Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Serbia to the EU: Drop Dead

It seems that even the blandishments of the European Union are not enough to persuade the Serbs to give up Kosovo voluntarily.

According to EuroNews:

Serbia to snub EU and deny Kosovo independence

Serbia has re-affirmed its absolute opposition to independence for Kosovo, even if that causes a rift with the European Union. Belgrade had been offered a fast-track to EU membership, in return for relaxing its position on its breakaway province. But Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic said Belgrade would reject Brussels’ approaches, and possible membership of NATO, if the West recognises Kosovo in the New Year.

“We very much hope that come the end of January, Serbia will have signed the stabilisation and association agreement with the European Union,” he said. “Serbia is going to stay on a path towards Europe. But, Serbia will do everything in its institutional power, short of using military force, to make sure that our sovereignty and territorial integrity is upheld.”

So what means can a sovereign nation employ to uphold its territorial integrity, short of using military force?

These are the options I can think of:
- - - - - - - - -
  • A plea to foreign powers not to interfere with Serbian military affairs.
  • A strongly-worded diplomatic note of protest to the country or countries whose armed forces assist Kosovo in attaining independence.
  • A call to neighboring countries in the Balkans for diplomatic support against the countries that interfere.
  • The submission of a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly calling for the world body to enforce Serbia’s territorial integrity.
  • Lying down on the floor and screaming until the world decides to leave Serbia alone.

In other words, Serbia has no recourse short of military force to ensure that its territorial integrity is respected by foreign powers.

The article goes on to say:

The resolution in parliament had the backing of Serbia’s President and Prime Minister, as well as opposition leaders. Kosovo’s Albanian majority enjoys the support of the United States and Western Europe, and its leaders are ready to declare unilateral independence early next year. The Serbian President demanded that NATO peacekeepers protect Serbs in Kosovo, and warned that if they could not, the Serbian army would do the job.

A reminder of who the foreign powers will be that create an independent Kosovo against the will of Serbia: NATO.

That means, in effect, the United States of America.

Will the USA really use military force to carve a Wahhabist gangster statelet out of a Christian nation whose territorial integrity it is bound by treaty to uphold?

Stay tuned. We’ll find out soon enough.


Hat tip: Henrik.

29 comments:

VinceP1974 said...

Considering the degenerate state of our foreign policy, i expect we'll do the worst possible option.

rickl said...

I stand with Serbia.

Even back in the 90's, I had a sneaking suspicion that the U.S. was on the wrong side in that war. Now I'm convinced of it.

I guess that means I'm also agreeing with Russia right now. Well, stranger things have happened, I suppose, but not many.

Anonymous said...

You go, Serbia!
Don't back down, and slap the treacherous EU in the interfering face!

Reliapundit said...

LINKED TO YOU HERE:

"IS KOSOVO THE "INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'S" DRESS-REHEARSAL FOR THE WEST BANK"


http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2007/12/
is-kosovo-international-communitys.html

LINK SPLIT TO FIT

Conservative Swede said...

"Serbia will do everything in its institutional power, short of using military force..."

This is of course diplomacy talk.

In other words, Serbia has no recourse short of military force to ensure that its territorial integrity is respected by foreign powers.

Ultimately no.

Will the USA really use military force to carve a Wahhabist gangster statelet out of a Christian nation whose territorial integrity it is bound by treaty to uphold?

This is an interesting scenario. Russia would surely join on Serbia's side. It could lead to a world war. Maybe with China also joining against the USA and the EUSA (I do not know why people insist on calling EU the EUSSR, when EUSA seems so much more appropriate).

It would have many advantages: i) we would finally be in a wartime situation and our job would become so much easier, ii) the Wilsonian world order would be so thoroughly discredited as a result of this, providing the momentum for reversing our civilizational suicide (and the EU will be ripped into pieces already at an early stage of such a war).

But of course the USA will probably back off as soon as Russia joins Serbia.

