Moscow sees Serbia as its final bulwark in the Balkans against the steady advance of the West.
Comment: go clark.You were the greatest commander NATO ever had.
Comment: The article is extremely biased. Politicians and ordinary people know that the declaration of so-called "Kosovo's independence" declares in the first place the US and NATO huge interests in keeping their military presence in Kosovo. Kosovo has the biggest US military base in Europe "Bond-steel". Here is "Bond-steel"' website: http://kosova.org/kfor/bondsteel/index.asp
(Camp Bondsteel is quite large: 955 acres or 360,000 square meters. If you were to run the outer perimeter, it is about 7 miles.
Bondsteel is located on rolling hills and farmland near the city of Ferizaj/Urosevac.
There are about 250 SEA Huts for living quarters and offices.)
The hypocrisy and cynicism of the US government's international policy have reached the limits of tolerance in the world. The US government destroys international peace and instigates the Cold War atmosphere in the world which is being divided by the US aggression into spheres of interests again.
Comment: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/04/kosovo.serbia
great academic discussions as well. for all participants that are not aware of Yu-constitutions and the serbian myths
Comment: OK, so according to your recommendations, US together with the EU civilized states should have backed up and tolerate the serbian barbaric regime to continue massive murdering of innocent civilians in an attempt to cleanse the whole region of Ex-Yugoslavia of non-serbs?
Kosovo is a small area and has no significant importance to the world, but it does however show that the civilized world can make a difference and assist the innocent people in need of protection from territory hungry barbaric regimes.
Comment: Do "innocent civilians" have the right to burn out houses and churches of other "innocent civilians", forcing them to run, AND THEN declare themselves independent ?
What is the difference (besides firepower) between THIS ethnic cleans and Milosevic's ?
Comment: In every country you have some sort of authority. Press is the press, but in every country you have the academics. Professors of law, history...There is a great American school called the Tufts School of Law and Diplomacy...Check what the professor Gary Leupp of the Tufts thinks and documents about the whole situation at the site: http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp02192008.html
Peace and love to all
Comment: sen-sdi has finally revealed himself. That is some kind of Kosovo Shiptar Albanian! Check his contributions to this site as Shiptar Albanian.
Comment: please clarify what you mean? if you know of course
Comment: If bad treatment of the local population were to disqualify a state from exercising sovereignty over part of its territory, then an awful lot of countries would be eligible for enforced amputation: Turkey would have to be stripped of Turkish Kurdistan; Israel would long ago have been given the boot from the West Bank and other occupied territories; Indonesia would be denied Aceh and Papua; Pakistan would lose Waziristan.Moreover, Kosovo has hardly made an even remotely plausible case for its having earned independence. First, for all the talk of "Kosovars" and "Kosovans," the residents of Kosovo identify themselves as either Serb or as Albanian; the languages they speak is either Serbian or Albanian. Creating a second Albanian state in Europe makes no sense whatsoever. It doesn't govern itself. It is a ward of various international bodies. Economically, it is a basket case, and lives off vast handouts. Kosovo is an example of an ethnic minority grabbing a piece of territory, permitting unrestricted immigration by its co-nationals from a neighboring state, ethnically cleansing the territory of all other groups and thereby creating an artificial overwhelming ethnic majority, and then demanding that these actions be rewarded by the bestowal of independent statehood
Comment: Moderator, please: I know that there are discussions that you dislike, but publish them still. Let us be fair and democratic at these dramatic times for the world order. I also discovored some triple question marks in my comment on the Guardian article. I never put in those, so please would you remove them? Thank you.
Comment: Truth is a constant value; it does not depend on an individual's approach to it. But truth actively distorts the minds of those who distort it.
Gen. Clarke speaks of the Battle at the Field of Blackbirds in 1389. Serbs lost that battle straight, argues the General. It seems that the General himself was overseeing the battle from one of his NATO planes, when his country, as ancient as Serbian, was populated by the Indians?
