovo. But the question should be put the other way round: why on earth is the West prepared to see what will be the certain destruction and incineration of most of its people and territory to appease a bunch of Islamic terrorists and criminals in Kosovo?
Russia has historical interests in the area which it deems its honor and security compel it to defend. We do not, other than resisting Islamic expansion into Europe. Our interests, as such, coincide.
The answer to this insanity that has gripped the United States (and some Western countries), I expect, lies in "advice" Bush receives from the likes of Prince Bandar and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. I expect that they have advised him that supporting Kosovo’s independence would give him credibility with the Islamic masses, and "help" in his War on Terror.
The images of Bandar lecturing Bush in the Oval Office after 9/11, and King Abdullah boasting about having given Bush a “history lesson” at the ranch in Crawford, turn my stomach. I just wonder what lectures and lessons they have rendered Bush in order to entice him to provoke a possible conflict with Russia?
If the Islamic deception succeeds in Kosovo, and does provoke a conflict between the West and Russia, the only beneficiary will be Islam. It will herald a new Islamic World Order.
And it won’t be the first time that the Balkans has had such a pivotal role in world events. It will, however, be a shame that we have learned nothing from history! Although “shame” may prove to be a grossly inadequate description of what may transpire as a result of our appeasement of Islamic demands.
jbhmcmillan@escapingbooks.com
http://www.freedomvrights.com
Read more articles by Joseph BH McMillan
Aww heck, go into Kosovo, those innocent muslims just want their own state in Europe. They mean no more harm than the Mexicans do when they say they want the U.S. Southwest back. Our very own El Presidente has told us the islam and its people are some of the world's most peaceful and greatest allies we could ever have.
Comment by Dean | March 3, 2008
Very insightful!
Today, with the connivance of the U.S. both Democratic and Republican leadership, under the auspices of NATO and the EU, the Muslims have stolen another piece of land for Dar ul Islam.
It is a high crime — an atrocity — and the Serbs, after centuries of victimhood, are fully within their rights to fight, brutally if necessary, to repel this Jihad. Kosovo is part of the internationally recognized borders of a non-Muslim state known as "Serbia". Just because Muslims have been successful in making life so difficult and dangerous for non-Muslims that they have been forced to flee does not and should never mean that the Muslims are then be rewarded.
But that is what has been done today in recognizing the freshly minted Islamic Nation of Kosovo. Most Western observers would be amazed to learn that this is simply another manifestation of Islam's ongoing murderous campaign to rule the world — many would consider this preposterous.
But what will the answer be when Muslims, in a manner exactly similar they've conducted themselves in Kosovo, demand and establish new Muslim nations in Lebanon, Philippines, Thailand, Chechnya, Paris, London, and Berlin? What will the answer then be from the insane and bankrupt Westerner leaders who've allowed their minds and the interest of their nations to be so thoroughly corrupted by Arab and Saudi billions?
The world will rue the day we didn't stop the Muslims dead in their tracks in the Balkans. This is only part of the long prologue of the ongoing Jihad to rule the world, one region, one neighborhood at a time. It is all Jihad.
Comment by Dissident | March 3, 2008
With all due respect, Mr. McMillan, you are grossly misinformed about the issue of Kosovo; no doubt about it. Your claim that Kosovo is somewhat a new Islamic state in Europe is very misleading. As a Kosovan-Albanian, who has lived through the horrors of the Serbian regime in Kosovo and has encountered the paramilitary forces of Arkan, I will always be indebted to the United Freedom Loving States of America for saving my life and my family as well. Hundreds of thousands of families throughout Kosovo feel the same way.
Any American who has visited Kosovo or Albania knows that people, Albanians in particular, in both countries are very secular people, but portraying them as Islamic-fascists is just a mistake in your part. Personally, having read many books about religion as a whole, including particular books about Islam, I have reached a conclusion that some religions are not peaceful at all, and my grant-grandparents who were Christians would know better than I do because they were forced (taxed) by the Ottoman Empire to the point of changing their religion.
do you really think the USA, GB, Italy, France, Germany, Austrialia, Ireland, and other western countries are crazy enough to support Kosovo if your claim about Kosovo is true? No, they wouldn't support at all, but because your cliam is invalid (untrue), they do and will support Kosovo in the future.
Comment by Dardan | March 3, 2008
Not an Islamic state? How you describe then burning and ripping of the crosses on the Christian churches by the citizens of virtual state of Kosovo?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkgHkxIfgBc
Grossly misinformed are only those who have not seen this.
