2008-02-15

 

Kosovo

Looks like Kosovo is on the verge of declaring independence. The report claims that the US is likely to recognize it. If it does, then the US is verging from my worldview, and is in fact, being treacherous.

While I supported the bombing of Serbia so that we could get in and make sure the Kosovars were not having their human rights abused, the fact is, Milosevic did the right thing and let our forces in without having to slug it out in a ground war. We need to reward such behaviour. Similar to Gaddafi throwing in the towel in fact. If these people give us what we really want, which is human rights and security (not oil), then we should not push them any further. Similar to Russia allowing Eastern Europe into NATO in fact. These people did the right thing, belatedly, which means we didn't have to waste resources fighting them. And when these people give us what we're basically after, we should shut up (our politicians should shut up, anyway) and only ever say nice things about them.

At the moment the Serbs are a liberal democracy, according to Freedom House (which I don't always agree with, but nevermind), while the Kosovars aren't. I agree with that assessment. The Kosovars are not respecting the human rights of the ethnic Serbs. They do not deserve a state. There's no reason for them to require a state. Their human rights are not being abused. They should instead be getting their own house in order, and they can start by copying the Serbs.

Quite apart from the moral implications, there's the fact that one of the reasons the Serbs withdrew without a fight was because they had been told that the UN Security Council would decide on any change to Kosovo's status. As we all knew at the time, that meant that there would be no change, because Russia would veto any change. That's fine. We weren't after a change in status. We were after human rights.

If America now goes back on its guarantees and ignores the UN Security Council, it will be a dishonest and treacherous actor. I can't think of any other time that the US has broken its word like that. You'd probably have to go back to the Indian treaties to find something along those lines (but I'm not familiar with such ancient history so may be wrong).

The correct response to any declaration of independence by Kosovo is for the NATO forces to fulfill their commitments to allow the Serbs to patrol the borders of their nation, which includes Kosovo, and to go a step beyond that and allow them to jointly patrol with NATO within Kosovo, and then for NATO to take a back seat and allow the Serbs to patrol their own territory as they wish. So long as we are made aware of movements of tanks etc, that should be fine. We can work with these people, who just reelected a liberal democrat - a liberal democrat who ruled out military action. The fact that this wonderful guy did such a thing is exactly why we should be giving him permission to use military force, in his own democratic country. If the Serbs betray our trust, we can always send them packing out of Kosovo. But so long as they are cooperative, we should be falling over ourselves to treat them as equals, and not break away part of their territory to create a racist, religious-bigotted state.

If you want to break territory away, break Sudan up. The blacks there have a right to not live under a racist government.

America. Do not be treacherous for the first time in living memory. Failing to protect the free world in 1939 was immoral, but not actually treacherous. Don't do it. Fulfill your commitments to allow the Serbian military to protect their borders, as was agreed. Then go above and beyond what was agreed. As you always have in the past. Because you are truly wonderful people. Well, most of the time, anyway. And more than anyone else in the world, that's for sure. No-one's perfect. But being imperfect doesn't give a green light for being treacherous.

I've previously outlined other steps to placate Russia. Russia has already done the right thing by even allowing the Baltics into NATO. Time to go out of your way to take care of Russia's legitimate security concerns.



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