Kosovo Dependence – Moon of Alabama

February 17, 2008

Kosovo Dependence

Now some organized criminals of Albanian heritage in Kosovo declare independence and Washington and some extraordinary stupid idiots in Brussels will loudly clap their hands and congratulate themselves for this blatant illegal and disastrous act.

Do people in Europe notice whose flag these people are waving? A independent Kosovo will be an ever infectious strategic wound in Europe’s legs. "That is a feature, not a bug," thinks Washington, "That is the deeper reasoning behind Camp Bondsteel."

Posted by b on February 17, 2008 at 15:24 UTC | Permalink

Comments

It also, in a sense, spells a next step to death of the UN. Allowing this to go forward is a negation or disavowal of resolution 1224 1224 UN PDF .. ” Reaffirming the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act and annex 2..”
True, the wording is not very clear, it is all a bit obscure, and there are other documents, yet 1224 has generally been interpreted as preserving the integrity of the Yug. Republic.
The point is that Kosovo was (or is still at 5 pm today) an autonomous region of that Republic, and not a ‘republic’ or a ‘canton’ on its own. E.g. Montenegro declared its independence from the Fed. Republic just recently with little press and no fuss.
So bilateral agreements will recognize Kosovo, or will not. The UN has lost control of this process and shows itself to be lackeys of Western Empire.
The new deployment, Eulex: link Yves de Kermabon (FR) was the commander of KFOR.
To clarify, the whole process opens up the door for any region declaring independence, outside of national/international law, outside of UN control, provided that the region has the support of the PTB. It is hallucinating breach of the old order.

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 17 2008 16:36 utc | 1

from the camp bondsteel link
On June 5, 2001 US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld explained to troops at Camp Bondsteel what role they played in the new administration?s economic strategy. He declared, ?How much should we spend on the armed services? …My view is we don?t spend on you, we invest in you. The men and women in the armed services are not a drain on our economic strength. Indeed you safeguard it. You?re not a burden on our economy, you are the critical foundation for growth.

Posted by: annie | Feb 17 2008 16:50 utc | 2

the elites being so thoughtless – will now come to really undertand what balkanisation means – & i can assure them from even the most peripheral reading – that it will be a complete & utter catastrophe – not only for the people of the region but increasingly & quite rapidly for their ‘neighbours’
& b is quite right – the uck – is nothing more than a criminal band

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 17 2008 17:16 utc | 3

b
thanks for the monthly review link of herrman – it is a substantial essay like a great deal of what appears there – absolutely relentless & ruthless in its critique of the anti-humanist sentimentalities – that are the current through which most information flows
welcome the gangsta state

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 17 2008 18:20 utc | 4

On the news clip here in Denmark, I noticed that they were waving almost as many US Stars and Stripes as Kosovo flags.
There were Kosovo people who live here in the Happy Little Kingdom interviewed on their way back home to celebrate who thanked the US for this happy event which the Dane news compared to the feelings here when Denmark won the European soccer championship.
All in all, a disjointed feeling combined with some deja vu.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Feb 17 2008 19:53 utc | 5

Right on cue:
War fears put British troops on standby as Kosovo declares ‘freedom’ (Helpful, though superficial, Q & A at the bottom of the article)
Snip…

Fears of a new Balkan war gripped Western capitals last night after the powder-keg state of Kosovo declared independence from its powerful neighbour Serbia.
Serbia’s ally Russia immediately denounced the move and warned it was likely to spark “new conflict” as 600 British troops were put on standby to fly out in the event of widespread civil unrest.
Britain already has 150 troops in Kosovo as part of the 15,000-strong Nato-led KFOR peacekeeping force.
Around 60 British police and judicial experts are among a 1,800-strong European Union mission which will go to Kosovo to help with security, legal and customs issues.
The independence declaration by prime minister Hashim Thaci in the Kosovo parliament was the trigger for huge celebrations in the capital Pristina.
Tens of thousands of Albanians – who make up 90 per cent of the population – waved the flags of next- door Albania and the U.S Stars and Stripes as they danced in the snow-covered streets.
“We feel the end of Serbia in Kosovo,” said one man. “I can’t believe I’m alive to see this day,” said another.
But rioting erupted in the Serbian capital Belgrade last night as 2,000 protesters hurled stones at the U.S. embassy, which was guarded by 500 police.
In Kosovo itself, hand renades were thrown at EU and United Nations buildings in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica where 60,000 Serbs live – half the Serb population of the world’s newest country.
“We’ll see what happens during the night,” said one Serb man. “There will be a lot of armed people here.” He pulled a hand grenade from his pocket.
Nato-led peacekeepers in Mitrovica put up concrete and wire barriers to close off the bridges dividing the Albanians and Serbs.
The strongest diplomatic protest came from Moscow which called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
“The decisions by the Kosovo leadership create the risk of an escalation of tension and inter-ethnic violence in the province and of new conflict in the Balkans,” the foreign ministry said.