Comment by danc | March 4, 2008
Remember the foiled terrorist attack against soldiers in Fort Dix, NJ? The NY Times and the rest of the MSM are probably counting on the fact that you don’t. Six radical Muslim jihadists planned to kill as many soldiers as possible at Fort Dix. Four of the six men were ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
One of the suspects said he knew the base like the back of his hand and it would be easy for them to “get the most soldiers killed”. After the NATO bombing in 1999, the Clinton administration brought all the ethnic Albanian refugees to Fort Dix. They were issued refugee status, immediately received green cards and were eligible to apply for citizenship in one year.
Investigators said that part of their planning was captured on tape. "Who is going to take care of my wife and kids?" one suspect asked. "Allah will take care of your wife and kids,” another suspect responded. Investigators described them as disciples of Osama Bin Laden.
Agron Abdullahu, an ethnic Albanian who was here “legally” and stands accused of arming the Fort Dix suspects, carved two things in his prison cell: the initials of the KLA and a drawing of a machine gun firing on the word “FBI”. Another Albanian suspect, Eljvir Duka, wrote a note passed to another inmate stating “Now you see why we are going to sacrifice all for the sake of Allah in jihad”.
The Clinton Administration fully supported the jihad in Kosovo, which was supported, financed and co-opted by Al Qaeda. After the war, the U.S. welcomed the members of KLA and others to enter the country with few questions asked.
Kosovo’s new Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, was the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They financed their war effort through one of the largest heroin smuggling operations in the world and were trained in terrorist camps run by Osama bin Laden according to intelligence reports. Members of the Mujahideen were smuggled into Kosovo to join the fighting. The U.S. State Department once classified the KLA as a terrorist organization, bankrolled by Osama Bin Laden, which used terrorist tactics against Serbian and ethnic Albanian civilians. Now the U.S. State Department advocates recognition of their unilateral declaration of independence.
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has governed Kosovo since 1999. Kosovo has all the makings of a bankrupt, corrupt, failed regime. Unemployment in Kosovo ranges from 50% to 70%. 60% of its trade is dependent on Serbia, which is not a friendly partner at this point. In November, the European Commission concluded that corruption is still widespread and remains a major problem. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has been involved in the drug trade, the sex trade and arms trade in Europe. There is also a huge backlog of war crimes cases.
Under UNMIK authority in Kosovo over 150 churches, many dating back to the 13th century, have been destroyed in Kosovo. At the same time, more than 300 Wahhabi mosques have been built, funded by nations such as Saudi Arabia. You can watch video of one desecration here. These are not isolated incidents - the church desecration continues as part of the political strategy of the ethnic Albanians.
UNMIK efforts to suppress the Christian persecution in Kosovo have been a "complete failure," according to former diplomats. Over 200,000 Serbians have been expelled from Kosovo under UNMIK’s watch. Ethnic Albanians have committed over 7000 hate crimes, 581 Serbs have been killed (104 other minorities), 841 have been kidnapped and 960 wounded. 18,000 homes have been destroyed and 27,000 homes have been taken by ethnic Albanians. Mass graves of Serbs killed by Albanians were still being uncovered as late as 2005. Rewarding this kind of violence with full independence will only stoke the flames of ethnic separatism all over the world.
Comment by land of de free | March 4, 2008
Response to comment by Dardan :
I have read tyour comment and now that I have stopped laughing, I can now respond. Let me start by saying that I have been in Kosovo for 5 years now and am an American citizen. You say several times of how the Albanians are such peace loving people and how much they love Americans, that is the biggest farce I have ever read. The Albanians are uneducated, manipulating thieves and would sell their own mother for a euro. They destroy their own communities by polluting the rivers and streams and dumping their trash anywhere they wish. You can travel miles along streams and not go more then 1 foot without finding trash or plastic bottles converging in piles along the rocks and creek beds. They burn plastics and tires as though it was wood and pollute the air so devastatingly bad, that there is a constant haze floating around the country almost year round. As far as loving Americans, they love our money and nothing else. I have been overcharged for everything I have purchased in the past five years. They will give Russian and Serbian citizens a much lower price on an item because they feel they are not "rich" like Americans and I have proven this theory numerous times throughout every shopping market in Kosovo.
They speak so much of how they love Americans to your face, but as soon as you walk away, they spit on the ground as to get the nice things they just said out of their mouths. As far as Muslim, that is the biggest joke. The Albanians are as much Muslim as I am. No one ever attends mosque or prays and when the hoja cries out from the mosque tower, they turn their radios up as to drown out the sound. They only claim to be Muslim as one more way to manipulate western countries into feeling sorry for them.
Ask any of them of the March 2004 atrocities as where several hundred Serbian churches and homes were burnt to the ground by Albanians and none seem to remember that occurrence, but ask about 98-99 and they can tell you of all the horrible things the Serbian army did to "their" people.
