(Photo: New York Times) The Double Headed Eagle Flag of Kosovo
What I Believe I Know About Kosovo
The U.S. formal recognized Kosovo as an independent state (February 18th, 2008), and many European nations will soon make their own announcements recognizing Kosovo's statehood. Kosovo's population is almost entire Muslim by religion, and Albanian in ethnicity. It is located in the historic heartland of Serbia, which was itself in more recent times a part of Yugoslavia. This has caused a great deal of enmity between Serbs, and Albanians as the Serbs refuse to recognize that Kosovo is now an independent state.
The Slavic Serbs, and their ethnic cousins the Russians have attempted to block international recognition of Kosovo's independent statehood. For many years the Serb dominated government of cold war state of Yugoslavia suppressed Kosovo independence by discriminating against ethnic Albanians. After the fall of the iron curtain and the break up of Yugoslavia Serbs committed genocide against Albanians, but were stopped when NATO, led by the U.S. commenced a bombing campaign which led to the fall of the Milosovich regime.
My Take On Kosovo Independence
It seems to me that if the Serbs had treated the Albanians in Kosovo properly over the years that perhaps Kosovo would still be part of Serbia.
When it comes to such matters I am no expert, but if you look at the history of the world you'll see that attempts to oppress minorities usually results in terrorism, and eventually separatist movements.
Serbia's claim that the Albanians stole their ancient homeland makes little sense when 95% of the population of Kosovo is Albanian. How this demographic shift took place isn't so much of concern as is the recognition of the end effect. Kosovo is now the newest nation in Europe, and deserves recognition. The U.S. now has a mostly muslim friend in eastern Europe, and this is a good thing sine the U.S. needs all the friends it can get in the Islamic community.
So happy independence day Kosovo!
2 comments:
What really confuses me is how the US actually supported freedom for an oppressed people and did not have to debate how much oil lay beneath Kosovo before taking action against tyrants.
Blevins,
That's easy, the Republicans weren't in power then.
That war was not all that costly and had no US fatalities, so of course those same Republicans were against it all the way.
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