The truth as to the number of victims in Kosovo war in 1999 can easily be found in the Hague Tribunal transcript , the Milosevic case, pages 2225-2227. There were no more than 4,400 victims and according to the ICTY's "expert" Patrik Ball only 1,912 Albanian victims were identified by name. At the end of the day, Gen. Clark testified before the Tribunal in that case: big chunk of his testimony was closed for the public. This was because the General was to "testify" together with his NATO colleague Klaus Naumann that it was Slobodan Milosevic himself who allegedly told them in the meeting in October 1988 "that he would shoot all the Albanians". At the very same time, Clark and Naumann were in Belgrade to threaten him with bombardment!? Look, you can think about Milosevic whatever you like, but he is not that crazy. And when the bombradment begun in March 1999 after the Racak set-up, the Generals unsuccessfully tried to kill Milosevic hitting his residence.When that failed, they went to The Hague to provide a false mens rea. Very honourable, indeed. By the way, I beleieved that according to the US doctrine it was illegal to try to assassinate a Head of State.
Remember the ourageous press conferences during the NATO bombardment? Remember what Gen. Clark, Jamie Shea and their masters were telling us? That at least 100,000 Albanians were dead or missing!? The truth about the NATO bombardment is given by mseen on this thread @ 02/23/2008 ,8.31 PM. Gen. Clark and his colleagues bombed the civilian targets, but the Yugoslav army remained nearly intact. General, please tell us, how many wooden tanks - decoys have your planes hit in Kosovo, while you claimed that great many of the real ones were destroyed? While bringing destruction to Serbia, have you not, in fact, been out-manouvred by your Serbian counter-parts Generals Pavkovic and Lazarevic?
Serbia and Iraq were bombarded without the approval of the UN Security Council, now the US push for the independence of Kosovo is made without approval of the SC. This is the dismantlement of the international law and order. What all the fuss is about, asks. Gen. Clark? "We only want to get "closer" to Russia,???we want to advance". You also want to appease al-Qaeda at the Serbian expense, I would add. That is exactly what all the fuss is about. General, truth has a healing properties. Try it.
Comment: I don't understand why is this discussion Re: Kosovo's unilateral declaration of secession constantly being derailed by mostly irrelevant arguments, some try to "rationalize" and offer "historical" and "humanitarian" contexts.
Why is our attention being diverted from the main issue?
Here are the relevant facts:
The International Law is very clear, so is UN's resolution 1244. Acting against the International Law and UN's resolutions is illegal. Both Kosovo's declaration of secession and all subsequent statements of "recognition" are illegal.
It also sets a dangerous precedent, never mind thos who claim that Kosovo's case is "special", because it isn't.
The world needs to decide -- de we want the rule of Law, do we need the UN as a regulatory body?
Or do we want to establish some new rules -- the rule of "biggest gun" comes to mind?
We can't have both, as they contradict each other.
Comment: I think that Gen. Clark would like to hear one of his colleagues. General Lewis MacKenzie wrote the following on April 6th 2004 in the article for the Canadian National Post entitled "We Bombed the Wrong Side": " The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo.We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early '90s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to other terrorist-supported independence movements around the world. Funny how we just keep digging the hole deeper! "
Maj-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, now retired, commanded UN troops during the Bosnian civil war of 1992.
Gen. Clark would also like to hear this about his bombardment of Serbia. Mr. Walter J. Rockler wrote in 1999: " We have engaged in a flagrant military aggression, ceaselessly attacking a small country primarily to demonstrate that we run the world...As a primary source of international law, the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal in the 1945-1946 case of the major Nazi war criminals is plain and clear. Our leaders often invoke and praise that judgment, but obviously have not read it. The International Court declared:
"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
(Walter J. Rockler was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. This essay originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune.)
Comment: Commentator sen_sdi was "clever" enough to publish Noel Malcolm's historical forgeries. The answer to this article was given by historian William Dorich to the Guardian. It is also published on the following site: http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/?p=515#more-515. See comment no. 183. The taster: "
February 26, 2008
The Guardian
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
"The ugliest form of racism is to demean an ethnic group???s religion, history or culture. This has not stopped Malcolm from revealing his closeted bigotry. He manipulates his access to the media knowing full well that most readers and editors are ignorant of Balkan history. People of Malcolm???s ilk have found it easy to paint Serbs with collective guilt by demeaning them in this alleged ???historical??? context. What we see at play here is the Goebbles concept of ???Tell a lie a hundred times and it becomes the truth.???
Kosovo independence is not about history, it is about equal human rights, and the absurd violation of UN Resolution 1244, the amputation of sovereign territory and in the process the violation of the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and the Geneva Conventions...Equally disgraceful, the Guardian grants little to no access to your pages to any Serbian historian or journalists to give opposing views. This is hardly freedom of the press, the press is being used in this case to bludgeon Serbia???s cultural aspirations.
