Kosovo, meet the world. World, say hello to Kosovo, ostensibly the newest country on the face of the earth. Kosovo’s parliament unanimously – with the exception of members who boycotted – passed a declaration of independence from Serbia. This declaration, as you might expect, drew harsh criticism from Serbia, as well as Russia. The United States, however, quickly recognized Kosovo as an independent nation, and some believe the Bush administration urged the historic move.
For those who don’t regularly watch Balkan news I’ll give you the fast and furious version: Kosovo was part of the former Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia shattered, it was considered Serbian territory. Going back to the era of Slobodan Milosevic, there has been a long history of brutality between ethnic Albanians – mostly made up of secular Muslims – and Serbs, who are Christian Orthodox. Kosovo, being about 90 percent Albanian, has a population that has ardently expressed its will to separate from Serbia.
This declaration has once again shown the world the ineffectiveness of the international bureaucracy known as the United Nations. This body was thought to have political control over Kosovo as a result of a resolution that placed the territory under U.N. administration. Apparently the resolution meant nothing as Kosovo has declared independence without asking the U.N. for permission. When will we stop throwing our money and sovereignty at this phony government?
Anyway, I’m getting off point. I want to focus on U.S. foreign policy and the utter incompetence we have exhibited with regard to Eastern Europe. Politicians have no clue about the history and ethnic divides that have led to the current instability of the region. I am Eastern Orthodox and my family is from Montenegro, a proud autonomous nation that neighbors Kosovo, and I can’t even tell you all the reasons the region is so divided. And yet our presidents continue their meddling.
It started with Bill “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” Clinton. In 1999, a short time after Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, Clinton decided he needed to change what was being talked about on the five o’clock news. The answer: bombs. Not just any ordinary bombs, Clinton called for “humanitarian bombing” in order to protect the Albanian Kosovars from the Serbs. He proceeded, through our proxy military, NATO, to bomb the hell out of Serbia and Kosovo, killing many innocent people and driving hundreds of thousands more away from their homes – including the very Albanians we were supposedly there to protect.
U.S.-led NATO bombings in the latter part of the 1990s only provoked more violence and discouraged those who wanted to solve problems diplomatically. By bombing Serbia, Clinton gave resident peace activists no choice but to rally around their arch-nationalist leader in an attempt to save the only country they had. It also changed NATO forever. As then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright said, “Common sense tells us that it is sometimes better to deal with instability when it is still at arm’s length than to wait until it is at our doorstep.” The first time anyone had ever suggested NATO-led pre-emptive military strikes.
Here we are, eight years later, and President Bush has managed to trip over the same stone Clinton did. The United States was the first major country to recognize Kosovo, and it has come with drastic consequences. Our relationship with Russia just got colder, our Serbian embassy is under siege, and we have managed to set a dangerous precedent for the future. By unilaterally recognizing a faction of a country, we effectively tell separatist groups around the world, “If you feel like a separate country and get enough existing countries to recognize you, then you can declare independence.” As Russia has correctly pointed out, this sends a dangerous message to dissidents in places like Georgia and Chechnya. Indonesia has expressed similar sentiments pointing to separatist movements in the Papua region the Maluku islands.
Why is President Bush unnecessarily placing America in the middle of this tension in the Balkans? Because he thinks it’s the right thing to do? I can point to a hundred thousand Serbs in Mitrovica, a city in northern Kosovo, who consider Kosovo to be the birthplace of their civilization, and vow never to let it go. Unfortunately, the past decade and a half of failed Eastern European policy will lead to the next century of decline of American influence in that region.
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