The Albanians will and have lied about anything as to make them look like poor little helpless people, but don't be fooled, the UCK, hailed in Kosovo as the Albanian freedom fighters, killed more Albanian people then the actual Serbian army did. Anyone the UCK thought to be collaborators or friends of Serbia or even just people they didn't like, where killed and buried in shallow graves to say that the Serbians did this. Fatmir Ahmeti, an ex-UCK member has written a book about the UCK murders, but for some crazy reason, noone wishes to publish it with all of the western world backing the so called poor Albanians. One Albanian man even told to me, " I have six sons and my Serbian neighbor has two, I will gladly sacrifice two of my sons to kill his just so they do not breed more Serbs.
That is how you win a war, you out populate the enemy and take over." That is the peaceful mentality of the Albanians in Kosovo.
Thankfully after nearly 20 years of relentless anti-Serb propaganda and slander, the truth is emerging. Maybe it is the increasing numbers of visitors to Serbia, maybe it is the power of the internet, maybe the Iraq was has made people question received wisdom and reject the media's Manichean anti-Serb narrative. But I can assure you of one thing Dardan and likes of yours. There are plenty more where I came from. The ranks of Pro-Serbian westerners like me swelling fast. It is going to get harder, and eventually impossible for people like you to write filth like Dardan's comment without being righted and outed as bigots by us.
Your time is over Serb-haters, the truth is coming out, and it is against you
"do you really think the USA, GB, Italy, France, Germany, Austrialia, Ireland, and other western countries are crazy enough to support Kosovo if your claim about Kosovo is true? No, they wouldn’t support at all, but because your cliam is invalid (untrue), they do and will support Kosovo in the future."
I honestly believe that all the intense hatred displayed at the Serbs stems directly from their refusal to take orders from the Empires of history. All the other members of the former Yugoslavia only wish they had that kind of fortitude.The Albanians have been totally opportunistic and obedient to whatever great power has wielded influence over the Balkans and have absolutely no historical record of principled behavior whatsoever.
Even their newly found “secularism” in Kosovo is a convenient placation of the neo-marxist Eurocrats who frown on faith.
Maybe in my next response I will talk about the drug problem and human trafficking that is going on in Kosovo. If you feel that in just 5 years of records that, 1,500 kilos of heroine, 11,000 kilos of cocaine and 15,000 kilos of Marijuana is a petty amount, then I say to you, denial is not only a river in Egypt.
p.s.Remember the NATO Jamie Shea’s outrageous press conferences at the time? Tony Blair’s statements of “100,000 Albanians dead or missing”? And…if the Serbs are that bad, how come there is now 90% of Albanians and 10% of Serbs in Kosovo?
Comment by factfinder | March 4, 2008
The conflict between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo was not religious just as the conflict between Croats - mostly Christians - and Serbs was not religious. However, the conflict had ethnic and historical character. And most of you, I bet, know it.
Factfinder, you might have laugh at my early comment, but based upon your comment, it is clearly the case that you haven’t understood the essence of my post. Please, I encourage you to read it again. In fact, if you read it again, you will find out that nowhere in my early post I have stated or implied that Albanians are peace-loving people; I just haven’t stated whether they are or aren’t, and yet, you put words in my mouth. It is ridiculous! The claim that I made is even confirmed by you as being true. The religion of Albanians is Albanianism.
You said the following: “The Albanians are uneducated, manipulating thieves and would sell their own mother for a euro.” Again, your broad generalization should be ignored, for those who employ the faculty of reasoning know that your hasty generalization is a fallacy. Now, I am really wondering how many of similar statement are present in your post?!!!
John Walker Lindh is an American citizen, but he has been wrong and supported the enemy of freedom. For me, American is an idea, an idea that represents freedom and liberty. I consider myself as much American as you do, perhaps even more because while you have, I suppose, never lived under a tyranny, I have, and thus I value liberty more than anything else. Hence, I consider myself a true American, an American that was envisioned by Thomas Jefferson.
Sir, you can find uneducated people even in America. Of those who graduate from high school, how many of them attend a college in the United States? How many students drop out of high school?!! As for me, before I even graduated from high school (basement schools because the Serbian government closed all the schools for Albanians), I mastered elementary and multi-variable calculus and also learned English. My point is that under-education is an issue not only in Kosovo but in many other parts of developed world, and in any community out there, there are many educated people. Also, almost all developing countries, from Brazil to China, face major pollution problems, and so does Kosovo.