William Dorich
The writer is the author of 5 books on Balkan history.
Comment: Is Kosovo Serbia? We ask a historian
Noel Malcolm
Tuesday February 26 2008
The Guardian
"Kosovo is Serbia", "Ask any historian" read the unlikely placards, waved by angry Serb demonstrators in Brussels on Sunday. This is rather flattering for historians: we don't often get asked to adjudicate. It does not, however, follow that any historian would agree, not least because historians do not use this sort of eternal present tense.
History, for the Serbs, started in the early 7th century, when they settled in the Balkans. Their power base was outside Kosovo, which they fully conquered in the early 13th, so the claim that Kosovo was the "cradle" of the Serbs is untrue.
What is true is that they ruled Kosovo for about 250 years, until the final Ottoman takeover in the mid-15th century. Churches and monasteries remain from that period, but there is no more continuity between the medieval Serbian state and today's Serbia than there is between the Byzantine Empire and Greece.
Kosovo remained Ottoman territory until it was conquered by Serbian forces in 1912. Serbs would say "liberated"; but even their own estimates put the Orthodox Serb population at less than 25%. The majority population was Albanian, and did not welcome Serb rule, so "conquered" seems the right word.
But legally, Kosovo was not incorporated into the Serbian kingdom in 1912; it remained occupied territory until some time after 1918. Then, finally, it was incorporated, not into a Serbian state, but into a Yugoslav one. And with one big interruption (the second world war) it remained part of some sort of Yugoslav state until June 2006.
Until the destruction of the old federal Yugoslavia by Milosevic, Kosovo had a dual status. It was called a part of Serbia; but it was also called a unit of the federation. In all practical ways, the latter sense prevailed: Kosovo had its own parliament and government, and was directly represented at the federal level, alongside Serbia. It was, in fact, one of the eight units of the federal system.
Almost all the other units have now become independent states. Historically, the independence of Kosovo just completes that process. Therefore, Kosovo has become an ex-Yugoslav state, as any historian could tell you.
· Noel Malcolm is a senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is the author of Kosovo: A Short History
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk
Comment: There are several fallacies in this comment.
I'll start with the percentage of non-Albanian population in Kosovo. While most people will agree that Kosovo's population is roughly 90% Albanian today, back around 1910-1912 they were represented by roghly 35-40%, according to a number of independent sources.
Secondly, Milosevic didn't destruct the old federal Yugoslavia. In fact, Milosevic and his government were the only ones trying to preserve Yugoslavia, as it was against the interests of Serbian population if all breakaway Republics to all of a sudden become "national minority". The last former Republic to declare independence was Montenegro, and this took place years after Milosevic.
Thirdly, although Kosovo and Vojvodina were represented at the federal level, alongside Serbia and all other Republics, their status was (is) not the same. Vohvodina and Kosovo were (are) Autonomous Regions (provinces), not Republics, and Albanians (same as Hungarians) are not one of the constitutive peoples, they are national minorities.
I'm not sure axctly what kind of historian Mr. Malcolm is, but his lack of basic understanding of what he writes about in this article is nothing short of appaling. I'm tempted to call this article "fake history of events surrounding the fake "state" of Kosovo"
I would also like to comment on a commonly used and generally accepted reference to a "genocide" in Kosovo.
Between 1998 and 1999, the number of casulties in Kosovo (on all sides, including Serbian civilians and security forces) was around 2000. Reports are available (I believe the most detailed one was prepared by a German NGO) which document these findings, and it is quite clear that there was no campaign of ethnic cleansing, let alone genocide in Kosovo. When all hell broke loose in 1999 because of NATO's "humanitarian bombing campaign", people of all nationalities were basically fleeing from NATO bombs (many documented cases of Albanian civilians seeking and finding refuge in Serbia), although the media was doing it's very best to blame the Serb forces for the humanitarian crisis. An interesting detail: according to a recent testimony in the Hague (ICTY), a CNN reporter was forcing and intimidating a fleeing Albanian woman to state how Serbian Forces are responsible for her family's exhodus, she was beaten and yelled at as she maintained that they were fleeing from NATO bombs.
Comment: Gen. Clarke should note that the illegal declaration of independence of Kosovo and illegal recognition of it leads to the total break-down of international law the world order as we know it. Proof? Costa Rica regognized Palestine yesterday. Costa Rica Recognizes "State of Palestine"
According to the AP, Israeli diplomat has postponed a planned meeting with Costa Rican officials over the Central American nation's decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state.
