Friday 15 February 2008

Serbia's Fatal Mistake

Taki is of course quite right:

With a few prominent exceptions, NATO, the EU, the USA and the UN all favour speedy recognition of a rogue state led by drug dealers and terrorists and militant Muslims. What the hell is going on here? Why must we have a second Muslim state in our midst? Isn’t Albania enough?

But so is Neil Clark:

"When Saddam Hussein forcibly annexed Iraq's "19th province" in 1990 - part of the former Ottoman province of Basra that had evolved under British guidance into the state of Kuwait - the world cried foul. Western countries noisily insisted that the sovereign integrity of the emirate's territory and borders was guaranteed by the UN charter.

Egged on by Margaret Thatcher, the then US president, George Bush Snr, drew his famous "line in the sand", setting in train the first Gulf war. The consequences are still being played out in Iraq today.

Less than 18 years later, these same self-appointed guardians of the international order are on the brink of turning their own argument on its head - by underwriting Kosovo's forcible secession from Serbia."

writes Simon Tisdall in The Guardian. Tisdall is right: the US and EU’s contempt for international law regarding Kosovo is shameful. But Sunday’s declaration of independence by Kosovo could have been avoided had Serbia done the one thing that the US and EU feared: made it quite clear that if the province was illegally taken from them, they would use force to reclaim it.

Instead, the Serbs have allowed themselves to be bullied into renouncing the threat of using force by countries that are only too quick to threaten force themselves, in pursuit of THEIR interests.

Don’t get me wrong- I’m not saying that I favour a war in the Balkans over Kosovo- far from it.

But in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you can negotiate. And you need to negotiate from a position of strength and not weakness. Had Serbia made it quite clear that it would use force to defend its national sovereignty (as every country is entitled to do under international law)- and that the action would be backed by Russia, then the US and EU would not have risked the prospect of a major war in the Balkans. The threat of force would have been enough and Kosovo would have stayed part of Serbia. But in renouncing it, as Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic (above) feels obliged to do every time he talks about Kosovo, The Serbs, in the words of the late Aneurin Bevan, have gone naked to the negotiating table.

4 comments:

  1. I beg to differ. I believe the US Empire is always on the look out to start a war where peace threatens getting a foothold. The US hasn't turned down the profiteering that comes with war in at least a century and would see no problem in condemning the Serbs once again as being "murderous assholes" as characterized by Richard Holbroke by "starting" another Balkan war.

    The US has taken over the role of both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires in the Balkan Peninsula and knows full well that in order to maintain control of the Balkans, Serbia must be disintegrated or, ironically, Balkanized to the most finite pieces. See politcal manuveuring behind the scences in Jugoslavia 91, BiH 92, Kosovo 99, Montenegro 06 & the coup d'grace of Serbia w/ Kosovo 08. Each time Serbian borders recede further from the Adriatic as was the wish of the Austro-Hungarians.

    The reality is that this will continue to be Serbia's lot during the times of imperialism. In short, it doesn't matter to the US if Serbia did or didn't reserve war as an option.

    -vrnjak, USA

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  2. I am Serbian, so dont get me wrong ..no bitternes, just something to say.
    There is no mistake....wait for a while, and you will feel what your parlament had choosed for you, not even asking. Kosovo is not Muslim country, they do not beleive in religion, but drugs and weapon bussines! First of all: Albanian nation grow within 25 years from number of half million to number of nearlly 2 million...25 years. Very simple strategy, 8-15 kids per family...imagine what was the condition those kids were raised at. For 40 years , after WWII until late '80, ex Jugoslavia supported whole region by tax free, electricity and gas free, school free, health insurance...etc. And they grow up till what they are now. And you want them in Europe. No kiding, you don't have to be smart to find that someone is in good bussines with this guys. And one day they will ask for part of Macedonia and part of Greece and Bulgaria...with same rights! So my dear world, I wish you luck, and God save you, we just couldn't!

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  3. I think, its a GOOD thing, Independence for the people of Kosovo, who have been murdered throughout the centuries of Serbian facsist rule, especially last 95 years.
    The reason we did not hear about it in the distant past is because Serbia had the helm of diplomacy for the long time during the Communist era in Former Yugoslavia.
    They twisted the truth all along.
    Even now, we see how their ruling party is a Fascist Party.
    Long awaited Independence for Kosovo is finally here. That is a Great thing.

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  4. I wouldn't ordinarily allow up drivle such as the last comment. But isn't it funny how the allegedly heroic and democratic liberals who got rid of Milosevic are suddenly now "Fascists"?

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