Hmmm... Maybe a Democratic president would be stupid enough to push it all the way to a world war? An arrogant Mayor Thielemans type of president would probably guarantee a world war.

Another good feature of such a world war is that I do not expect it to go on for too long. There won't be long before there is a revolution in America. But the point is that the war will be long enough to put and end to the current world order.

And then, while we will already be in wartime situation...

Conservative Swede said...

It won't come to a world war, obviously (which is good, because I really do not wish that scenario for the poor Serbians). But the geopolitical "chess" this could lead to, can surely have enough of the desired effect.

1. USA pushing things too far, threatening to bomb Serbia (again).

2. Putin stepping in, declaring that he will attack in America if USA touches Serbia.

USA will back of at this point, of course. But a wonderful unrepairable rift will have been created in the "world community". A rift which tension will tear EU apart, and set other things in motion that is in our interest.

Cobra said...

My heart is with the Serbian people, the great fighters.
I pray to GOD for the USA to see the light and what its stupid policy lead to.

Conservative Swede said...

I wrote above: "i) we would finally be in a wartime situation..."

I'm of course referring to what I wrote earlier in this thread.

Profitsbeard said...

No to another jihadi stronghold in Europe!

(Rotterdam is enough.)

Consul-At-Arms said...

I've quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/12/re-serbia-to-eu-drop-dead.html

Anonymous said...

I was just thinking of this today, and wondering what I would do if I were in the American military and were ordered to fight the Serbs, who are in the right. I think I might have to desert or pretend to be a conscientious objector. What should a politically aware soldier do in a case like this? Individual soldiers don't have the right to decide their own foreign policy, but I personally couldn't participate in something so obviously wrong. Good thing I'm too old to join up.

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

Cyprus, Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Greece have all expressed concerns and are unlikely to back EU acceptance of Kosovo, interesting to see how the Lisbon treaty will work then if the EU decides to ramrod it through anyway....

Wider war is most unlikely, or even significant military force against Serbia. Jihad plagued 2008 is not New World Order 1998, hence the need for consensus and scam diplomacy.

Henrik R Clausen said...

Details from Serbia are posted at Byzantine Sacred Arts Blog

Francis W. Porretto said...

If memory serves, the US is not obliged under the Atlantic Charter to do anything unless one of the other member states of NATO is attacked. Therefore, unless Serbia attacks a NATO member, American forces need not enter the contest.

"Need not." That doesn't mean they will not, of course. Given the perversity of our foreign policy these last few years, it would be unwise to bet the rent on any specific outcome.

Watch. Wait. Pray.

Vol-in-Law said...

Good luck Serbia. Semper fi.

Anonymous said...

I'll stand with Serbia also.

I've long had doubts about whose side the US State Department represents. For a long time I've felt it's not on the side of common sense or the American people.

The US was wrong in to intervene in Bosnia and support the wrong side when they did. Perhaps now that a few more Americans now know what a 'Bosnia' is, fewer will be passive towards or tolerant of the actions of rogue government agencies. One can hope.

eatyourbeans said...

We need to spread the word around the rightside of the American blogosphere. SUPPORT SERBIA!

Ed Mahmoud said...

Henrik said...
Details from Serbia are posted at Byzantine Sacred Arts Blog



The Serbs got a raw deal in the Yugoslav Civil War, as all the sides (except maybe the Slovenians) were committing atrocities, and the world only seemed to care about Serbia. To be expected, I guess, when one side is Muslim, with the modern press.

And a modern al Qaeda controlled state in Europe is the last thing anyone needs, especially if the Albanian Muslims get to travel throughout the EU.


But 'Svetlana', one of the administrators there, makes it clear she thinks all of this Kosovo independence talk is the result of a Vatican plot going on since 1054 to topple the Orthodox church.

No, really.

I'd think she'd do better letting go of thousand year old slights and grievances and looking at the religion that is really committed to destroying Christianity (including the Eastern churches), Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and pretty much every -ism that isn't Islam.




OT:
Speaking of Islam is as Islam does...

Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack

X said...