"We would like to express our disappointment over this regretful decision of the government of Costa Rica to establish full diplomatic relations with the 'state of Palestine,'" Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said. "This act of Costa Rica totally contradicts the traditional friendship that characterized its relations with Israel since its establishment."
"
Comment: Kosovo was , is and WILL be part of Serbia. Serbs will never EVER give up on Kosovo.There's way too much of SERBIAN history on Kosovo.
USA should just close their Bondsteel base, pack their precious troops and start minding their own problems, because they have plenty. Live and let others live USA!
Comment: Kosova never was and never will be part of serbia. it was occupied by Yugoslavian federal state, which serbs, known as territory hungry nation, self-claimed it to be part of serbia which was never true.
Comment: the name is KOSOVO as in KOSOVO IS SERBIA
kosova is a bastardization of the term
Comment: Never serbian regime in KOSOVA.The Kosova now is Independent that is all for serbs and russian.Serbian regime finish of in Kosova since 1999.Thank you, USA,KLINTON,Olbright,CLARK,TONI BLER ,never komunism ond pan slavism in Kosova.
Comment: Likewise, the West is also taking Kosovo as their slice, isn't it?
Btw, "Westerners didn't hold triumphal parades at the end of the cold war...", is that true?
Comment: Likewise, the West is also taking Kosovo as their slice, isn't it?
Comment: I've one doubt. How is posible to give independence some area, where aren't any separate nation? They dont have any common history or own statehood. They are just albanian living in serbian scope. Sorry but i desagree with this decision. And in my opionion true reason is in events in '99 when UN doesn't take correct decisions and create a hybrid. Consequence we have today and it might be reason for next conflict around the word.
sebastian / poland
Comment: Talik is obviously under the influence of serb-slavic mythological history. All non-turks fought against ottoman empire in the field of blackbirds, serbs were part of it as well, together with bulgarians, hungarians, albanians, croats, bosniacs etc...
Comment: There were no "Bosniacs" at the time of Kosovo battle, just Serbs or Croats from Bosnia. The term was adopted by Slavic Muslims in former Yugoslavia after its breakup in the 90's, in an attempt to monopolize Bosnian heritage. Until then, they were known simply as "Muslims" (written with capital "M" in Serbian/Croatian, as opposed to orthography for Muslims generally, which was the first sign of their emancipation as a separate, religion-based nation in former Yugoslavia). Nowadays all Slavic Muslims of former Yugoslav countries call themselves Bosniaks regardless of whether they actually have something to do geographically with Bosnia or not, but that is yet another story.
Comment: Further to my garbled up earlier comment: - there is also the matter of UN Security Resolution 1244 which forced the Yugoslav leaderships signature to end the NATO bombing. And by the way it was the Serbs who defeated the Turks in 1389 in the Field of Blackbirds.
Comment: djdanik wrote "i think u dont understand that freedom, or independence... does not make people happy always"
Maybe you were never oppresssed, It does not make them wealthy or even healthier but it makes them happy because they are free to live their lives in pursuit of whatever they want, ofcourse within the borders set by our society (it is not unlimited freedom it is not monetary freedom, not freedom from habits).
Comment: "Kosovo will require an enormous amount of help, mostly financial, from us and the EU if it is to survive as a sovergn state" this is no free help, this help will be their enormous debt afterwards...which will be imposible to pay, goverment becomes corrupt, and their goes another "democratic" country.
Comment: "can come to terms with a modern world demarcated not by old boundaries and geostrategic chess games, but by human freedoms and new opportunities."
are u mad?
new opportunities...more debt? deeper poorness?
i think u dont understand that freedom, or independence...does not make people happy always...
Comment: Had Russia been more progressive after the fall of the Cold War curtain, perhaps seeing ethnic Albanians, Kosovars and Serbs working together as one nation, there, would be more palatable to Western eyes. What does this implicate especially for the political boundaries in Iraq, where similar ancient roots of division are combined with present moment, real-time war between US and Iraq troops and insurgents of multi allegiances? It doesn't look like young little democratic upstarts are looked upon with any great affection by the vestments of power in that neck of the woods.
