If you do, they’ll mobilize all their divisions and… oh, no, wait a minute, that’s not right… umm… they’ll issue administrative directives and, er, appoint a commission to investigate your malfeasance.
Yeah, that’s what they’ll do!
And maybe — just maybe — they’ll ask NATO to bomb the crap out of you again.
But the Serbs are flipping them the bird, anyway:
Angry EU officials attack Serb’s blocking of pact with Brussels- - - - - - - - -
The European Union criticized Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of Serbia on Wednesday after the nationalist leader blocked plans to sign a political and economic agreement with Brussels.
He called the agreement a “deception” aimed at tricking Belgrade into conceding the independence of Kosovo.
The pro-Western president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, who won re-election Sunday, had backed the accord, which would expand trade, ease visa restrictions and improve student exchanges between Serbia and the Union. But after Kostunica accused the EU of trying to trick Belgrade into letting Kosovo go, the EU said his unwillingness to back the deal had made it legally impossible to proceed with a signing ceremony planned for Thursday.
Olli Rehn, the EU commissioner responsible for the Union’s expansion, made little attempt to conceal his anger. “I deeply regret the obstruction by certain politicians in Belgrade in blocking the signature,” he said. He accused Kostunica of ignoring the will of Serbian people, as expressed in the election of Tadic, who made EU membership the centerpiece of his campaign.
Rehn attacked the prime minister by name for linking Serbia’s EU membership aspirations and the future of Kosovo. “It is truly sad for Serbia, if politicians continue to put power games ahead of their own citizens’ interests,” he said, adding that “certain politicians” were seeking a “divorce before the marriage has even been agreed.” He also chastised Kostunica’s nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia for opposing the deal.
Kosovo, a breakaway province of Serbia that is expected to declare independence this month with the backing of the EU and the United States, has been under United Nations administration since 1999 after NATO intervened to halt Slobodan Milosevic’s repression of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority. Serbs consider the territory to have been their medieval heartland and it is the location of several important Serbian religious sites.
Analysts said Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer who helped lead the revolution that overthrew Milosevic in 2000, was determined not to go down in history as the Serbian leader who lost Kosovo, even if that meant destroying the country’s future within the EU.
“Serbia is heading toward disaster,” said Zoran Dogramadziev, a Serbian commentator. “Kosovo is lost and now we also risk losing Europe as well.”
Kostunica’s intransigence was buttressed by the strong showing in the presidential election by the nationalist Radical Party candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, a former Milosevic ally, who argues that Serbia should punish the West for its support of an independent Kosovo by turning toward Russia and China.
Tadic, who supports closer ties with the European Union and Washington, also is vehemently opposed to Kosovo’s independence. But he made it clear during his election campaign that he was not willing to sacrifice Serbia’s European future.
Ministers of his Democratic Party have demanded that Kostunica convene the cabinet, where they hold a majority strong enough to endorse the Brussels pact. Kostunica has refused to do so. Instead, he is pushing to take the issue to Parliament where he can rely on the votes of the Radical Party, Serbia’s strongest single party, to back him in what promises to be a showdown over the country’s direction.
Dogramadziev said the crisis would probably cause Kostunica, whose Democratic Party of Serbia rules in a coalition with Tadic’s Democratic Party, to collapse the government and force early elections. There is widespread speculation in Belgrade that Kostunica will try to form a new majority with the Radical Party. But Nikolic has clashed with Kostunica in the past and it remains unclear whether he would now embrace the prime minister.
Kostunica’s stance hardened after the EU announced this week that it had approved plans to send a supervisory mission to Kosovo to take over administration of the province. Kostunica said Tuesday that an accord with the EU as it prepared to take over administration of Kosovo would be tantamount to Serbia’s giving a blessing to its dismemberment.
“The EU’s proposal to sign a political agreement with Serbia while at the same time sending a mission to break apart our state is a deception aimed at getting Serbia effectively to sign its agreement to Kosovo independence,” Kostunica said.
Officials in Kosovo said they would proceed toward independence, regardless of the political crisis in Serbia. Several said Kostunica’s actions could accelerate independence because Kosovo’s leaders might declare independence sooner.
Stephen Castle reported from Brussels.
It’s time for everyone to support Serbia in its resistance against the establishment of an independent Kosovo.
20 comments:
No, it's time to stop supporting a nation mired in a nationalist, irredentist past where domination and subjugation of conquered peoples is glorified. In Serbia's case, this past occurred in the 13th and 14th centuries, which makes the longings even more absurd.
Serbia is an example of why Europe needs an EU. The EU was set up to damp down the nationalist and ethnic passions on the continent that led to two utterly disastrous 20th century war/holocausts.
