Posted by
Matthew Cole on Friday, February 22, 2008 2:54:22 AM
The recent attack on the US embassy in Belgrade should cause Americans to stop and reflect on our foreign policy in the Balkans. Bush's recognition of Kosovo is one more way in which America has undermined Serbia's national sovereignty. In a way, Bush has had his diplomatic hands tied regarding the Balkans by the Clinton administration before him, as was the case with Iraq to a certain extent. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that Bush lacks the courage to alter American foreign policy to one which better serves our interests and protects our national security. Like the Iraq War, America's involvement in an aggressive NATO war against Serbia was sold to the American public on false information. Despite the Defense Department's confirmation in 1998 that Al-Qaeda was supporting the KLA insurgency in Kosovo, America's national security interests were once again overlooked in order to support this unnecessary war. Now Kosovo has a prime minister who has participated in terrorist attacks against Serbia, and who was the head of the KLA, which the US State Department only removed from its list of terrorist organizations in 1998 in order to make a case for NATO intervention. Bush pledged to fight a "War on Terror" against all terrorists around the globe, so this policy, especially considering Al-Qaeda's operations in Kosovo, directly contradicts Bush's stated aim. It's as if not even Bush himself takes his own words seriously, although when we consider that in 1999, Bush referred to Kosovars as "Kosovoians", it is easy to understand why his policies aren't thought out very well. As Ron White would say, "You can't fix stupid."
Recognizing Kosovo's independence makes even less sense when we realize that the Balkans doesn't exist in a vacuum isolated from surrounding countries. This move further complicates US-Russian relations. In the UN Security Council, Russia has protested recognition of Kosovo. Russia has never been happy with Western intervention in the Balkans. In fact, this is how World War 1 began. NATO's war against Serbia resulted in strong criticism from Russia, and proved that NATO is not really a defensive alliance, but rather an aggressive one. Croatia and Macedonia are expected to be invited to join NATO at the April 2008 summit, and recognition of Kosovo by current NATO members will only cause Russia to fear expansion of NATO membership to include Kosovo as well. Supporting terrorist states while simultaneously undermining Serbia's sovereignty and threatening Russia through NATO's expansion is not a very pro-American foreign policy. It is a foreign policy that will only undermine our own national security, and is likely to have many other unforeseen consequences in the near future. Once again Clinton-Bush has failed America through policies that can only be attributed to a totally warped view of the world that is uniquely American.