Comment: I wonder what you mean by "ethnic Albanians, Kosovars and Serbs"? It's either ???Albanians and Serbs??? or ???Kosovars???. Apart from that, the way Albanians "work together" with anyone on other people's territories is always a recognizable pattern of threats, methodical peace-time ethnic cleansing and secession. Now it's turn for other neighboring countries, Macedonia and Greece, to satisfy megalomaniac Albanian appetite for Great Albania.
Comment: Kosovo will require an enormous amount of help, mostly financial, from us and the EU if it is to survive as a sovergn state. I just wonder if our government will manage not to forget about Kosovo once another "hot spot" happens elsewhere.
I find General Clark's commentary very disappointing. How can he justify concluding statement:"But the most important underlying story is whether Russia???and its friends in Serbia???can come to terms with a modern world demarcated not by old boundaries and geostrategic chess games, but by human freedoms and new opportunities." His entire article is dedicated to the long standing geostrategic game with Russia, and very little with the human freedoms of Albanians and Serbs alike. Has he forgotten hundreds, if not thousands, of Albanians and Serbs who died as a result of heavy bombardments under his control?
bobant
Comment: Thank heaven for brilliant historical, military scholars like Gen.Wesley Clarke who understood the dynamic of the Serbian Genocide in Kosovo. He and the white house called Putins Bluff for good reason. It is most unfortunate that Putin Like so many soviet era leaders before him choose to snatch deffeat fronm the jaws of victory. The People of Russia have so many things to be proud of. Their suffering and sacrifice in war and peace. Their artistic and scientific achievments are undeniably great. They suffer from a blind and debilitating fixation on the colapse of the soviet empire and it's Stallinist madness. They suffer from the victimization complex recently spoken of by Mr. Holbrook. Instead of viewing it as an oportunity to build a new strategic and economic aliance that would have greatly increased it's stature and power they regressed.
Mr. Putin would do well to seek a new strategy that brings greater chances for regional economic stability that would benefit everyone.
Putin could have chosen to focus the attention of the people on the possitive aspects of the end of the cold war. Unfortunately the pathological focus on confrontation accusation and propaganda have clouded his judgement. Playing up the political instability in Kosovo serves no one; save the dictatorial asspirations of his oligarcical friends in the region.
Comment: As much as we like to describe movements such as that of the Kosovars as "freedom" and as "national self determination," all of this in a real sense is the historical fall out of the collapse of multi-national European empires at the end of the First World War. The question now, as it was to the diplomats struggling with the same problem 90 years ago, is "what exactly is a 'nation'?" In the present instance, is Kosovo, a province which has never in history been a country until now, a "nation" with an identity separate from Albania (90% of Kosovars speak Albanian) or Serbia (the other 10%)? As wonderful as it sounds, "self determination" does not work if ground too finely -- as the unending fighting among ethnic groups in Iraq and Afghanistan exemplifies. Many "nations" are too small and/or too poor in resources to be viable "nation states," and there is the rub. Our own civil war was waged to a large extent to determine whether "self determination" applies to parts of a nation separately or rather to the nation as a whole. Having gone through that most bloody of our own wars, we in the United States now claim, with justification, to be a single "nation" yet multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Our goal should be to provide that (new) concept as the model for 21st Century "nation states," and not to encourage each cultural, religious, or ethnic minority who is a local majority somewhere, to declare themselves there as an independent. "nation." The bottom line: the Balkans are proving, once again, that Balkanization does not work.
Comment: Do the Quebecois have the same right to secede? Do the Latinos in New Mexico, California, Texas? Would the US allow these groups, should they become the majority, go?
What happened to Ian Smith and his unilateral declaration of independence? Was he right to secede? What of Zimbabwe now?
Comment: Any minority threatened with cruel extermination has the right to defend itself. Miloshevic could have prevented the secession by granting KOSOVA autonomy. He rifused to do that and lost his unfair war.
KOSOVA had no alternative but to declare INDEPENDENCE. A few year from now the area will become part of Europe and the serbian aspiration to Balkan hegemony will become history. Why is that so hard to understand? I thought Kostunica and Putin were smarter than that. Rememeber the name is KOSOVA and it is inhabitated by people of Traco-Illyrian descent who have survived Roman, Slavic, Turkish and Serbian agressions for 24 centuries: an unbelivable story, and unbelivable accomplishment for such a small nation.
Thanks Clinton and Albright, thanks America, England and France for recognizing the rights and the merits of the martired people of Kosova. Tha name is KOSOVA!
