As Americans look quizzically at their TV sets while non-Muslim protestors in Europe torch a U.S. embassy, they should know that yesterday's 200,000-person protest in Belgrade (whose members are separate[1] from the fire starters) is the first time in two decades that Serbs are showing a glimmer of rational behavior – amid 20 years of the "free world" foisting terrorist neighbors upon them.

To put this in perspective, with advance apologies to any offended ethnic groups: How would Americans react if Latino gangs started ambushing police and killing government officials in California, and after a few years the U.S. sent in the troops because the gangs were outgunning the police force; following this, the gangsters started claiming atrocities – and so Russia and China bombed California and Washington in response to the "atrocities"; the foreign powers then occupied California for eight years while the gangs killed or expelled most of the non-Latinos in "revenge attacks," then backed a declaration of independence for California as a Mexican-majority state that may just unify with Mexico?

The current state of affairs is a product of a concerted, single-minded, bipartisan American effort to turn Serbs into an enemy as the U.S. tries to make friends of its enemies in the region, always at Serbian expense. "Will Russia now become the leader of the Europeans who resist the Islamization of their continent?" Thomas Landen asks in the Brussels Journal.[2] He notes that Moscow has called on[3] the UN to annul independence, and a UN vote may be the only thing to save us from a new world war over this Balkan province, ignored by the media and public for eight years as insignificant, despite the Balkans' history for setting off world wars.

"Indeed," continues Landen, "what will Russia do if the 16,000 NATO 'peacekeeping' troops in Kosovo attack the Serbian army when it attempts to recover its breakaway province? If Russia intervenes, then 2008 might become the year that war broke out between Russia and NATO. America, the EU, Europe's immigrant 'youths,' and Osama bin Laden would find themselves on one side, fighting Russia, China, and those Europeans who resist Islamization on the other."

Who could have envisioned such a sorry state of affairs on September 12, 2001? The answer is: anyone who noticed that our Balkan policies didn't change following 9/11. We are now several years post-9/11, yet our government is creating Muslim states in Europe and is about to engage the United States military against European Orthodox Christians who don't want to live under Muslim rule.

When did it become the free world's business to spread Shari'a law, as is always the upshot of any Islamicizing region?

The remarks upon Kosovo's independence by the U.S. and the Organization of the Islamic Conference might as well have come from a joint statement:

Secretary General of the OIC declares support to the Kosovo Independence:[4]

...Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu made the following remark..."...a very important event took place yesterday. Kosovo has finally declared its independence after a long and determined struggle by its people. As we rejoice this happy result, we declare our solidarity with and support to our brothers and sisters there. The Islamic Umma wishes them success...There is no doubt that the independence of Kosovo will be an asset to the Muslim world and further enhance the joint Islamic action."

U.S. welcomes "Muslim state" in Kosovo:[5]

"We think it is a very positive step that this state – Muslim majority state – has been created today,' [Undersecretary of State Nicholas] Burns said Monday... Creating a Muslim-majority state in a region that is the cradle of the Serbs' Orthodox Christian religion never was the driving force of US policy on Kosovo, [Council on Foreign Relations analyst Charles] Kupchan said in a telephone interview. "But it's a fringe benefit."

Bosnia Grand Mufti: U.S. Policy In Region Serves Muslims' Interests:[6]

In an interview with Islamonline on the sidelines at the "U.S. and the Muslim World" conference in Qatar, Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric said that the U.S.'s policy in the Balkans serves the interests of the Muslims and of Islam.

THIS WEEK MERRYMAKERS in Pristina waving Albanian and American flags shouted[7] "KLA! KLA!" – the supposedly disbanded, heroin-financed "rebels" who trained in terrorist camps.[8] "What is the point of fighting Islamism in Iraq," asks the Brussels Journal's Landen, "while at the same time one creates a free haven for Islamists on the European continent?" He adds, "The Jerusalem Post reported in 1998[9] that the [KLA] was 'provided with financial and military support from Islamic countries,' and had been 'bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters or mujahedin [some of whom] were trained in Osama bin Laden's terrorist camps in Afghanistan.'"

