’t The U.S. Intervene In Kosova? Essay, Research Paper
My response to Patrick Buchanan’s article from the NY Post.
After reading an article in the October 3rd edition of the New York Post by Patrick J. Buchanan entitled “Why is Kosovo Our War?”, I was very frustrated when he asked “Why does Serbia not have a right to send its army to prevent the cradle of that country from being ripped away?” Serbia was the one that ripped Kosova away from the Albanians after Serbian leaders and Milosevic stripped Kosova of it’s autonomy in 1989 and began it’s widespread policy of ethnic cleansing, mass murder and rape. And before Mr. Patrick Buchanan starts comparing the situation in Kosova to how some states seceded during the civil war, he should be aware of some significant events in Kosova’s past history which he obviously is unaware of. I want to give him some brief facts about Kosova which he might have not known when he associated the situation there with the United States civil war or the south’s war to break free of the union.
First of all, Kosova has always been an independent entity, geographically, ethnically, and administratively. Under Tito’s Yugoslavia, Kosova was autonomous. Autonomy was granted to Kosova. Kosova automatically won the rights to secession, as did all the other coequal members of the confederation. Under the autonomous Republic of Kosova, the Serbian government exploited it as a colony under a system of apartheid. Therefore, it must be decolonized. Yugoslavia unraveled because the formula of coexistence did not work and therefore all the constituent parts, including Kosova, achieved the right to self-determination.
During the past ten years, Milosevic and the Belgrade regime has imposed a “soft” but systematic repression which has deprived two million Albanians of their rights. How are you supposed to live under a government which enslaves you and denies you of all your rights? How are you supposed to live under a government that makes your people, two million individuals suffer persecution and death daily? You can’t. There are no legal or moral arguments that would persuade Albanians to accept and remain under Serbian domination. After the bitter experience of the past decade, Albanians should have the chance which the Serbs were unable to make use of, to create their own states and build tolerant and democratic societies. Those that do not justify this decision justify hegemony, expansionism, colonialism, and apartheid.
Is it wrong for Albanians to declare their independence when a government no longer protects the basic rights of the people – Hold on, I thought America did this when King George III had unjustly used his power against American colonists. Jefferson once argued that people have a right to overthrow a government which no longer protects the basic rights of the people and set up a new one. It’s all in the United States Constitution. So why can’t the west recognize Kosova as an independent republic? The west knows very well what wrongs Milosevic has commited in Bosnia, and now against the Albanians. And as politicians do nothing but talk and talk, the butcher of belgrade is running loose with his army continuing his campaign of ethnic cleansing and massacre women, children, the elderly and other innocent Albanians daily.
The pictures of the brutally murdered Albanians in two mass graves which were released over the weekend speak for themselves. But how many mass graves have to be discovered before someone actually does intervene? As a seventeen year old Albanian-American student in the United States, it is a shame to watch my relatives in Kosova die when they are fighting for the same ideas that the founding fathers of the American Constitution stressed when they broke away from Britain and yet the United States looks away. I came to the United States because the Serbian government denied me the right to have an education simply because i was Albanian. The Albanians that wanted to have an education would have to learn about Serbian history and would have to speak and write in the Serbian language. But after Milosevic stripped Kosova of it’s autonomy, you weren’t even allowed to have an education if you were Albanian. We had to create underground schools which was the only way for the Kosovars to receive an education. And here I am being taught about the Ideas of Enlightenment by Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rosseau. The Kosovars cry out to have these enlightenment ideas, but Serbia has shunned them.
The West does not want to recognize Kosova as an independent republic so we have only one hope – the Kosova Liberation Army. This is the only defense we have against Milosevic and his army. Two million people is alot to kill and we will keep fighting and fighting until the last Albanian stand
If the United Sates or NATO or the U.N. wanted to help the Kosovar Albanians, they should stop wasting their time talking at those peace conferences which have not done anything except give Milosevic more time to go on with imposing attrocities against Albanians. So he goes on killing a few here and a few there. Then when the international community discovers a mass grave, he quickly pulls his troops out of the area and tells everyone that his troops are withdrawn from the region. The west must be really dumb for not noticing that there’s a war criminal right under their nose.
Hello!! Wake up!!! Everytime after a mass grave is found, the international community, especially the United States acts so shocked. They act as if they’ve never seen a mass grave before when they have seen it over and over again, not only in Kosova but in Bosnia also. Then president Clinton goes on t.v. saying “We need to stop Milosevic” but that’s what he has been saying for a very long time now. And Milosevic’s government looks at Clinton as being nothing but a wimp. Now is the perfect time for the U.S. to ignore the crisis in Kosova when Clinton’s Lewinsky affair is all over the media.
The west has successfully shown itself to be incapable of dealing swiftly and knowledgeably in the Balkans. Different forces in NATO and the U.N. want different things for the region, and most are reluctant to do any more than impose sanctions and shake their heads from afar. Sanctions are very nearly a proven failure (not just in the Balkans but all over the world) and the shaking of an American president’s head means nothing to a Kosovar Albanian. It is time for the Balkans to take their problems into their own hands. Long live the Kosova Liberation Army, the only defense Kosovars have when the west falls deaf and blind towards them.
If the U.S. really wanted to solve the crisis in Kosova, the only possible way to do that would be to overthrow the national communist regime of Belgrade. The aggression of the Belgrade regime against Kosova should have been stopped a long time ago. Then maybe the U.S. did not have to spend so much money and time sending troops there. You have to pay a price when you wait too late and let people suffer too long and that’s the price the U.S. payed in Bosnia which Patrick Buchanan referred to in his article as the “open-ended occupation of Bosnia that has cost $10 billion.” Thats what happened when the U.S. decided not to act quickly. And it is going to happen again in Kosova as they turn their heads away from the murdered Albanians.
Milosevic, the man who is responsible for carrying out orders of genocide, first in Bosnia and now in Kosova, must be arrested and indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity. President Clinton’s and NATO’s threats have done nothing but make Milosevic laugh at them. Then Patrick Buchanan writes an article in the New York Post asking why should we get involved in Kosova’s affair? For the sake of humanitarian reasons. I thought the United Nations was established so that a disaster like the one Hitler and the Nazi party made could be prevented. However, Milosevic and his Serbian government is still in power, innocent Albanians, children and women are being raped and massacred daily in the most horrific ways, Nazi style. Refugees await the harsh winter while they hide in the forests of Kosova and are going to freeze to death.
A holocaust is in progress and the world looks on and turns away, like they did in Bosnia. I was very dissappointed and disgraced at Mr. Buchanan’s article. I want to leave you with a quote from a book entitled The Black Book of Bosnia : the consequences of appeasement which I suggest Mr. Buchanan should look into.
“When blood is spilled, it is the responsibility of those who spill it, and the responsibility of those who could have stopped it spilling. Bill Clinton’s dilatory, casuistic response to the great crime in the Balkans was not only shameful, it also marked a moment in the history of American foreign policy. This administration is transforming the only superpower in the world into the only abdicating superpower in the world. Poor Bosnia, it should have found itselff in a trade war. Trade wars we fight. Wars of genocide, we watch.” Or maybe Bosnia should have discovered oil.