A little tip for you, factfinder: in many places in the Balkans, you should never buy a good based upon the initial price that is offered to you, regardless whether you are American, Albanian, Serbian, German, or whatever. You ask for a lower price and make a deal with the buyer even for “invaluable” goods. Locals do the same thing, trust me.
The Kosovo Liberation Army was a guerrilla movement similar in nature to the Continental Army in its beginnings. It was not helped militarily or financially by any terrorist organization, and no evidence for such claims exists except from the Serbian propaganda. The movement was mostly financed by the large Kosovar Diaspora Its military commander, Agim Ceku, who until recently was the Prime Minister of Kosovo, was also a general in the Croatian Army. Croats trusted Kosovan-Albanians such as Agim Ceku to lead them. Your claim that the KLA killed more Albanians than the Serbian government doesn’t deserve a responds. Check out the following link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/1779867.stm
It shows how the Serbian government tried to protect the KLA by hiding the crimes that the KLA “committed” against Albanians. Yeah, of course!
Factfinder, after reading your post a couple of times, I have doubts about your claim of being an American who has lived in Kosovo for five long years, not that it matters though.
land of de free, the Duka borthers, who I hope will rotten in jail, came to America in 1986 from Macedonia, and since then, they haven’t gone back, and they better no go if they ever be released because they would be killed by other Albanians over there. They came when they were very young (6-9 years old), and clearly their case is of homegrown-cells.
factfinder, your last question doesn’t make sense because you know that Serbia lost the war and people who were expelled from Kosovo returned back while most Serbs left Kosovo because they were afraid of revenge by the ethnic Albanians who found their livestock killed, their property destroyed, and some family members burned or missing.
What was the stance of the Serbian Orthodox Church towards Albanians in Kosovo? Did you know that for 500 years and until the beginning of 20th century, those churches were guarded and protected by the Albanians? Just read, “Kosovo: A Short History” by Noel Malcolm.
I am proud to state the fact that Albanians are one of the most pro-American nations in the world, and a strong ally in its war on terror.
Comment by Dardan | March 4, 2008
Dardan I see you as granted that the Serbs somehow mistreated the Albanians as some second-class citizens. May I add that you also fail to mention the other major reason why the Albanians became the dominant demographic. In WWII the Albanians sided with the Germans and were willing actors in the genocide and ethnic cleansing that followed. That is when the demographics in kosovo initially changed. The Albanians were eventually given unparalleled autonomy and vast amounts of development funds for decades. But they squandered it all with their egregiously high birth rates. While at the same time continuing their acts of ethnic cleansing through a number of means, including everything from rape and murder, to arson, and well poisoning. (check western souces, like NYT, from the 80s). They had more rights than any minority people in the world (read the actual constitution and readers can see for themselves).
Moreover, I invade readers to to check how Ethnic Albanian unrest was based on beliefs and instigation: some ethnic Albanians wanted to recreate the World War II entity, Greater Albania and wanted Kosovo to be Serb-and-"Gypsy"-free. In this sense their attitude had much in common with some whites in the segregationist south. Many news articles during the 1980s report that it was Serbs, not Albanians, who were oppressed in pre-1989 Kosovo.
On this site fair-minded people can find many news articles and judge for themselves.
Back then Albanians of Kosovo have not really been suppressed by anyone- in fact as a majority they were very much running the province themselves.
