On June 28th, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in the town of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina by a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip. The consequences of this relatively minor event unfolded inexorably over the following two months until all of Europe was plunged into war.The ignorance and mishandling of the ancient conflicts in the Balkans led directly to Europe’s auto-immolation in two apocalyptic wars, and indirectly to the auto-da-fe of political correctness that has emerged as the regnant European ideology in the wake of those wars.
It’s apparent that no lessons have been learned from these particular mistakes of history, and now the West is intent on repeating them:
Kosovo: Serbs brace for probable secession- - - - - - - - -
Most analysts expect breakaway Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians to proclaim independence in the next few months, backed by the US and some European powers, despite staunch opposition from Belgrade and the UN administered province’s tiny Serb minority.
The Serbian government has ordered all its ministries to prepare a “plan of action” to counter a declaration of independence from Kosovo after the failure of the UN sponsored talks.
Details of the government’s “action plan” have not been released as it is classified a state secret.
“Naturally, we can’t reveal all our cards ahead of time, but we won’t be sitting with our arms folded,” government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Asked to elaborate, Mihajlovic said Belgrade would first resort to diplomatic means and ‘adjust its relations’ with the countries which might recognise Kosovo’s independence.
Serbia’s position has strong backing in international law and the United Nations Charter, which uphold the inviolability of the existing state borders, Mihajlovic added.
Responding to a suggestion that the Serbian action plan on Kosovo might be devoid of substance, he said mysteriously: “No, it will be more than nothing.”
[…]
A final round of the UN-mediated talks ended last month without reaching a negotiated settlement.
Serbia has offered Kosovo broad autonomy, but insists the province remain part of Serbian territory. Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority demands full independence.
After years of international sanctions, the 1990s Balkan wars and subsequent NATO bombings, Serbia is in no position to defend Kosovo militarily against leading world powers and the 16,000-strong NATO presence, analysts said, however.
But prime minister Vojislav Kostunica’s aid, Aleksandar Simic in a Serbian TV appearance on Tuesday shocked the Serbian public when he stated: “War also represents legal means” in defence of the country, “when there are no others.”
Serbia’s key ally, Russia, has already blocked an independence plan for Kosovo in the UN Security Council and Belgrade insists the top UN decision-making body is the only place a valid decision can be made.
[…]
Jaksic said the 100,000 Serbs remaining in Kosovo, who live mainly in northern part of the province, would try to retain ties with Belgrade even after the declaration of independence.
He expressed the hope that NATO forces would protect them if ethnic Albanians resorted to violence. “But I have a feeling that they are more concerned with blocking our ties with Belgrade and keeping Kosovo united under
[…]
Belgrade political analyst Slobodan Eric said granting Kosovo independence “would not solve, but only freeze the problem. It will inevitably surface again, sooner or later,” Eric told AKI.
I’m ashamed that the American government is the primary arm-twister in this farrago of “self-determination”.
There’s no oil in Kosovo, and no other payoff that I can think of besides the approval of the our good friends among the descendants of King Abd al-Aziz Ibn Abdur Rahman Al-Feisal al-Saud.
So why embark on this patently foolish course?
I can only attribute it to a combination of characteristics that seem peculiar to the Bush administration: ignorance, wishful thinking, and a special brand of feckless optimism uncontaminated by any sense of the likely consequences of our actions.
The KLA is for all intents and purposes is an Islamist criminal gang importing Wahhabism into the heart of Europe, and financing it all by running the major heroin rackets in Western Europe. Turning Kosovo over to them has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever hatched in the plushly-carpeted warrens of Foggy Bottom.
In 1683 the Muslim hordes were turned back at the gates of Vienna. In 2008 the West, led by the United States, will be holding the gates open to welcome them in. And this time there will be no Jan III Sobieski to save us.
God help us all. We will rue the day we grant independence to Kosovo.
Hat tip: insubria.
25 comments:
This post, like Fjordman's earlier, has a fatal flaw.
The fatal flaw is that there is a profound difference between Albanian nationalism, with Albanians happening to be Muslims, and Muslim immigrants in Western Europe. The latter are brand new communities that call into question the ethnic and cultural identities of their host states.
In contrast, the Albanians represent several hundred years of settlement in Kosovo - since 1389 in fact. The best analogy to Albanian Muslims in Kosovo is not Muslims in the Netherlands or Belgium, but rather Northern Irish Protestants, who moved to the Emerald Isle from Scotland and Great Britain starting in the 16th century. And the Serb demands for Kosovo united with Serbia can be compared to demands that Northern Ireland be forcibly integrated into a Catholic united Ireland.