The primarily Serbian transgressions in the 1990's in Bosnia (although the Croats and Bosnian Muslims were not innocent) were a nasty reminder of the "old Europe" that the EU must replace.
Just because the EU is currently run by idiots doesn't mean the EU is intrinsically evil. It must be reformed, not replaced.
And Serbia must give up its dreams of reconquering territory lost in 1389 and subjugating the now 90% majority non-Serbian population (and, by the way, Serbians have not been a majority in Kosovo for about 100 years now).
Former Gordon, it seems you do not realize that incompetent EU/US interference *created* the hell that the former Yugoslavia went through. It was completely avoidable, had Germany not forced Hitler's old and wrecked border on the nation, and had we not demonized the Serbs over and over - not least by this mean 'Concentration camp' smear where suddenly everyone thought the Serbs are as evil as Nazis.
Nationalism, in its conservative way, makes a lot of sense. "I take care of my country, you take care of yours." That's non-aggressive and useful.
What the European Union is doing is to force 'Unity' on us all. That works, until the string snaps and we're all so pissed by being run by Brussels that the whole thing collapses into a chaos we've never imagined.
If the EU was to fall apart, several of its member states would fail, for the politicians have all but forgotten how to take care of their own nations.
Thank you for that laughably absurd moral inversion, Gordon.
Robert Spencer, Hugh Fitzgerald, Serge Trifkovic, and anyone else who knows anything about the Muslim Albanians would certainly give you an earful for that statement. Spencer, for one, has stated that we bombed Christian Serbs in favor of Muslim terrorists in the Balkans. I guess we know what side you're on, don't we?
"He accused Kostunica of ignoring the will of Serbian people."
Ha. what a laugh! The EU accusing someone of ignoring the "will of the people". Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Without a doubt, Kosovo is one of the major battles in Europe today. But what really gets me is that wherever you look on the Old Continent, the same thing is happening: Islamization by leaps and bounds on a major scale: This English fool of a bishop who calls for sharia, the Turkish PM visiting Germany to push for investigation of an apartment fire that killed 9 turks and which the Turkish and the leftist German media deem xenophobic, without any evidence. The first muslim party in Denmark, Swedish authorities who abolish free speech for their own and on and on.
The muslim arrogance in Europe is beyond anything that anybody could have imagined only 10 years ago.
Had you told anybody in England 10 years ago, that the Lionheart affair would happen in 2007 or that in 2008 the bishop of Canterbury would call for sharia, he would have told you you’re crazy.
When is it going to happen here, in the US. How are we better protected against islamization than Europe was? And are we at all?
If the Serbs want to put a stick in the eye of the Euro-weenies, then more power to them.
Let there be no doubt about this - Kosovo is schoolbook example of how Muslims conquer territory.
tc,
there is no battle of Kosovo. Serbs already lost. They now have no available options left, save for extermination and expulsion. It is either that, or cut it off while you can and forget about it. Really nice eh?
If it comes to this for Western Europe as well, it will count as defeat of the West.
I was going to comment Baron's post but Gordon is a much more urgent case.
Please, Gordon, don't get this personal, I understand and respect your position, I just think that, if you are an intelligent person, you will change rapidly. I hope you can adress my comment, answering to it and that you reconider your opinion.
I think Baron should, if he has time, draw a clear line of support to the Serbian people and post repeatedly in order for the too much influential American public to support the Serbian people. I also think that, doing that, Baron should not be such a critic of Islam for the sake of imparciality and because the reality and Historical truth is much more hedious than any critic one can came up with.
Is your position purely ideological or do you have some interests evolved on this issue, Gordon?
Firstly, you shall never demonize one person what about one entire people. Nothing is "pure evil". Try to investigate History on your own the more independent you get, the closer you will get to the truth. Only then you shall formulate your opinion and take one side position. Ideological purity is just for girls.
"No, it's time to stop supporting a nation mired in a nationalist, irredentist past where domination and subjugation of conquered peoples is glorified."
In what should a Nation be mired at? maybe in multiculturalism as the U.S.A? No American can ever criticise a Nation such as Serbia in the way you are doing. The Serbian people share much more than some vague idea(l)s, they share blood, History, culture, everything that matters is shared by them. The great American National sentiment/union compaired to this is nothing.
Please, try to realise that troughout centuries the Serbian men have died to protect the sons of their fellow nationals because they knew they would carry on part of them with them. Many Serbians died troughout centuries so that Serbian girls and women could live honourable among other Serbs instead of being sexual slaves. Men died to save the other men's children just because they knew they were so sons of the others as they were of theirs. They share blood and ascendency.