1. Wash. Post, April 3, 1981; Yugoslavs Take Emergency Steps In Face of Ethnic Disturbance
2. The Economist, April 11, 1981; Yugoslavia; Home-grown Bother
3. NY Times, April 19, 1981; One Storm Passed, Others Gathering in Yugoslavia
4. Christian Science Monitor (CSM); May 7, 1981; Kosovo sparking a Yugoslav purge?
5. AP; Oct. 23, 1981; Minorities Leaving Yugoslav Province Dominated by Albanians
6. CSM, Dec. 16, 1981; Why turbulent Kosovo has marble sidewalks but troubled industries
7. Financial Times, Feb. 5, 1982; Police fail to crush resistance in Kosovo
8. Financial Times, June 1, 1982; Kosovo riots jolt the regions
9. NY Times, July 12, 1982; Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia
10. Facts on File World News Digest; September 10, 1982; Serbs in Kosovo Exodus
11. NY Times; Nov. 9, 1982; Yugoslavs seek to quell strife in Region of Ethnic Albanians
12. BBC World; May 4, 1985; Serbian Presidency discusses emigration from Kosovo
13. The Economist; Nov. 9, 1985; Yugoslavia; Is fair unfair?
14. NY Times, April 28, 1986; In One Yugoslav Province Serbs Fear the Ethnic Albanians
15. Reuters; May 27, 1986, Kosovo Province Revives Yugoslavia's Ethnic Nightmare
16. Sen. Robert Dole; June 18, 1986; Senate Resolution Nr. 150
17. NY Times; July 27, 1986, Minorities are Uneasy in Yugoslavian Province
18. CSM; July 28, 1986; Tensions among ethnic groups in Yugoslavia begin to boil over
19. BBC; Nov. 10, 1986; Group of Citizens from Kosovo Received in SFRY Assembly
20. Wash. Post; Nov. 29, 1986; Ethnic Rivalries Cause Unrest in Yugoslav Region
21. Reuters; April 25, 1987, Serb Demonstrations Add to Yugoslavia's Economic Woes
22. NY Times; June 28, 1987; Belgrade Battles Kosovo Serbs
23. Reuters; August 16, 1987, Serbs & Montenegrans Rally Against Alleged Albanian Attacks
24. Xinhua; Oct. 17, 1987; Thousands of women demonstrate in Kosovo, Yugoslavia
25. AP, Oct. 21, 1987; Serb, Montenegrin Pupils Boycott Classes in Kosovo
26. Xinhua; Oct. 26, 1987; Federal police sent to troubled Kosovo, Yugoslavia
27. NY Times; Nov. 1, 1987; In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
28. CSM; March 11, 1988; Yugoslav groups struggle for same land
29. Reuters; July 30, 1988; Yugoslav Leaders Call for Control in Kosovo; Protests Loom
30. NY Times; Sept. 23, 1988; 70,000 Serbs Vent Anger at Officials
31. Wash. Post; Oct. 7, 1988; Serb Protesters Oust Yugoslavian Province Officials
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/benworks/1980news.html#BM1
Independence for Kosovo Now? Naah, not convincing enough. Only if If human trafficking, corruption and drug running were prerequisites for deserving independence Kosovo would satisfy such criteria hands down.
Kosovo's provisional government (PISG) has had eight years to show that it is mature enough to lead all citizens of Kosovo into the future, but it has miserably failed. Eight years after NATO'S Bombing campaign and four years after the massive orchestrated Ethnic Cleansing campaign against Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens in March 2004, there still is no assurance that all the citizens of Kosovo can live in peace, with security, with freedom of movement and with full participation in all the fruits of society. On the contrary, today in the capital Pristina, which had a pre war Serb population of 40000, not one single Serb resides in the capital. Can it be that all of these citizens were war criminals? Can it be that grandmothers and children were war criminals deserving retribution? However, in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, 110000 Albanians live comfortably and safely! Throughout all of Kosovo 200000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed , another 100000 Roma have been ethnically cleansed, thousands of other minorities citizens (Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jews) have been ethnically cleansed, the majority of which have sought refuge in Serbia Proper! Why is that? Kosovo says its ready for Independence, but why cant it guarantee the safety of these refugee citizens? It has been eight long years! Hardly any refugee citizens have been able to return, even though NATO is there to protect them. 1000 Serbs and Roma citizens have been murdered, another 1000 are still missing. How many Albanian citizens of Kosovo have been murdered in the same amount of time relative to their demographic proportion of society? 150 UNESCO recognized Christian Churches and Shrines have been destroyed by the majority Albanian citizens. None have been rebuilt even though the Kosovo government (PISG) has explicitly agreed to this task. Not one in eight years? But, yet Kosovo is ready for Independence? Tens of thousands of minority owned properties have been illegally occupied and appropriated by the majority Albanian citizens with no prospect of return to the rightful owners. Yet Kosovo society is ready for Independence? Tens of thousands of hectare/acres of Serbia Orthodox Christian Church owned land has been illegally appropriated with no prospect of return. Yet Kosovo is ready for independence? Kosovo suffers the highest unemployment rate in Europe, some estimates as high as 70%. But yet Kosovo is ready for Independence? Rampant crime and the center of European Heroin and Human Trafficking trade. Yet ready for independence?
After all that, the US fell for the old con trick that Muslims always use while Jihading ie siezing the lands of Infidels - pretending to be victims. Many MSM TV reports of that conflict are highly questionable - the market bombing, the cemetery bombing, the so called concentration camps. It is unfortunate that the internet was not as powerful as it these days, so that "atrocities" such as NATO led the "bombing" of the ambulances,bridges,civilians can be exposed for the frauds they are.
Serbs have been the victim of ethnic cleansing to such an extent, that in less then 100 years, their number in Kosovo has fallen from 90% to less the 10%.I honestly believe that all the intense hatred displayed at the Serbs stems directly from their refusal to take orders from the Empires of history. All the other members of the former Yugoslavia only wish they had that kind of fortitude.