Fellow Peacekeeper, in theory the lisbon constitutional treaty (lets call it what it is) gives the EU the power to ramrod this very issue if it so chooses. The reaction to that will be interesting since up to now so much of the EU's decision-making has been based on majority consensus rather than a single, central authority figure. The constitution provides for a single European foreign policy rather than a "common position" and I suspect a lot of the member states haven't fully realised what this means yet. Certainly the UK hasn't.

DP111 said...

As VinceP1974 said...Considering the degenerate state of our foreign policy, i expect we'll do the worst possible option.

There is a persistent fantasy in US foreign policy, that Muslims are the same as everybody else – they are Moms and Dads( and how), and aspire to the same things, such as liberty, decent standard of living, etc.

Given this persistent fantasy, America has consistently supported Muslim states against non-Muslim ones, in almost every conflict. As each of its policies is shredded by Islamist aspirations, America perseveres ever more to sustain its fantasy. America never really understood, and still does not understand, that Serbia is a historic nation, and its claims to Kosovo are based on Serbian attachment to the land of Kosovo. Serbia can never recognise the forced detachment by the USA, of its birthplace by a group of immigrants from Albania, simply on the basis that Albanians are now a majority.

I sincerely hope that Serbs do not bend to the will of the US/EU. As for what Serbs can do. Serbs are tenacious fighters. They made life absolute hell for the Nazis, and the Nazis did not have the chains of PC warfare that the US has tied itself with. And unlike the last time, Russia is not governed by an alcoholic who did not know what was happening. In any clash of wills, the US will have to consider the following

1. Its attack on Serbia was totally illegitimate
2. Its occupation of Kosovo, though sanctioned by the US, is itself illegal, as Serbia, the legitimate sovereign power does not accept that occupation.
3. The US has a lot more to loose then Russia in any conflict.

eatyourbeans said...

Russia can figuratively and literally stop this gang rape dead in its tracks, by turning off a tap in Siberia. The EUcrats will learn who they are the Mini-Me of. As for the US, it breaks my heart even to think it, it'd be best for all if Russia stared us down. This is pretty much what we did to the Brits & French in the Suez crisis some 50 years ago, so there's a certain justice.

DP111 said...

Just heard that Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated. That was to be expected. It was never a good policy of the US, to force President Musharraf to allow Bhutto to come to Pakistan. It is however, in keeping with the touching belief that Muslims can be like us, and want liberty, economic progress etc. Her assassination is now going to trigger even more violence then is the norm in Pakistan.

Sometimes I think that this urge to force liberal democracy down Muslim throats is a cynical Western policy, deliberately designed to destroy a functioning Muslim state. Muslims wish to be ruled by a ruler, who governs according to the laws of the Koran and shari’a. Whether that ruler does so or not - not as in most cases, does not matter. So long as the facade is maintained that Islamic law is the governing law, people will live reasonably contented. Democracy OTH is rule by man made laws, and an open flouting of Allah and his commandments. This is an open incitement to any Muslim. So tolerably working Muslim nations are torn asunder, and more open to subjugation.

Multiculturalism is similar, in that it is an ideology being forcibly implemented in the West, particularly Europe. It may appear benign, just as democracy for the “Muslim world” appears to be, but it has teeth. It showed that teeth in Yugoslavia. Multiculturalism is a policy that attempts to destroy the historic link between land and people. It does so, knowing that once this is achieved, there will be no unified and organised opposition to the dictat of a supranational governing elite. This is what the open borders policy of the EU is doing. I think that a similar attempt was in process in the USA - to dilute State rights in favour of Federal and NAFTA policy. It’s the good old “Divide and rule” policy. Was good for the Roman and British Empires, so why not now. In a way, it is comforting to know that things never really change.

closed said...

The EU can't do anything.

During the last war in Bosnia, the only armies that really fought were the US, Ukranian, and the Serbs.

All of the other NATO forces ( with the exception of the British ) would simply surrender when confronted ... literally ... they were not allowed by their own State's rules of engagement to shoot back.

