In 1998, I wrote to my Senators Bradly and Lautenberg to beg them not to support bombing/invading Serbia/Kosovo as this was a civil war which was, by most accounts, being handled more humanely than any other Balken conflict had been. (Turks used genocide to rid themselves of ethnic Armainians in 1912 in Turkey-3 Million dead.) Serbia said to ethnic Albanians housing the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army)”obey our laws or leave”. Then Serbs told the 1 million ethnic Albanians to leave and commited “ethnic cleansing” and started marching them to the border. Please note that the population was fairly evenly split at the time between Christian Serbs and ethnic Albanian Muslims. Today after ten years of involvment (with a promise of ONLY ONE YEAR) we have a Kosovo which has 90% ethnic Albanians with reports that the KLA is still launching attacks across the Serbian border with Kosovo. ( Will ethnic Serbian Kosovoians be given the “RIGHT TO RETURN” to their property in Kosovo like so many think is necessary in Isreal for Palestinians?) As recently as a few months ago, President Clinton stated that he had stopped genocide in Kosovo. I have researched this accusation and have yet to find any evidence of genocide in Kosovo. Some would say that more Serbs are dead because of this conflict than ethnic Albanians. Were are the bodies President Clinton??
I find it amazing that the left in this country continually rail against getting involved in an Iraq civil war but fails to see the same in Kosovo. How many troops do we have in Kosovo? How many have died in Kosovo? When will we get out of Kosovo, Bosnia, Hertsagovina,etc.?
Those of you that think that the EU and Russia will easily settle this are woefully uninformed. Kosovo is a mythological cradle of the Serbian culture dating back to the battle of the Field of Blackbirds against the Muslim Turks in the late 1300s. Malosevich, when campaigning for president of Serbia actually dug up the 600 year old blackened corpse of the Serbian general who lost the battle on the Field of Blackbirds in Kosovo, placed it in a glass coffin, and visited all the remote villages and cities in Serbia and it’s provinces and finnaly appeared on the 600th anniversary of the Battle on the Field of Blackbirds in Kosovo with the coffin to a throng of 2 million cheering Serbs. So I ask you, DO YOU THINK THAT TURNING OVER KOSOVO TO ETHNIC ALBANIAN MUSLIMS will promote peace in the area?? If you do you must be related to Madeline Notsobright! And how come the Muslims still hate us??
A touch more history or mythology provides the story that all Serbians know that the Serbian General who lost the battle 600+ years ago was visited by a dove who flew in from the direction of Jerusalem, turned into an Angel and asked the General if he wanted a heaven in heaven or a heaven on earth for his people. The Genaeral choose a heaven in heaven and thus did not deploy his troops but rather built monasteries (which are said to still exist in northern Kosovo).
Consider that some years from now (maybe not too long with this precedent and the illegals in the US) the ethnic Mexicans in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona have a slight majority in those states and start rebelling and want to free themselves from Washington DC rule and are in armed rebellion. The European Union tells our Federal Government that we will have to allow autonomy in these states and will have to allow them to vote three years hence on allowing them to realign with what ever government they choose or they will bomb Washington DC. Please consider the Alamo as our Field of Blackbirds. This is what we did to Serbia with the Romboulie (sic) accords. I submit that you would have armed groups traveling to these three states forcing the ethnic mexicans across the border or probably much worse.
The pity is that most Americans, including our elected officials, are woefully lacking in the above knowledge but I guess they are FULL OF HOPE AND DESIRE FOR CHANGE!! Well if Kosovo is any indication the Balkans at least will continue to be a firestorm and our troops will be there a lot longer than in Iraq/Afghanistan.
Shame on us!!!
PS- I have no ethnic interest or connection to the Balkans, I am just an interested citizen who studies issues seeking truth. I provided the above to my Senators in 1998 and left messages for them today.