"…Albanians are one of the most pro-American nations in the world…" We have seen the gratitude of "Ethnic Albanians" (PC Speak for Muslims) as evidenced by the Fort Dix Six.
Here are links to the real story:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/019030.php
You claim …" churches were guarded and protected by the Albanians?", you mean like this ?
"Kosovo: Church of Christ the Savior in Pristina turned into public toilet"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/001636.php
See for yourself (while a handful still remain, that is)the destruction of centuries old churches, some from 7th to the 13th century, being replaced with Mosques. Anything that remains of Christian influence is being systematically destroyed.
"Persecution of Kosovo Christians Said to Reveal Larger Threat" by By Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/August 15, 2005
and there many many more news articles, just type in google Christian Persecution in Kosovo You won’t see this on the nightly news. Bush and the EU ignore this at their peril.
As for your source Noel Malcom, I seriouslt question his fairness and I am not the only one who has questioned Malcolm's fairness. The Economist (March 21, 1998) points out that Malcolm is "driven by true passion" and reproaches him for "his desire to bash the Serbs," while Mark Mazower in the Times Literary Supplement (August 7, 1998) writes that Miranda Vickers' Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo "offers a more balanced approach than Malcolm's book," which is "a brilliantly skillful case for the Albanian prosecution."
Noel Malcolm has begun his studies of South-East Europe recently, at the time when the process of disintegration of the Yugoslav state was beginning. So he very rapidly became an expert in the history of the "regions going through a crisis" and of "unstable regions". He has produced a short history of Bosnia, to be followed by this one of Kosovo, so that he can be expected to manufacture "a short history" of Dagestan or Chechnya tomorrow. He resembles a little, in everything, a "holy warrior" brandishing a pen in his hand. With his "history" of the regions with which he deals he caters to the demands of the political moment. In this particular case, to the demands of the Great Albanian project and NATO political plans in South-Eastern Europe.
Comment by titanium | March 5, 2008
Dear "Dardan" I would like you to tell me where exactly you have finished high school in Kosovo and when. You see, I am wondering how you missed the Serbian enclaves, the places where 1000 year old monasteries were not just burned down, but the the foundation stones ripped out to symbolise total removal. How did you miss the daily attack on Serbs huddled in their NATO guarded enclaves? How did you miss the abductions, the arms deals in the cafes, the trafficked women? So tell us "Dardan", where exactly were you? You see I think you misguided because I have never met anyone who has been to Kosovo who has not returned horrified by the plight of non-Albanian minorities there.
Seems like the anti-International law promoters of ethnic secesionism are running out of rational arguments and continuing to spin to vouch for their view with the old simplified Serb "evil" anyone else "saints" to justify their illegal arguments. It does not wash anymore and does little to cover up for the lack of legality and the precedence it would set if it does at all happen.
Claiming while being part of Yugoslavia Kosovar Albanians have their right taken away and supressed are "false grievances" on the basis that they were violently abusing non-Albanians when they had broad autonomy. That's a point you and everyone else seems to be missing! Their secessionism didn't begin because of Milosevic or anything someone else did. It began decades before. I gave a context to it. They assisted the Germans and Bulgarians in WWI. They assisted the Nazis and Italians in WWII. Both times they perpetrated extensive atrocities over Serbs (and Jews and Roma in WWII).
The 1974 Yugoslav constitution granted them broad autonomy. Kosovo police was mostly Albanian. Schools were in the Albanian language. The University of Pristina used Albanian as the working language (also Serbian). Newspapers were in Albanian. Courts had interpretation for Albanians who didn't know Serbian (very many of them). Nobody prevented them from building as many mosques as they liked. (In contrast, Tito placed restrictions on the construction and repair of both Orthodox and Catholic churches throughout Yugoslavia. Apparently Islam was not an opiate of the masses.) Kosovo had it's own supreme court, academy of arts and sciences, legislature, and all the other trappings of a state. They had one of the eight votes on the Yugoslav presidency (the others were Serbia, Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro) They had the power to veto any and every Serbian law but Serbia could not veto a single Kosovo law! The exact same situation existed in Vojvodina, which is 2/3 Serbian and 1/3 other ethnic minorities. In short, Albanians in Kosovo had everything but a republic. In the early 1980s, not only were they oppressing and abusing non-Albanians out of the province, they were violently protesting for a Kosovo Republic, precisely so they could "legally" secede when Slovenia and the others did.