The actions of the leaders that have been chosen by the Serbian people since they chose Slobodan Milosevic in the 1980's are the primary cause for the current crisis, which is the last sorry part of the saga of the breakup of Yugoslavia. If the Serb leadership and their Croat counterparts had worked to keep Yugoslavia together then Kosovo would now be what it was before, an autonomous region within the Serbian portion of Yugoslavia. Thanks to Serb nationalism and Slobodan Milosevic's cynical manipulation of it, Humpty Dumpty cannot be put back together again.
If you were a garden variety ethnic Albanian living in Kosovo, would you trust your future to a nation that would elect the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, and glorify the likes Radko Mladic and "Arkan" to be your rulers?
The Muslim angle of the Kosovo issue is the result of opportunistic foreign jihadis taking advantage of the mess made by Serbia and Milosevic to gain a wedge in. It is best handled by granting Kosovo independence and then isolating Jihadi elements within the country. Baron, can you provide links from authoritative sources that the KLA is "an Islamist criminal gang importing Wahhabism into the heart of Europe, and financing it all by running the major heroin rackets in Western Europe?"
Is Albania proper currently being ruled by Wahhabi puppets? I don't think so. And neither will Kosovo. And neither will Bosnia for that matter, unless the West takes your foolish advice and pushes these European Muslims into the arms of the Jihadis by foolishly backing the perpetrators of Srebenicza.
The preservation and possible expansion of a major US military facility, Camp Bondsteel, may well be a factor in the government's policy.
@....Gordon,
I would politely suggest you do some online research. Your comment also has some flaws. First off, it's been said for many years that the Albanians are controlling the heroin trade in Europe. Wasn't a Scandi official in trouble not 2-3 months ago for stating that? And wasn't his statement quietly supported by the police there?
The chief group among the Kosovar Albanians is the former KLA. As I commented recently on another GoV post, the KLA was classified by the US State Department as a terrorist group. It seems they were involved in the heroin trade in Europe. But then Clinton decided to wag the dog, and in order to attack the Serbs, it was necessary to ally with the KLA. Voila!, a few days before the attacks started, the KLA was suddenly no longer a "terrorist group".
Finally, you are perhaps right about Kosovars being nationalists first. However, as I continued in my recent comment, Albania proper has made noises (in harmony with the Kosovars) about a unification of Kosovo and Albania. Oh, and for good measure, large chunks of every other country in the region. Basically, if there are Albanians there, they want to reunite with Albania. Which would make them a regional power (relatively speaking).
Then what? An Islamic country in the heart of the Balkans, with a large alliance of smugglers, nationalists, and yes, even Islamists running the show?
Not a pleasant thought.
CORRECTION...
"The ignorance and mishandling of the ancient conflicts in the Balkans led directly to Europe’s auto-immolation in two apocalyptic wars, and indirectly to the auto-da-fe of political correctness that has emerged as the regnant European ideology in the wake of those wars."
That is not true. The "mishandling" of that is NOT what led to war. The war was planned out in great detail by the Kaiser. The Lubavitcher Rebbe of that time wrote about it in his memoirs, and what a wicked person the Kaiser was for that. Perhaps that event forced his hand and led to a different unfolding than he planned, but it was NOT the cause.
Also, my Mom told me a personal anecdote about how her family came to America. My Grandfather, from Poland, came here to avoid being drafted into the Russian army a number of years before the war broke out. He did that because the Russian officers who rode in the stage coach he drove told him that when the war, which everyone knew was coming, finally broke out that he would not be fighting for Poland but for Russia, which is NOT something that appealed to him. Thank G-d they liked him enough to tell him that, and that he listened to them.
So, I know that the lie we have all been told in school is just that. Unfortunately, unless you have access to information passed on by people from that time rather than theoreticians who "reasoned" it out, how would you know?
ytba --
You are quite right. The "mishandling" was in fact a process that covered decades, and involved using the Balkan fragments of the Ottoman Empire as pawns in a power game between Germany (through its Austrian surrogate) and Russia.
Kaiser Wilhelm II did indeed intend war, and that is why he fired Bismarck when he came to the throne, because Bismarck could see the folly of it, and the Kaiser couldn't.
The Russians, however, did not want or intend the war. The Czar was not smart, and was dragged into the whole mess by his prior commitment to Serbia.
Whether the war could have been avoided in 1914 by different behavior on the part of Russia is an open question.
However, the war was bound to come sooner or later, as long as Willy was Kaiser.
It's also possible that war is bound to come to us now, and our only choice will be to pick which powder keg to ignite. Islam seems determined that it will be at war with us.
Regardless of all this: no argument can convince me that pushing for an independent Kosovo is a good idea.
RATHER THAN REINVENTING THE WHEEL...
...please see my posts on the topic of Albania and it's Muslim terror connections at this site. I give lots of references which I hope will be helpful in realizing that America did a very bad thing.
