Support Of Kosovo Causes Protests, Fire In US Belgrade Embassy
 Thursday, February 21st, 2008 

 

In Belgrade, Serbia, today the U.S. Embassy was set on fire by Serbian protestors.  And if you knew the whole history behind this, in conjuction with President George W. Bush's announcement that he's recognizing the territory of Kosovo as independent from Serbia - you would have seen this coming a mile away.

Let me put it to you like this.

Let's say there was another Civil War in the United States, and Texas decided that they wanted to become independent of the United States.  Let's also pretend that Switzerland - a country we are friendly with - had an Embassy in Oklahoma, just North of Texas.

Let's also assume that the U.S. has been at war on and off amongst ourselves for hundreds of years regarding territory and nationality.  Yes, that's a lot of pretending, but necessary to compare these situations.

The neighboring states to Texas would be enraged and offended that TX didn't want to be part of the United States any more.  They'd hold meetings, try and reach a compromise - no compromise is reached, and Texas declares its independence against the will of the U.S.

And then, the next morning, Switzerland announces that it is supporting Texas, and not the United States.

The United States is undoubtedly a more civilized people, and emotions don't run as high over here when it comes to ethnicities and who lives where, because we consider ourselves a melting pot and most of us have no problem with having a Catholic neighbor on one side and an Orthodox neighbor on the other.

So it probably wouldn't be that Oklahomans would go and set fire to the Swiss Embassy.  But in the former Yugoslavia, you can hardly meet a single person that has not had a family member or close friend die in one of their wars.  Their battles over religion are more important to them than soccer is to Spain, or our red white and blue flag is to us.  They would die for how they feel about it - both sides.

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci - the territory that unilaterally declared their independence - is a convicted terrorist in Serbia, former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and a former guerilla.  Yet Serbia's Prime Minister - Vojislav Kostunica - met peacefully with him to attempt to dissuade him from breaking off from Serbia.

In 2001, President George W. Bush told our nation that he would "make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them."

Yet the US admitted that al-Qaeda "both trained and financially supported" the Albanians in Kosovo.  Jane's Defense Review reported that "documents found [in 2000] on the body of a KLA member showed that he [Osama Bin Laden] had escorted several volunteers into Kosovo, including more than a dozen Saudi Arabians.  Each volunteer carried a passport identifying him as a Macedonian Albanian."

There is much more information on Bin Laden's ties to Kosovo here.

Not only are Albanian Kosovans considered terrorists in the eyes of Serbia, but they should be in the eyes of the U.S. as well, if we are to believe what President Bush told us about places that have harbored terrorists.  The Muslim Albanian majority in Kosovo has isolated Serbians from their population, and is attempting to overtake a territory that belongs to Serbia.

Would you not be pissed off?

Setting our Embassy on fire was wrong - of course.  The Serbian police also did attempt to stop the approximately 150,000 protestors (though the White House says, not quickly enough).  Thankfully none of our people at the Belgrade Embassy were killed.

Why did our President do this?  Why?  How could he?  I didn't vote for him, and I've never liked him, but to take sides in this religious battle overseas - especially Kosovo's side, considering their history with regard to terrorism - and with all the other conflict we're in...I'm just very upset right now.

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