They pulled their children out of the state schools (which used Albanian as the working language in most of Kosovo) in the 1980s, WAY BEFORE Milosevic came to power and revoked autonomy, and founded their own parallel institutions, in which they used nationalist-revisionist textbooks shipped in from Albania going on and on about the great Illyrian forefathers of the Albanians. Enver Hoxha in Albania fed the Albanians these lies about their Illyrian origins and how this entitled them to rule everything from Sophia in Bulgaria to Dures and from Podgorica in Montenegro to northern Greece.
Albanian secessionism has nothing to do with "ill treatment" and everything to do with their rabid nationalism which won't stop until everything that was allegedly part of ancient Illyria is turned into pure Albanian land.
I'm not even going to discuss the Serbian military response. I admitted that there were atrocities by renegades and generally a harsh response to the KLA terrorists. That is neither here nor there. It's just smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the real issue here. Albanians were violent nationalists back in the 1980s, when they had full autonomy and conducted violence over the Serbs and other ethnic groups. Milosevic revoked autonomy but did not abuse their rights as they falsely claimed. Schools and university lectures were still in Albanian, as were publications, road signs, etc. Nobody was fired from his job because he was an Albanian. Children were not expelled from schools because they were Albanian. These are total lies of the Albanian propagandists. They already had parallel schools in the 1980s before Milosevic even came to power, much less revoked autonomy. Milosevic took away their legislature, supreme court, academy of arts and sciences, and their right to veto Serbian laws. He also put the police under the command of the central authorities in Belgrade, but the police and all other state institutions continued to employ Albanians. The same changes occurred in Vojvodina. This was hardly apartheid (as Albanians call it), and the 20-odd ethnic groups in Vojvodina didn't start armed secession and terrorism over the Serbs - not the Hungarians, Czechs, Romanians, Slovaks, Rusyns, Croats, or anybody else.
This article is about Kosovo in 1987, two years before Milosevic took away autonomy:
Quote:
"In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife
Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict"
By David Binder (Special to the N.Y.Times)
——————————————————————————–
The New York Times, November 1, 1987, Late City Final Edition (p.14)
——————————————————————————–
Belgrade, Yugoslavia:
Portions of southern Yugoslavia have reached such a state of ethnic friction that Yugoslavs have begun to talk of the horrifying possibility of "civil war" in a land that lost one-tenth of its population, or 1.7 million people, in World War II.
The current hostilities pit separatist-minded ethnic Albanians against the various Slavic populations of Yugoslavia and occur at all levels of society, from the highest officials to the humblest peasants.
A young Army conscript of ethnic Albanian origin shot up his barracks, killing four sleeping Slavic bunkmates and wounding six others. The army says it has uncovered hundreds of subversive ethnic Albanian cells in its ranks. Some arsenals have been raided.
Vicious Insults
Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. And politicians have exchanged vicious insults.
Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls.
Ethnic Albanians comprise the fastest growing nationality in Yugoslavia and are expected soon to become its third largest, after the Serbs and Croats.
Radicals' Goals
The goal of the radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an "ethnic Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself." That includes large chunks of the republics that make up the southern half of Yugoslavia.
Other ethnic Albanian separatists admit to a vision of a greater Albania governed from Pristina in southern Yugoslavia rather than Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania.
There is no evidence that the hard-line Communist Government in Tirana is giving them material assistance.
The principal battleground is the region called Kosovo,a high plateau ringed by mountains that is somewhat smaller than New Jersey. Ethnic Albanians there make up 85 percent of the population of 1.7 million. The rest are Serbians and Montenegrins.
Worst Strife in Years
As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an "ethnically pure" Albanian region, a "Republic of Kosovo" in all but name.
The violence, a journalist in Kosovo said, is escalating to "the worst in the last seven years."
Many Yugoslavs blame the troubles on the ethnic Albanians, but the matter is more complex in a country with as many nationalities and religions as Yugoslavia's and involves economic development, law, politics, families and flags. As recently as 20 years ago, the Slavic majority treated ethnic Albanians as inferiors to be employed as hewers of wood and carriers of heating coal. The ethnic Albanians, who now number 2 million, were officially deemed a minority, not a constituent nationality, as they are today.
Were the ethnic tensions restricted to Kosovo, Yugoslavia's problems with its Albanian nationals might be more manageable. But some Yugoslavs and some ethnic Albanians believe the struggle has spread far beyond Kosovo. Macedonia, a republic to the south with a population of 1.8 million, has a restive ethnic Albanian minority of 350,000.
"We've already lost western Macedonia to the Albanians," said a member of the Yugoslav party presidium, explaining that the ethnic minority had driven the Slavic Macedonians out of the region.
Attacks on Slavs
Last summer, the authorities in Kosovo said they documented 40 ethnic Albanian attacks on Slavs in two months.In the last two years, 320 ethnic Albanians have been sentenced for political crimes, nearly half of them characterized as severe.