Comment: Where does one draw the line-Taiwan - Georgia-the Basques in Spain-tribal definition in Africa- Kurdestan?What about territorial rights and international law? We are not talking about autonomy but about a new nation. This is a touchy issue that could prove dangerous.
Comment: This moment of Biblical proportions has been way over due. Albanian Kosovars finally are free in their own land to have democracy and govern themselves. Serbia does not belong there and even when it did unjustly rule, it ruled through man slaughter and genocide. This was the cause of all the former Yugoslav Republics splitting. History of that region speaks louder than words and the wolf cries of the Serbs.
Comment: Genocide changes the rules of international law. Serbia's actions in Bosnia and Croatia led to the break up and repartitioning of those nations (all formerly part of the same Yugoslavia). It should be no surprise that the Albanians in Kosova, after patiently enduring 9 years of UN rule, have finally declared independence. After genocide, it is unrealistic to expect a people comprising 90% of the population to submit to the authority of the perpetrating government.
Comment: Putin is no dummy but I still do not understand why he can not grasp the idea that, in the long run, the carrot is always mightier than the stick. We have been pushing their buttons a lot lately (negated middle east oil contracts) but Russia's vast resources put them in an enviable position to lead their region well into the 21st century. What a waste it would be to see them now, holding the cards they have, revert back to a Stalinistic view of their region. Hopefully our government will not tie us into another aggressive relationship with them and allow our next administration a free hand at diplomacy before the rhetoric gets too hot.
Comment: Anyone knowledgeable about the recent history of the area, presumably including General Clark, won't be surprised at the Russian and Serbian reactions. The Bush/Cheney Administration's quick recognition of Kosovo's independence was a blunder. The only thing that will work as a middle ground is some kind of autonomy for Kosovo with some kind of acknowledgment of a nominal Serbian "sovereignty." Granted, this won't satisfy ethnic Albanian Kosovars not ethnic Serbian Kosovars, nor Russia, nor Serbia. But it's the only possible middle ground in a situation which, for now, presents no good alternatives. Whether a new U.S. administration can back up to that middle ground remains to be seen.
Comment: Are you really surprised by Russia's reactions General Clarke. Wouldn't it seem normal for any nation to hold onto satellite territory? Did John Kennedy like the Russian missile bases in Cuba? In fact, he wasn't even away that we had set up missile bases in Turkey pointed at Russia. Russia is appropriately testy for
being ringed with new US missiles facilities today. Given a finger, power takes the hand, then the arm, and so on.
Jerry Mazza.
New York City.
Comment: Putin is Stalin reincarnated. He is ruling Russia with an iron hand, and, if he could, he would grab back as much territory as possible. The weakening of the US thanks to the incredible incompetence of the Bush administration has encouraged Putin to rattle his saber.
Comment: To: Intermedusa: It is interestinig how thoughtful posts evoke thoughtful responses. Thank you for posting it. I have not read all of it yet so I'm not sure I agree with the points made but I am certainly grateful that someone actually thinks.
Comment: THE EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN DESTINY: DEMOCRACY PART 1
By Larry Houle
www.godofreason.com
E-mail: intermedusa@yahoo.com
The national security of the EU and Russia can only be guaranteed by all countries adopting democracy and the rule of law. Democracies don???t fight other brother democracies. Their people would rather drink beer then make war. Democracy can only be spread through example and formulation of alliances. Its implementation aided through trade, economic aid, and the creation of free trade blocks - never though the use of force. Employing the sword to spread democracy is a true oxymoron.
The EU is one of the most important entities to the success of democracy. Europe is building a country composed of independent nation states. This mission is truly heroic and historic. One of the great success stories in the history of democracy was the EU accession of 10 former Eastern European nations in 2004. One hundred million people brought home to Europe as free and democratic peoples. After two world wars and the death of 110 million people in the space of 30 years ??? this was a remarkable achievement.
Unfortunately the EU has recently lost its way. The future of both Russia and the EU depends on the successful completion of the European experiment. Brussels in partnership with a democratic Russia must put together an action plan to complete EU expansion and create a free trade zone of democratic nations stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the Antarctic (2.4 billion people.) The EU and Russia must fulfill their common destiny ??? a democratic partnership.
EU Membership Declaration
All nations bordering the EU have a moral right to join provided they meet one of the following 3 criteria:
1.European Country
2.European nation.
3.European people.