Feels very Cold War-ish to me. Or, considering the history of the region, very First World War-ish. Thank goodness the United States has a powerful and unencumbered military to contain any violence that might erupt.
Seriously, with Afghanistan and Iraq going so very, very badly and Iran on the table, is the PNAC still banging their drum to “fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars”…? If this isn’t a “perpetual war” move, I don’t understand Washington’s support for this at all.

Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 18 2008 3:36 utc | 6

Steve Clemons says:

What saddens me is that I have learned from a source close to the Kremlin that the Russians secretly suggested a road map and time table for Kosovo independence to the Bush administration. The Russians would never have been pleased with Kosovo going it alone — but there were things to manage Russian issues with Georgia, Serbia, Kosovo and the region that could have been simultaneously managed to keep both sides from undermining the other.
The Russians believe that their suggestions were ignored because the U.S. wanted to be able to declare a victory — which is harder to do when negotiating outcomes that are face-saving to both sides.
America and NATO will now be in less of a position to help Georgia and other former Eastern European states and the US may pay a price in its ability to forge a common position with Russia on Iran.

Posted by: b | Feb 18 2008 7:30 utc | 7

Anatol Lieven: Kosovo independence to set precedent for Trans-Dniester

” – Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh are different conflicts, but at the same time they are both separatist conflicts in autonomous areas in other states, inevitably, what happens in one will have a certain effect on what happens in the other”, said Anatol Lieven, British policy analyst and chairman of International Relations and Terrorism Studies at King’s College London, as reported by Trend.

Craig Murray re Scotland

There is a very important point here for Scotland. We shall see how the EU and UN react. Gordon Brown, his tame UK government lawyers and the New Labour hack academic establishment in Scotland continue to argue, against the last twenty years of international experience, that it would be impossible in international law for Scotland to claim independence unilaterally without the agreement of the UK authorities. Kosovo is about to show that is not the international legal position in 2008.
Given that the UK will recognise Kosovo, it is ludicrous for the same people to argue that for Scotland to do the same as Kosovo would be illegal.

Posted by: b | Feb 18 2008 7:34 utc | 8

Bush screams “first”
Bush Recognizes Kosovo Independence

President Bush on Monday hailed Kosovo’s bold and historic bid for statehood, saying ”The Kosovars are now independent.”
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership announced its independence from Serbia over the weekend, and suspense gripped the province on Monday as its citizens awaited key backing from the United States and key European powers.
”It’s something that I’ve advocated along with my government,” Bush said in an interview on NBC’s ”Today.”

Posted by: b | Feb 18 2008 17:24 utc | 9

And the poodles follow: Kosovo wins recognition from EU powers

Kosovo’s leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition and Britain, France and Germany endorsed the declaration. But other European Union nations were opposed, including Spain which has battled a violent Basque separatist movement for decades.

Posted by: b | Feb 18 2008 17:27 utc | 10

A postmodern declaration

There seemed to be no immediate consequences when, in 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. Vienna was in clear violation of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, which it had signed and kept Bosnia in Turkey, yet the protests of Russia and Serbia were in vain. The following year, the fait accompli was written into an amended treaty. Six years later, however, a Russian-backed Serbian gunman exacted revenge by assassinating the heir to the Austrian throne in Sarajevo in June 1914. The rest is history.
Parallels between Kosovo in 2008 and Bosnia in 1908 are relevant, but not only because, whatever legal trickery the west uses to override UN security council resolution 1244 – which kept Kosovo in Serbia – the proclamation of the new state will have incalculable long-term consequences: on secessionist movements from Belgium to the Black Sea via Bosnia, on relations with China and Russia, and on the international system as a whole. They are also relevant because the last thing the new state proclaimed in Pristina on Sunday will be is independent. Instead, what has now emerged south of the Ibar river is a postmodern state, an entity that may be sovereign in name but is a US-EU protectorate in practice.

Posted by: b | Feb 19 2008 7:57 utc | 11

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