For e.g., here's just one reference with lots of documentation of just how the "Albanians" are working for "peace".
...a very very bad thing, indeed.
@baron bodissey
Thanks for filling in some details I wasn't aware of. Every bit of info helps to build a bigger picture; something our leaders ought to be doing, but aren't (at least not in the real world).
"Islam seems determined that it will be at war with us."
Yes. As a Saudi ex chief-justice says,...
"...you will not find any organization past or present, religious or non religious as regards (Jihad and military) (ordering) the whole nation to march forth and mobilize all of them. into active military service as a single row for Jihad in Allah's Cause ... as you will find in the Islamic Religion and its teachings." [Saudi editor/translator's original emphasis and comments]
"no argument can convince me that pushing for an independent Kosovo is a good idea."
Me either. But Bush seems as clueless about that as he is about the so-called "Palestinians" (many of whom are actually descendants of Mussies from the Balkans, btw).
It's disingenuous to refer to Princips simply as a "Bosnian Serb". He was one of a team of seven, recruited by the Serbian "Black Hand" organization, which was led by a senior Serbian government minister. The team received their training, weapons, and instructions in Serbia, and went to Sarajevo with the explicit order to kill the Archduke. Furthermore, all seven were sufferers of tuberculosis, thus fated to die shortly, thus specially selected to act without fear of reprisals. It was a nasty, nasty Serbian terror plot. I would think they get what they deserve, but against the Muslims, I back the Serbs.
ONCE UPON A GORDON
"Is Albania proper currently being ruled by Wahhabi puppets? I don't think so. And neither will Kosovo. And neither will Bosnia for that matter, unless the West takes your foolish advice and pushes these European Muslims into the arms of the Jihadis by foolishly backing the perpetrators of Srebenicza."
Unfortuantely for his argument, the "perpetrators of Srebenicza[sic]" WERE NOT.
""The court [International Court Of Justice, ICJ] concluded that there was no genocide in Bosnia, except for the massacres in July 1995 around Srebrenica. . . . [and also that Serbia] . . . was not responsible for “complicity in [that] genocide. . . ”.".
Also, see this thorough compilation.
THERE WAS NO GENOCIDE BY SERBIANS.
But, they have to keep repeating that falsehood, because without it their whole argument falls apart, as it should.
SLOPPY FACTS =>SLOPPY REASONING => SLOPPY CONCLUSIONS => SLOPPY BEHAVIOR
cincinnatus' CONSPIRICIES ARE US
THE "BLACK HAND" was an official arm of the Serbian govt???
Riiiight!
And the Black Panthers, and the Weather Underground were arms of the FBI and CIA.
LOL - good one!
Cincinatus, Apis was never a minister of any governement and besides nobody has ever managed to prove he has organized the assasination.
Also, your claim that all the participants had tuberculosis is simply untrue. Only Princip got it in jail and eventually succumbed to it. One of the conspirators, Vasa Čubrilović, lived well until his nineties. Do your homework next time.
The Baron is correct about WW1 being only a matter of time. It is a fact that the Ottoma's were intent on expanding their slowly shrinking (sick man of Europe) empire. The Brits begged them to stay out of it, but the Turks refused, because they were promised great gains by the Kaiser.
As far as Kosovo is concerned, the US's approach of ramrodding the Serbs with the acceptance of the inevitable, a sovereign Kosovo, is a direct violation of Serbian sovereignty itself, and therefore in breach of international law.
It will serve as a mallet to beat the heads of any other sovereign state with a restless Muslim minority.
Consider this: "The prime minister of Serbia was given advance warning of the assassination plot, and whilst a sympathiser of the Black Hand's objectives - Bosnia-Herzegovina achieving independence from Austro-Hungary - he feared war with Austria-Hungary should an assassination attempt be successful. He therefore gave orders for the arrest of the three men as they left the country; his orders were not acted upon however."
This tellus that (1) the Serbian government was aware of the plot, up to the highest level, and (2) the machinery of the Serbian government effected the plot to the extent that they disobeyed the prime minister's attempt to stop it.
Looks pretty open & shut to me.
1914?
This time it could end more happily, if (from my keyboard to God's ear) Russia puts her foot down. Putin is feeling frisky after his election victory; Russians like to see him b-slapping the West. Here's a great opportunity.
From the point of view of the defense of Europe, stopping the establishment of one more two-bit trouble-maker country is a no-brainer.
But the effect on the European Street might be electric. The Russians' motives might be purely malevolent and cynical, but that wouldn't alter the fact. They defended a Christian population against a moslem takeover. Finally somebody stood up to Islam in Europe.
This would be worth a thousand anti-jihadist conferences.