In one incident, Fadil Hoxha, once the leading politician of ethnic Albanian origin in Yugoslavia, joked at an official dinner in Prizren last year that Serbian women should be used to satisfy potential ethnic Albanian rapists. After his quip was reported this October, Serbian women in Kosovo protested, and Mr. Hoxha was dismissed from the Communist Party.
As a precaution, the central authorities dispatched 380 riot police officers to the Kosovo region for the first time in four years.
Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia, which consists of six republics and two provinces.
'Lebanonizing' of Yugoslavia
High-ranking officials have spoken of the "Lebanonizing" of their country and have compared its troubles to the strife in Northern Ireland.
Borislav Jovic, a member of the Serbian party's presidency, spoke in an interview of the prospect of "two Albanias, one north and one south, like divided Germany or Korea," and of "practically the breakup of Yugoslavia." He added: "Time is working against us."
The federal Secretary for National Defense, Fleet Adm. Branko Mamula, told the army's party organization in September of efforts by ethnic Albanians to subvert the armed forces. "Between 1981 and 1987 a total of 216 illegal organizations with 1,435 members of Albanian nationality were discovered in the Yugoslav People's Army," he said. Admiral Mamula said ethnic Albanian subversives had been preparing for "killing officers and soldiers, poisoning food and water, sabotage, breaking into weapons arsenals and stealing arms and ammunition, desertion and causing flagrant nationalist incidents in army units."
Concerns Over Military
Coming three weeks after the ethnic Albanian draftee, Aziz Kelmendi, had slaughtered his Slavic comrades in the barracks at Paracin, the speech struck fear in thousands of families whose sons were about to start their mandatory year of military service.
Because the Albanians have had a relatively high birthrate, one-quarter of the army's 200,000 conscripts this year are ethnic Albanians. Admiral Mamula suggested that 3,792 were potential human timebombs.
He said the army had "not been provided with details relevant for assessing their behavior." But a number of Belgrade politicians said they doubted the Yugoslav armed forces would be used to intervene in Kosovo as they were to quell violent rioting in 1981in Pristina. They reason that the army leadership is extremely reluctant to become involved in what is, in the first place, a political issue.
Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools and factories. Non-Albanian visitors almost immediately feel the independence- and suspicion - of the ethnic Albanian authorities.
Region's Slavs Lack Strength
While 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins still live in the province, they are scattered and lack cohesion. In the last seven years, 20,000 of them have fled the province, often leaving behind farmsteads and houses,for the safety of the Slavic north.
Until September, the majority of the Serbian Communist Party leadership pursued a policy of seeking compromise with the Kosovo party hierarchy under its ethnic Albanian leader, Azem Vlasi.
But during a 30-hour session of the Serbian central committee in late September, the Serbian party secretary, Slobodan Milosevic, deposed Dragisa Pavlovic, as head of Belgrade's party organization, the country's largest. Mr. Milosevic accused Mr. Pavlovic of being an appeaser who was soft on Albanian radicals. Mr. Milosevic had courted the Serbian backlash vote with speeches in Kosovo itself calling for "the policy of the hard hand."
"We will go up against anti-Socialist forces, even if they call us Stalinists," Mr. Milosevic declared recently. That a Yugoslav politician would invite someone to call him a Stalinist even four decades after Tito's epochal break with Stalin, is a measure of the state into which Serbian politics have fallen. For the moment, Mr. Milosevic and his supporters appear to be staking their careers on a strategy of confrontation with the Kosovo ethnic Albanians.
Other Yugoslav politicians have expressed alarm. "There is no doubt Kosovo is a problem of the whole country, a powder keg on which we all sit," said Milan Kucan, head of the Slovenian Communist Party.
Remzi Koljgeci, of the Kosovo party leadership, said in an interview in Pristina that "relations are cold" between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs of the province, that there were too many "people without hope."
But many of those interviewed agreed it was also a rare opportunity for Yugoslavia to take radical political and economic steps, as Tito did when he broke with the Soviet bloc in 1948.
Efforts are under way to strengthen central authority through amendments to the constitution. The League of Communists is planning an extraordinary party congress before March to address the country's grave problems.
The hope is that something will be done then to exert the rule of law in Kosovo while drawing ethnic Albanians back into Yugoslavia's mainstream.
For those interested in some more reading, I recently read a “review” of Kosovo by an American ex-pat’ing in Russia. Makes you wonder more and more why this country consistently wastes blood and treasure intervening in the great wide world of fools and thugs…
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=17187
Comment by Timothy | March 5, 2008