Kosovo Syndrome

By James G. Poulos

Published 2/17/2006 12:05:31 AM

Recently, a shadowy armed group called the Army for the Independence of Kosovo ordered Kosovo politicians to declare independence or face a "difficult situation," which people here took to mean death.-- Washington Post, November 22, 2005

Destination unknown, but the train rolls on: the 20th of this month will see face-to-face talks between Serb and Kosovar negotiators in Vienna, point of discussion being the fate of the historic province that we the West preserved by historically bombing Orthodox Serbs on Easter 1999. The posture of the United States regarding full independence for Kosovo -- what is called, in the parlance of our diplomats, "final status" -- should be clear, according to the extraordinary lengths to which America went on the behalf of Kosovars in the first place. From May 2 to May 4, 1999, the International Communist Seminar in Brussels made a number of statements of fact which are indicative: (1) the NATO attack on Yugoslavia was carried out without Security Council approval; (2) the allied bombing runs demolished not just military but "economic" targets, causing deliberate civilian casualties; and (3) the undeclared war against Milosevic and his country was, according to international law, entirely unprovoked......

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9428