If you could only realise how Empty the American Civil War was compaired to this, how it was a war of interest rather than a war for honour... you should have had shown greater respect for the millions of Serbs around.
Can you please elucidate me on how "domination and subjugation of conquered peoples is glorified" in Serbia?
I think you are a bit confused, aren't you?
"Serbia is an example of why Europe needs an EU"
No, Serbia is the best exemple on how a country shall never became isolated. And an even better exemple of why the European Union is so dangerously because it will not hesitate in atack the very own European people if they can profit with that. They do not have the compromise of honour that National pride provides, they don't feel they have a people to take care of, nor does the people feel the E.U. leaders are there to ensuring the best for them. Actually, as we are seeing the European Union is activingly trying to destroy the European Civilisation itself as well as the European Peoples. They would not care if a banch of Zulus and Thais were living in Europe because for them Europe is just the most desireble continent on earth. But Europe is no continent at all, she is a Goddess. Nor is Serbia a geographical entity, it is a spiritual one as well, it can be hurted and feel pain just as you and me.
"The EU was set up to damp down the nationalist and ethnic passions on the continent that led to two utterly disastrous 20th century war/holocausts."
Yes, originally. Now it seems that it has other purposes beyond that one.
But, do you really know what caused the First World War? I will tell you. It has nothing or little to do with ethnic passions. It all started because of the sistem of alliances in Europe broke down, because there was no clear European power, because the system drawn in the Congress of Viena was held long ago and too many changes had occured. What triggered it was the assassination of a prince of an empire that was anxious to anexate more land to its own profit. The assassination was the reaction of one person that was tired of being a slave. One person and one entire Nation.
The war ended with the dissolution of the authoritarian and opressive empires. The Russian, the Austro Hungarian and the German II Reich.
Do you think that a group of persons is inherently superior to another? Are you kin on opressive empires that opress entire Nations?
So I will tell you that THE FIRST WORLD WAR WAS A GOOD THING and that THE GREAT MAJORORITY OF THE ONES WHO DIED IN THAT WAR WERE PATRIOTS and died for a cause they knew was bigger than themselves, THEIR OWN PEOPLE.
YOU SHOULD SHOW MORE RESPECT FOR THE MILLIONS WHO DIED IN WWI TO SAVE THEIR FAMILIES FROM SLAVERY, THE ONES WHO DIED FOR THEIR PEOPLE, THE ONES WHO MADE THE GREATEST SACRIFICE AND THE PARENTS WHO HAD TO BARRIED THEIR CHILDREN
THOSE DEATHS WERE NOT IN VAIN and you should show much but really much respect for those people.
The Second World War, from the 3rd September 1939 did not started because of "ethnic passions", it started because both France and Britain were scared by Hitler's advances and wanted to stop him. Did Hitler had some rights over Poland? Yes, of course, there were many Germans there, Germans are a race of people too, did you know? They are Humans and even before WWII they were. Did the allies, specially France, had moral autorithy to declare war upon Hitler? No, the French did not, and the British... I can not censure them.
Why didn't France atack Germany when they atacked Checoslovakia, why didn't they atacked Germany when they declared them war? You should note that nothing is "pure evil".
The holocaust is dificult to defend, I will only say that it was war time and that war is war. I regret the millions of Jewish lifes losted but you shall not be invocating all this again and again, it is a bit annoying, you know?
The outcomes of WWII were good either. Mainly thanks to the Brittish and the world is owning that Nation that. Not tanks to the French. Democracy, eradication of opressive fascism/Nationalism and liberty, though restricted, to the peoples of Eastern Europe. This war, however, was much more negative than the first which I can say was clearly a step foward. The Second World War was a jump-back. It gave us powerfull Comunism, the European Union, the end of Colonialism and the start of decay of the European Civilisation wether in Europe or in the Americans. All those terrible things being anti-Nationalistic so, the fall of Nationalistic fervor was, and is, the cause of our current humiliating position. It is no good, you can write this down.
"The primarily Serbian transgressions in the 1990's in Bosnia"
Hey, party boy!
Do you know that the actual Serbian state is 60% Christian?
Did you know that Bosnia has never existed before the nineties as a Nation? Did you know that it was only part of Serbia, part of Croatia?
Do you know that, DESPITE THE BERLIN WALL HAVE COLLAPSED, SARAJEVO IS STILL DEVIDED AND THERE ARE A WEST MUSLIM SARAJEVO AND A EAST SERBIAN SARAJEVO? Berlin was German, not half Russian...
Do you know that 37% of Bosnians are Serbs who live in a half of the country that is 98% Serbian, much more than Britain or Scandinavia or any other country in Western Europe is white?
