Kosovo Independence

[Uboat509]

Having spent some time in both Bosnia and Albania I can say I would be very suprised if this does not result in violence. The Serbs got a bad rap for many of the things they did and deservidly so but that tends to foment the myth that everybody else was an innocent victim of Serb aggression. As far as I can tell, nobody's hands were clean. Some were dirtier than others but all have things that they would prefer be foregotten about. My point is that violence always seems to be just below the surface in the Balkans. Serpska for instance has wanted out of Bosnia pretty much since there was a Bosnia. This might very well encourage them to act. There are also other parts of Bosnia that are ethnically Croat and might well be tired of being part of a dirt poor Muslim country. I see this as setting a bad precident.

SFC W

[tulanealum]

But was East Timor a bad precedent...similar situation...maybe not the mixing populations, but there were certainly those who wanted to stay as part of Indonesia.

If Kosovo stays part of Serbia, then you can expect more fighting and worse than what will happen if it is independent. Is that good?

It's a bad situation all around...but I believe this is the best option...and as for the RS, let them leave...should they be made to stay in a state they don't want to be part of?

That's only a matter of time...the RS will leave for Serbia.

Borders have always been changing and they will continue...you can try to stop it, but if you want to, you may have to use an iron fist. And will the world really be ok with that? The only way to keep Kosovo in Serbia is letting the Serbs fight the Albanians and push those out (to where?) that won't accept it as part of Serbia.

Eventually the RS is going to go...EURFOR is unlikely to try to quell that.

Why didn't people raise a fuss about Montenegro leaving Serbia...there is a 31% population of Serbs in Montenegro...they didn't want the breakup to happen...how much complaining was there from the international community then?

[Beelzebubalicious]

Time will tell, but I'm not sure that "solving" this problem won't just start a lot of other problems. I'm a bit afraid that's this might be the tipping point for Russia to really wratchet up their mischief. How does this play in Russia? I wouldn't be suprised to see this strengthen Putin's position - more evidence of US manipulation and alignment against Russia...

[MattC86]

Having spent some time in both Bosnia and Albania I can say I would be very suprised if this does not result in violence. The Serbs got a bad rap for many of the things they did and deservidly so but that tends to foment the myth that everybody else was an innocent victim of Serb aggression. As far as I can tell, nobody's hands were clean. Some were dirtier than others but all have things that they would prefer be foregotten about. My point is that violence always seems to be just below the surface in the Balkans. Serpska for instance has wanted out of Bosnia pretty much since there was a Bosnia. This might very well encourage them to act. There are also other parts of Bosnia that are ethnically Croat and might well be tired of being part of a dirt poor Muslim country. I see this as setting a bad precident.

SFC W

Given what has occurred over the last 48 hours - you're proven right and I'm proven wrong, again. I'll stop my prognostications

Besides the mob attacks on the closed US Embassy in Belgrade, there are reports from CNN, CFR.org, and several other sources that Serbian Army reservists "clashed" with NATO-led peacekeepers at the border checkpoint. No elaboration on what exactly "clashed" consists of, or if NATO-led means NATO forces. The NATO commander had said they had drawn up extensive plans for such a scenario - I certainly hope so.

Latest on the Serbian situation available here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe...nce/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7256158.stm

and

http://www.cfr.org/publication/15481...breadcrumb=%2F

Matt

[Stevely]

Matt,

Last I read "clashed" meant throwing rocks at the NATO troops, hadn't heard anything worse. Yet...

[Beelzebubalicious]

I was watching CNN International as this was breaking and they kept switching back and forth between images of people praying in church and people throwing rocks and cocktails at the US Embassy. They kept saying there were something like 150,000 protestors, but it took them about 20 minutes to clarify that only a small fraction of those were violent. For awhile, they were more or less saying that all of them were up in arms. We get Jim Clancy over here and his knuckle-headed commentary makes me want to throw my TV out the window. For example, he said, "It appears that the police are on the street to deal with the violent protestors". I think it's time to send him back to Iraq where he can say things like, "It appears, from the window of my hotel, that there's an increased/decreased level of violence."