It is worth reminding the conservative blogosphere, which for nine years chose to ignore the region entirely or, alternately, bolster the jihadist pro-independence position, that they are helping implement a Clinton-era policy supported and co-financed by George Soros, which has been pursued from a pre-9/11 mindset. My fellow conservatives, you do not defend America or American policy when you support our pro-independence policy in Kosovo; you support Hillary and Bill Clinton, George Soros, and Osama bin Laden, who co-financed and co-trained the KLA troops that we and Germany co-financed and co-trained.

It is a rare thing to meet someone among the remaining 100,000 Christians of Kosovo who hasn't had a close relative or friend slaughtered by the Albanian "non-Islamic" Muslims since our intervention, the selfsame Muslims to whom we're granting Serbian territory. While Serbia and Russia fight to ensure these remaining Christians don't have to live under Albanian-Muslim rule – either by partitioning the province, or by fighting the Albanians to keep the province within Serbia – the U.S. and its NATO allies will fight Serbia and Russia to make sure that Europe's newest, U.S.-created Muslim state gets all the territory it demands.

If this doesn't worry you, and you'd rather make an exception in your jihad views for an area because it fits in with a more comfortable, manufactured Cold War context, then be prepared for the adverse consequences.

What we've set ourselves up for is dealing with still more gangsters and terrorists as we build an oil pipeline that runs from the Caucasus through the Balkans, when we could have worked with a willing Serbia on this from the very beginning – at much less peril to our interests and with a partner that had excellent intelligence and border security structures (before we dismantled the latter).[10]
 

THE REST OF THE world is sharply divided on Kosovo. Israel easily recognized some parallels to its situation, and is therefore withholding any recognition of independence. Helping cement its position on that were the following recent headlines:

Palestinian Aide Suggests Kosovo a Model:[11] RAMALLAH, West Bank – "The Palestinians should follow Kosovo's example and unilaterally declare independence if peace talks with Israel fail, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday..."
Kosovo is Already Here.[12]
If Kosovo Can Be Free, Why Not Palestine?[13]

Like clockwork, the implications not just for Israel, but for the rest of the globe became immediately clear:

Kosovo sparks other independence claims[14]
Separatist Moldovan region wants to have Kosovo style independence[15]
Corsican separatists "delighted" over Kosovo[16]
Ex-Soviet separatist regions take heart from Kosovo[17]
Salahuddin congratulates Kosovo people, Urges world to ensure Kashmiris get freedom[18]
US, Germany Cautious on Kosovo as Separatists Call for Action[19]

These are no longer the 1980s and '90s. It is not OK to view this, or Russia's correct stance against our incorrect one, in a Cold War context. It is not OK to ally with Iran and deliver territory to al-Qaeda. It wasn't OK in the 90s, either, and now we've buried ourselves deeper.

Given that we're creating a mafia-run jihadist haven in Kosovo, whose U.S.-spawned statehood exposes our government's disregard ultimately for its own citizens' safety, not to speak of non-Muslims in Europe, how can we ever expect any other world power – never mind the jihadists – to care about American lives, and think twice before striking?

And still, the situation is not unfixable, as Jihad Watch's Hugh Fitzgerald advises:[20]

There is no reason not to take Serbia's side now. There is every reason – of principle and of Infidel self-interest – to take it. And then there is the larger scheme of things. Does it make sense, at this moment in history, to give Muslims the sense that they are on the march, that they are establishing beachhead after beachhead in Europe itself – even if, for all we know, that sense of triumphalism is based on a misunderstanding of the devotion to Islam of the Albanians (now "Kosovars") in question? Assuming that the Chechens have a point (and they did have a point, considering the history of Stalin's treatment of them), was that reason enough to support the Chechens against Russia, or should one have refrained from so doing, because of the larger context, in which any Muslim victory feeds the assurance that other victories are sure to come, that Islam is unstoppable?