Do you know that the Bosniaks are the descendents of the Turks who invided Serbia, not the other way around?
Did you know that, according to Samuel Huntinton words, the U.S.A. created Bosnia to delay a problem in Europe creating a buffer State with no future that would ultimateley be divided between Serbia and Croatia?
Did you know that, despite help from everybody (Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, France, you name it...) Bosnia has one of the poorest econimies of Europe?
Do you still think you have any right to defend what you are defending?
"nasty reminder of the "old Europe" that the EU must replace"
OLD EUROPE SHALL NEVER BE REPLACED! Glory to Europe! She, the goddess, is the best Humans and Chimps have ever created. And She is the greatest gift God has ever gave to Humanity. The gross majority of the right wing Europeans like myself would rather die fighting to preserve themselves and their countries than to sucumb the "replacement" it's taken place. When I say replacement I mean all of it. The ones who are not willing to fight are cowards. Our ancestors died for us, it may be needed us to die for our sons and daughters THAT IS WHY I RESPECT AND ADMIRE THE SERBS. In a world like this we're living, they went to fight, not just for themselves but for all of us, for Europe. (Croatia and Slovenia are legitimate states though).
Being cowardly replaced and sucumb is not what the European spirit is about. Bring the third world war in, I will die happily, at least I and my people will vanish honourably, and will not perish under a replacement. I wish it would be just that easy, a big war with clear enemies whom you have to kill otherwise they will kill you. Those were the good old days... The days when the Goddess rulled. And we will not let her daughters, created at Her image, vanish from the face of the World without a fight.
"Just because the EU is currently run by idiots doesn't mean the EU is intrinsically evil. It must be reformed, not replaced."
Yes, it is not "intrinsically evil" but now is a big, big scary evil. I do agree that an European Union would be good but one United in common ground instead of this "United in Die-versity", a Europe of Nations. The Congress of Vienna cames to mind when one thinks of it.
Regading your last sentence, a people has always the right to legitemate defense and, as Israel, the offended are always aloud to fight for what is theirs. You just have to know a bit of History to know who are the offenders and the opressed ones, more than that, you will have to study just a little of History to know, talking of Unions, who are we and who are the others.
Hail Serbia! Long live to the European Serbia and a European Kosovo!
Love, from Lisbon, Portugal
The current mess in Serbia is the direct result of "EU lite", the failed republic of yugoslavia, on which the EU is at least partly modeled. The enforced unification of culturally heterogeneous states will always, always result in war. That's what the EU is - and what each of its predecessors all the way back to the coal and steel union have been about. Every treaty from the first treaty binding German and France into the coal and steel union has been designed as a ratchet to bring about "ever closer union", to not merely damp down nationalism but to destroy the very idea of nationhood. Yugoslavia was an attempt to destroy the nationhood of its dconstituents and dissolved them into the greater whole, the socialist paradise of the yugoslavian republic, which would eventually have been absorbed into a greater soviet empire, and which itself would eventually have transformed into a single, unified, world-wide socialist paradise. Or so said the propaganda...
When the C&SU was conceived, it wasn't merely "irredentist" nationalism that was the target but the very concept of national self-determination, the right of a nation to determine its own affairs. The thought was that, if these nations could be removed and the means of producing weapons divided up across their territories, so that coal would be produced in one country, iron in another and the both turned into steel in a third, war would not be able to happen. It was, in effect, an enforced parody of a free trade zone. By the time it was implemented we already had the nascent EFTA opening up borders and increasing trade between european nations. The union was an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy, and has been ever since.
It isn't "reformable". It's entirely undemocratic, designed to subjugate nations to a supranational government and designed to crush the very concept of national self-determination. It is simply wrong. It is the source of many of our current problems, not least the islamic problem. The EU has to be destroyed because it creates a single point of failure, in a single government, where before you had 27.
Gordon:
Given that the Roman Empire only was created by actions such as Caesar killing a million Gauls (with swords and spears), held together by brutality, and eventually over-run by tribes, and all other efforts to recreate it including Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperors, Charles V, Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin were absolute disasters ...
What makes you think THIS time with the EU will be any different.
Yes Nationalism can be bad. So can romantic love, parental love, chocolate, coffee, and many other things. Any attempt to erase nationalism and national identity will be disastrous.
As for Serbia, they have historically looked to their protector Russia for help against the Turk. Or in this case, Albanian Muslims who are much the same thing.
The EU pressing Serbia does not press merely Serbia. They press a nation with a powerful patron that has pledged to help them, not the least of which to preserve it's historic influence.
Independence for Kosovo WILL mean war with Serbia AND Russia. Vladimir Putin would love to exercise his power, and let us not imagine that the EU could do anything but surrender.