Brussels sends letters of invitation to Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia - the Balkan States of Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia. These letters of invitation start a 15 year process of moving these nations through the 35 chapters of the legal accession requirements. The final accession agreement with each country will depend on Europe???s economic and political status in 2021. No promises. No guarantees. By placing each of these countries on a path to membership, there will be an immediate flowering of democracy and economy in all these states. Brussels does not have the moral right to deny any of these countries entry (unless they fail in the 35 chapter process). Ukrainians are as European as the French or Germans. To leave the Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova without access to Europe - forcing them into a Russian Empire and loss of their national sovereignty would be a criminal act equal to Munich or the selling out of Eastern Europe to Stalin and the Soviets. A black stain on future European history.
Comment: THE EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN DESTINY: DEMOCRACY PART 2
By Larry Houle
www.godofreason.com
E-mail: intermedusa@yahoo.com
Obviously, Russia will not join the EU. However in the letter of invitation to Russia, Europe should also offer a Super Special Relationship incorporating Russia not only into a NAFTA style free trade agreement but a special political and economic partnership bringing it as a major player into the very heart of Europe. Russia would be allowed to elect delegates to the European Parliament based on 25/40% of its total allotment as if it was a full fledged member. These delegates would participate in all committees, vote on all issues, but with no veto power. Russia cannot and must not be isolated by the West. A full and equal partnership between Russia and the EU must be offered to the Russian people. In return Russia must democratize its political institutions. If the Russian government refuses then Russia will not be able to complain when other nations decide to join. And the EU leaves the offer on the table as a demonstration to the Russian people of a different vision their economic and political future ??? a vision in direct conflict with Putin???s national repression and domination of its Near Abroad neighbors through energy blackmail.
The strategy is for Brussels to offer Russia an equal partnership in a free trade zone incorporating the Ukraine, Turkey, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the 5 Stan states and Mongolia. This free trade zone would then be joined to NAFTA (US/Canada/Mexico) creating an economic giant of 1.4 billion people. This giant is then expanded to include South and Central America (2.4 billion). In this free trade zone, Russia, the Stan states, Ukraine, Turkey etc are granted full access to Western markets for trade, investment and technology. The EU is guaranteed energy security ??? the very essence of the NAFTA Agreement between Canada and the United States. (Canada was given access to the US market and in return Canada guaranteed the US - energy security,)
Through this free trade alliance with guaranteed access to the EU and NAFTA - the Russian economy will be able to break the petrol strangle hold Gasprom etc have over the economy. Growth in the other economic sectors of the Russian economy with access to a market of 1.4 billion plus people will explode.
In this way a Europe without borders living in peace and security can be created stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Comment: THE EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN DESTINY: DEMOCRACY PART 2
By Larry Houle
www.godofreason.com
E-mail: intermedusa@yahoo.com
Obviously, Russia will not join the EU. However in the letter of invitation to Russia, Europe should also offer a Super Special Relationship incorporating Russia not only into a NAFTA style free trade agreement but a special political and economic partnership bringing it as a major player into the very heart of Europe. Russia would be allowed to elect delegates to the European Parliament based on 25/40% of its total allotment as if it was a full fledged member. These delegates would participate in all committees, vote on all issues, but with no veto power. Russia cannot and must not be isolated by the West. A full and equal partnership between Russia and the EU must be offered to the Russian people. In return Russia must democratize its political institutions. If the Russian government refuses then Russia will not be able to complain when other nations decide to join. And the EU leaves the offer on the table as a demonstration to the Russian people of a different vision their economic and political future ??? a vision in direct conflict with Putin???s national repression and domination of its Near Abroad neighbors through energy blackmail.
The strategy is for Brussels to offer Russia an equal partnership in a free trade zone incorporating the Ukraine, Turkey, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the 5 Stan states and Mongolia. This free trade zone would then be joined to NAFTA (US/Canada/Mexico) creating an economic giant of 1.4 billion people. This giant is then expanded to include South and Central America (2.4 billion). In this free trade zone, Russia, the Stan states, Ukraine, Turkey etc are granted full access to Western markets for trade, investment and technology. The EU is guaranteed energy security ??? the very essence of the NAFTA Agreement between Canada and the United States. (Canada was given access to the US market and in return Canada guaranteed the US - energy security,)
Through this free trade alliance with guaranteed access to the EU and NAFTA - the Russian economy will be able to break the petrol strangle hold Gasprom etc have over the economy. Growth in the other economic sectors of the Russian economy with access to a market of 1.4 billion plus people will explode.