Perhaps the rule should be, all over the Western and larger Infidel world, this: whatever makes the Umma happy, or the O.I.C. happy, is to be opposed for that very reason. That's a rule of thumb...

We can still turn this around. Jim Jatras, the director of the American Council for Kosovo[21] advises to immediately begin new negotiations between Serbia and responsible representatives of the Albanian community, this time without preconceived results that sabotage any discussions, and consistent with international law.

...If only to keep the task of saving us from ourselves out of Russian hands.
 

Footnotes

1. "Serbia regresses as Belgrade burns," February 21, 2008,
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8223

2. Thomas Landen, "The West's Fatal Mistake: We Are All Serbs Now," February 18, 2008,
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2988

3. "Russia to call on UN mission to annul Kosovo independence," February 18, 2008,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/18/content_7626816.htm

4. Robert Spence, "There is no doubt that the independence of Kosovo will be an asset to the Muslim world and further enhance the joint Islamic action," February 19, 2008,
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020016.php

5.  "US welcomes "Muslim state" in Kosovo," February 20, 2008,
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1392033.php/ ANALYSIS_US_welcomes_"Muslim_state"_in_Kosovo

6. "Bosnia Grand Mufti: U.S. Policy In Region Serves Muslims' Interests," The Memri Blog,
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/5560.htm

7. Nebi Qena and William J. Kole, "Kosovo Declares Independence From Serbia Braces for a Bitter Showdown," The New York Sun,February 17, 2008,
http://www.nysun.com/article/71407

8. Jerry Seper, "KLA rebels train in terrorist camps," The Washington Times, May 4, 1999,
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosovo_crisis/html/wt-0504.html

9. Brendan O'Neill, "How we trained al-Qa'eda," September 13, 2003,
http://www.essaypool.com/article/News+&+Society/Spectator,+The/ How+we+trained+al-Qa%27eda.html

10. Julia Gorin, "Kosovo 101," December 14, 2007,
http://www.juliagorin.com/wordpress/?p=1245

11. Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Palestinian Aide Suggests Kosovo a Model," February 20, 2008,
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD8UU47V00

12. Israel Harel, "Kosovo is already here," Haaretz, February 21, 2008,
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956443.html

13. John V. Whitbeck, "If Kosovo Can Be Free, Why Not Palestine?," February 21, 2008,
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?11539S

14.  "Kosovo sparks other independence claims," February 18, 2008,
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23231337-1702,00.html

15.  "Separatist Moldovan region wants to have Kosovo style independence," February 19, 2008,
http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=294090651

16.  http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkwmHYL5HoxoAjexXNyoA;_ylu=
X3oDMTFhbzFpZTA3BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMwRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA1BSMDE5XzEyNwRsA1dTMQ --/SIG=11rhe92dc/EXP=1203745287/**http:/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/

17. Christian Lowe and Dmitry Solovyov, "Ex-Soviet separatist regions take heart from Kosovo," February 17, 2008,
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL178670620080217

18. "Urges world to ensure Kashmiris get freedom," February 20, 2008,
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp? Date=21_2_2008&ItemID=38&cat=21

19.  "US,Germany Cautious on Kosovo as Separatists Call for Action," May 5, 2008,
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3133849,00.html

20. Hugh Fitzgerald, "Independent Kosovo," February 19, 2008,
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020018.php#more

21.  American Council for Kosovo, February 19, 2008,
http://www.savekosovo.org/

 
Julia Gorin is the editor of the humor book Clintonisms: The Amusing, Confusing, and even Suspect Musing, of Billary. She is a widely published op-ed writer and comedian; her blog is at www.JuliaGorin.com.

This was published February 22, 2008 in Front Page Magazine
www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID= E17DC7F7-9723-4D24-BDE8-576309200B96

_________________________End of Story___________________________

HOME

January-February 2008 Featured Stories

Background Information

News On The Web