What, they'll wave pieces of paper at Russian tanks?
Gordon wrote: The EU was set up to damp down the nationalist and ethnic passions on the continent that led to two utterly disastrous 20th century war/holocausts.
[...]
Just because the EU is currently run by idiots doesn't mean the EU is intrinsically evil. It must be reformed, not replaced.
You're either sadly misinformed about the nature and structure of EU or talking against better knowledge.
It might be that some of the ideas behind creating the Steel and Coal Union that turned into EEC, might have been a project of peace, but such notions were utterly forgotten when talking about going beyond a “Free Trade” European zone and trying to make EU into a federal European government by lies and deceit.
And actually “Federal” is being too nice, as it almost implies that there is a system of checks and balances between the federal administration and the individual states, where there is very little and what exists are continually being transferred to the central body - the bureaucracy in Brussels and the minister-meetings.
And the EU administration is not elected, apart from the EU parliament that have been put up for show, but without any real influence. The political power is concentrated within the cadre of commissars, bureacrats and the minister meetings.
The Constitution of the EU is so hopelessly complicated to read that normal people, don't have a chance, and is covered so deep in legaleze that it basically can be used for anything. And the record shows that it has and will be used exactly for that.
And you assessment that the EU is run by idiots are way off the mark, it is not run by idiots, it is run by people who are power-hungry, and wants to bypass any democratic safeguards that would normally stop undemocratic laws from going into effect. Many of the rulings of the EU have never been publicized before going into effect, the meetings and workgroups are confidential and closed to the public, and the leaders only answer to themselves not the people, and there is not an opposition to keep them in check.
So all in all it is a blueprint for a dictatorship, not by a single person, but by a junta that wants to run Europe by dictate, without opposition or structures to provide checks and balances. So to say that the EU is just run by idiots and if we simply replace those all will be well, is utterly naïve. The problem is not the people running the EU it is the structure and setup of the EU that invites whoever is currently in charge to continue the undemocratic system that comprises the EU.
There is nothing to be salvaged from the EU, it has to be demolished for the benefit of the people of Europe, it has to be utterly discredited or it will just continue on its merry way, in another guise.
Having said that European coorporation and multi-lateral agreements can be made without the EU, but the onus must lie in the national parliaments, not in some artificial bureacratic body in Brussels. And that is why EU cannot be reformed or be replaced but must be destroyed, as it will be in time one way or another.
By acting now there is a chance to make the transition away from the EU dictatorship, peacefully. But the longer the EU is allowed to grow an terms of power by sucking the life-blood from the national parliaments, the harder it will be to do in a peaceful manner.
No country that needs a President AND a Prime Minister is ever going to be anything but a sham anyway.
Not that I'm sticking up for the EU here but does anyone actually need to be wasting their time dealing with people who can't decide whether they are a parliamentary democracy or an independent republic??
Good luck to the Serbs.
Let's hope one day all the land taken by muslim conquest gets reclaimed.
More research about EU and the constitution treaty over at OpenEurope.
This absolutely stinks and shows that the church leadership worldwide serve the otehr side. There is no other conclusion - wolf in sheep's clothing.
"does anyone actually need to be wasting their time dealing with people who can't decide whether they are a parliamentary democracy or an independent republic?"
Well...
Given that the Serbs are the only ones truely opposing Islam's advance in the Balkans (and by implication the mafia), I suggest we put petty squabbles over the nature of their democracy aside and support them in things that really matter.
Graham Dawson is certainly correct in saying that, "The current mess in Serbia is the direct result of 'EU lite', the failed republic of yugoslavia, on which the EU is at least partly modeled." Ironically, however, the current mess in Serbia is even more directly the result of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Bill Clinton was a total pacifist until the day the House Judiciary Committee began hearings on his impeachment. Then, in an outrageous imitation of the film Wag the Dog, he cast about for a war to distract national attention from his pecadilloes. Unfortunately for the Serbs, he picked Kosovo...
“It is truly sad for Serbia, if politicians continue to put power games ahead of their own citizens’ interests,”
That's pretty rich, coming from the mouth of an EU politician.
I'm with Serbia on this one.
The EU apparatus has ridden rough-shod over the rest of Europe.
The USA's role in the dismemberment of Serbia will be remembered with shame. All for political expediency.
Geoffrey de Boullion said...
The USA's role in the dismemberment of Serbia will be remembered with shame. All for political expediency...
You're right. As Gringo Malo said (kind of) it was Bill Clinton's member that caused all this slaughter and shame. I can't believe anyone would want to let him back in the White House, even for a visit.
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