In this way a Europe without borders living in peace and security can be created stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Comment:
Many American commentators, particularly those who were directly involved in the carving out of former Yugoslavia try to present Kosovo as a Manichaean story of the democratic West vs a neoauthoritarian Russia. It is not as simple as that. Kosovos's independence has not been recognised not only by Russia and China, but by many other countries around the world, including democracies like Spain, Canada, India, Argentina, Brasil and many others. These countries are usually portrayed in the Anglo-American media as self serving, since their refusal to recognise Kosovo would be based in trying to avoid a precedent with their alleged "secessionist minorities". But if so, what? Every country has a right to preserve its integrity, which is a basic principle of international law. Besides, those countries which have recognised Kosovo are doing so also for reasons of national interest: confronting Russia in the case of the US or creating a series of microstates in Eastern Europe that can be easily manipulated in the case of Germany, France or the UK. Curiously enough, many of the countries recognising Kosovo have minority problems of their own. It is the case with the UK ( Scotland, Northern Ireland), France ( Corsica, Alsace, Bretagne) or Italy ( the Northern regions). The difference is that those countries have prioritised their geopolitical calculations over their internal divisions hoping that by helping the US they will have a stronger card if the worst comes to the worst.
The problem with that line of reasoning is that one day the current geopolitical configuration will come to an end. And then, they will have set a precedent of violating international law that will haunt them and Uncle Sam will be in no position to come to their rescue.
Comment: an article about 'kosovo liberation army'( a terrorist organization) and it's links with Bin Laden, US and NATO
Picture of Gen.Wesley Clark with the indicted war criminal presented in the mainstream media as a loyal and valuable NATO ally
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=kosovo_liberation_army
Comment: "....Washington initiated a wild propaganda campaign claiming that Serbia was carrying out a campaign of massive genocide against the Albanian majority in Kosovo. The Western media was full of stories of mass graves and brutal rapes. U.S. officials claimed that from 100,000 up to 500,000 Albanians had been massacred.
U.S./NATO officials under the Clinton administration issued an outrageous ultimatum that Serbia immediately accept military occupation and surrender all sovereignty or face NATO bombardment of its cities, towns and infrastructure. When, at a negotiation session in Rambouillet, France, the Serbian Parliament voted to refuse NATO???s demands, the bombing began.
In 78 days the Pentagon dropped 35,000 cluster bombs, used thousands of rounds of radioactive depleted-uranium rounds, along with bunker busters and cruise missiles. The bombing destroyed more than 480 schools, 33 hospitals, numerous health clinics, 60 bridges, along with industrial, chemical and heating plants, and the electrical grid. Kosovo, the region that Washington was supposedly determined to liberate, received the greatest destruction.
Finally on June 3, 1999, Yugoslavia was forced to agree to a ceasefire and the occupation of Kosovo.
Expecting to find bodies everywhere, forensic teams from 17 NATO countries organized by the Hague Tribunal on War Crimes searched occupied Kosovo all summer of 1999 but found a total of only 2,108 bodies, of all nationalities. Some had been killed by NATO bombing and some in the war between the UCK and the Serbian police and military. They found not one mass grave and could produce no evidence of massacres or of ???genocide.???
This stunning rebuttal of the imperialist propaganda comes from a report released by the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte. It was covered, but without fanfare, in the New York Times of Nov. 11, 1999.
The wild propaganda of genocide and tales of mass graves were as false as the later claims that Iraq had and was preparing to use ???weapons of mass destruction.???
Through war, assassinations, coups and economic strangulation, Washington has succeeded for now in imposing neoliberal economic policies on all of the six former Yugoslav republics and breaking them into unstable and impoverished ministates.
The very instability and wrenching poverty that imperialism has brought to the region will in the long run be the seeds of its undoing. The history of the achievements made when Yugoslavia enjoyed real independence and sovereignty through unity and socialist development will assert itself in the future."
S Flounders
Wesley Clark, I think it is time to speak out the truth
Comment: No mention in any of the comments is made of the giant permanent US base in Kosova - Camp Bondstee - could that be why Kosova was granted its "independence"? A few other points: it will be governed by an appointed High Representative and run by bodies appointed by the US, EU, and NATO. The immediate recognition indicates that the US is ready to break any and all treaties it ever signed, US domination does not benefit an occupied people not benefit n
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