OK, guys, scoff if you want. But it could happen.
Cincinnatus...
Austria-Hungary had taken over and occupied Serbian lands in Bosnia. Gavrilo Princip and everyone else who fought back against them had every right - and in fact the DUTY - to do exactly what they did.
Let's have a hypothetical situation here: Suppose AQ were to take over an enclave within the US (assuming they haven't already done so), and suppose I got a good sight picture on someone like Ayman al-Zawahiri. Suppose I do what any decent American should do, and I pull the trigger. For this, you would no doubt call me a participant in a "nasty, nasty American terror plot." Shame on you!
BTW, my latest takedown of Nodrog (f/k/a "Gordon" and probably a CJ sockpuppet) is here:
Attacking genuine evil in the blogosphere
Read it and learn why these constant blood-libels against the Serbian people are providing aid and comfort to our jihadist enemies in the Balkans.
The gloves are off!
NO GENOCIDE, 2 MORE LINKS
(1) - Former OSCE Observer Speaks Out No evidence of genocide or ethnic cleansing in Kosovo
(2) - Press Reports On False Claims Of Genocide By Serbs In Kosovo
1389: Bosnia was never part of Serbia before 1914. It was part of Austria-Hungary, before that the Ottoman Empire, before that Hungary & local rulers, going back to the Byzantines and Ostrogoths. So your comparative example is no comparison at all.
I can tell you that people in Europe, especially Eastern Europe are horrified by an independent Kosovo, pushed by the USA.
The first result will be that it will push Serbia in Russia’s hands, and then, it will create many separatist movements in many other countries.
Just listen to Putin, for God's sake!
Cincinnatus, Bosnia was being occupied (and, of course, heavily taxed) by a hostile Austro-Hungarian Empire, but this occupation was not supposed to be permanent. The Serbs were sold out in a secret treaty between Austria-Hungary and Russia, after which Austria-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia in a bid to make their tyranny permanent.
You should do some research about Austria-Hungary's attempt to exterminate the Serbian people during WWI.
The only good thing that can be said about Austria-Hungary is that it was not the Ottoman Empire.
The only good thing that can be said about the Ottoman Empire is that it has ceased to exist.
Then as now, the Serbian people deserve to be free, independent, and united in their own lands.
Anyone who objects to that is quite simply a bigot.
Reading these posts I cannot help be reminded of the founding of Bangladesh and Pakistan. Neither appeasement has quelled Muslim aspirations in India. It has only led to increased fragmentation (Kashmir) and violence.
Islam's predictability is no solace but it may help those who are not insensible to place *survival* a little higher on the to-do list.
...and in reference to the comment about Islam's duration in the Balkans being comparable to the Protestant invasion of Ireland, how long have the Muslims been in... India?
1389 - is that the best you can do? Suffice it to say that I completely disagree with the whole premise of your blog and your comments here.
The claim that I am Charles Johnson's sock puppet is one that popped up at LGF quite often, and I'll be discussing it at nodrogsgreatesthits.blogspot.com later in my saga.
Nodrog (formerly known as Gordon),
I find it quite reassuring that you disagree with me on everything! You are a leftist and a jihadist-sympathizer, and it is very clear that your motives, in this and every other matter, are purely destructive.
It doesn't matter whether you are, in fact, one of CJ's sock puppets, or merely one of his ignorant stooges. The relevant fact is that you, Nodrog, are doing CJ's dirty work.
Gordon,
There are too many Muslim "national secessionist" groups serving as the user-friendly front-ends to Islamic imperialism for that worn-out idea to be taken seriously. I cannot take it to be a coincidence that the Kosovar, Chechen, Fakestinian and Southern Thai "separatists" all operate with the same methods, instituting the same laws (shariah) and--in their more honest moments--saying it's all for Allah.
We should be wary even of those who are clearly, as you say, "nationalists who happen to be Muslims". Take the Kurds, for instance: they're a real nation, and they're an industrious lot, in contrast especially to the Pretendestinians, who make their own failures. But they are Muslims. They may not take Islam seriously now, but then neither did first-generation immigrants from Algeria to France of circa 30 years ago. The original impulse can be recalled, by any kind of trigger.
In saner days, there was an English king who, in his treaty with the chieftain of the Norse invaders after a great victory over him, included the demand that they leave their warlike paganism, with its dreams of Valhalla, and embrace the religion of the invaded country. That secured England's peace with the Norsemen until the French invasion in 1066. But such moves are not made now, for they are "culturally imperialist, colonialist, racist" yada yada.
1389,
Gordon was Charles' kept leftist provocateur on LGF, back when LGF was still relatively PC-free. Now that LGF's gone on a tailspin, Gordon is just riding on the crest.
God bless.
ZY
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