The US forces there would shoot if merely threatened ... and the Ukranians would shoot simply because they could ... heh.

. said...

1. Please provide evidence that the leaders of Kosovo are "Wahhabist."

2. Please provide evidence that the leaders of Kosovo are "gangsters."

3. Is your hatred of Islam so great that you would actually welcome Russian troops in the Balkans?

4. Has neighboring Albania, or Bosnia, become a "Wahhabist gangster state?" Are they "jihadist strongholds?" Please provide evidence.

5. Have the rulers of Serbia promised to provide the residents of Kosovo (ALL the residents) full civil and economic rights if they agree to rejoin Serbia?

6. Has Kosovo been promised immediate entry into the EU with independence, so that Kosovar "wahhabist gangsters" can start infiltrating the rest of the EU?

7. Do posters on this site really want to ally themselves with the likes of Arkan and Radtko Mladic in a crusade against "the Turks?"

Baron Bodissey said...

Nodrog --

If I thought you were asking those questions in good faith, I'd give a detailed answer. But I don't, so I won't.

If you were a long-time reader of Gates of Vienna, you'd know that I have posted extensively on the topic of the KLA as a Wahhabist mafia and its control of the heroin trade in most of Europe. The evidence I have cited is considerable and well-documented.

Go to the search box at the top of this blog and search on "kosovo heroin". Then load up the posts and follow the links. Ditto for "kosovo wahhabist".

Or, alternatively, you might remember that Google is your best friend.

ole said...

To "gordon" ,if he stil exists

Concerning points 1,2and 4 :The burden of evidence naturally falls on anybody who claims that a muslim entity is NOT wahabist ,gangster-minded or worse.

3. YES

5. So F..... WHAT !

6. If not today so tomorrow.

7. Do YOU GORDON really want to ally yourself with ISLAAM aganst the rest of humanity

. said...

Well Baron, I went to my best friend and found this article: http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/2335.cfm#down . It presents a rather balanced view of Islam in the Balkans that I'm sure you do not agree with in many of its particulars. It presents a much less alarming picture than you do.

While the KLA is undoubtedly financed by drugs, I question the validity of the claims that it is a Wahhabist organization, or an al-qaeda type front. At present, thanks to the actions of Milosevic and the former Serbian overlords, it is a broad-based national liberation organization, primarily based upon Albanian ethnicity rather than Islam.

I believe that in an independent Kosovo, the KLA will fall apart. Already its members have split into opposing political parties in Kosovo's polity.

What will unite the Kosovars and bring back the spectre of Wahhabism and radical Islam? Any attempt to return the country into the Serbian maw.

But perhaps that is what you really want - a full-scale war that ends up with the "cleansing" of Albanian Muslims from Kosovo?

I hope not.

soko.tica said...

@The Poster Formerly Known as Gordon

...

5. YES, as they always were. Unfortunatelly, the promise is now extended to an unknown number of illegal immigrants from Albania, who obtained the documents there under occupation (and continued their path towards EU and USA).

7. Ratko Mladic is an unseen hero and a military genius, a real knight, whom never ordered or allowed anything wrong against civilians. The entire histerya against his "crimes" is a lie.

Arkan got a song from Latio soccer club fans (that's in Rome, Italy) - "El Tigre Arkan".

Have a nice day.

-----------
@everybody else
Serbia will probably not go to war for Kosovo immediatelly, but only once we've got a green light from Russia.

My guess is that we are waiting now US to back off and retreat honorably. We are not itchy for US humiliation.

Keep following the news about Kosovo. It's going to be messy.

Heck, I'll probably going to be in war with you again, though I don't hate neither you nor your country. It's US policy towards us in the last 17 years that left us no choice.

All the best.

Vol-in-Law said...

BTW 'The Clash of Civilisations' by Huntington has a good discussion of the Islamist nature of the Bosnian-Muslim government (ca 1995-6) and the disinformation campaign that presented it to the West (ie USA) as 'secular' and 'moderate'.