Europe News
ANALYSIS: US welcomes "Muslim state" in Kosovo
Feb 20, 2008, 2:23 GMT
Washington - In the push for Kosovo's independence, the United States found an attractive side benefit to ending nine years of limbo: helping Muslims start a new nation of their own.
The main US argument for backing the ethnic Albanian majority's break with Serbia was that letting tensions fester would make fresh Balkan violence more likely. That, in turn, might force the US and other countries to send more troops to Kosovo.
But top US officials and legislators, eager to counter criticism of American policy in Arab nations and the wider Islamic world, have also pointed to Kosovo as an example of what Washington has done for Muslims.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the number three US diplomat, noted that more than 90 per cent of Kosovo's estimated 2.1 million people are Muslims.
'We think it is a very positive step that this state - Muslim majority state - has been created today,' Burns said Monday. 'We think it's going to be a stable state.'
Three weeks before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, then-US secretary of state Colin Powell cited Kosovo when he rejected charges that the United States was going to war with Islam.
He pointed to the 78-day NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, which forced Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo after they went on a bloody rampage to quell a separatist insurgency.
'When Kosovo, the Muslims of Kosovo, were in danger ... we came to their rescue, with other nations,' Powell told a radio interviewer.
Joseph Biden, a Democrat who now heads the US Senate's foreign relations committee, enthused in late 2005 about pro-US feelings among Kosovars.
'Pristina is one of the few Muslim cities in the world where the United States is not only respected but revered,' he said, referring to Kosovo's capital.
But the goal of drawing down US troops in the Balkans, once set by President George W Bush, faded as talks on a 'final status' accord for Kosovo deadlocked.
Russia's refusal to support a United Nations stamp of approval for Kosovo's statehood means that foreign forces will likely have to ensure security for some time.
'The main strategic interest that pushed the US to address the final status question was America's desire to get out of the Balkans,' said Charles Kupchan, a European affairs analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. 'That has backfired.'
Some 16,000 troops serve in the NATO-led Kosovo Force, including 1,500 US forces. And the US has an interest in a Balkan presence, especially as Russian influence in Serbia has grown.
Frank Wisner, the US envoy to the Kosovo status talks, said this month that Kosovo is 'important to the United States because we are responsible as well for Europes security.'
Creating a Muslim-majority state in a region that is the cradle of the Serbs' Orthodox Christian religion never was the driving force of US policy on Kosovo, Kupchan said in a telephone interview.
'But it's a fringe benefit,' he said.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Europe
- 1. Pope in Easter message calls for peace and religious tolerance
- 2. Magnificent Messi leads Barcelona to ninth straight win
- 3. Pope leads Easter vigil, calls for "true enlightenment"
- 4. Barcelona increase pressure on Real with romp in Zaragoza
- 5. Pope Benedict XVI leads Easter Vigil
Older Talkback
page: 1
Because there was no genocide in the USA ? Because there is no civil war ? No ethnic cleansing ? No religious conflict ? And the roots of all this reaching hundreds of years back into medieval times ?
Could this be a difference or is that not so important when comparing the situation in both countries ?
Please think at least for 60 seconds before you comment.
Yeah,but this also alow one ethic group to claim independant country anywhere on world...and dont use big words like 'genocide',it isnt proven that something like ever existed on Kosovo,
For your info, before the WWII 90% of Kosovo population was Serbian, than when Tito come in power (with a big help of British and Americans) he started to invite Albanians and Serbs been constantly expeled until this days.
Europian comission did not describe hapenings in Kosovo as genocide!
Genocide is a crime forever and USA is founded on genocide!!!
Would USA give independant country to native Indians?
Not all Americans agree that our governments support of a Muslim country is the right thing. Apparently we forget that the Serbs were allies. Here is a link to an article written by Pat Buchanan, a former presidential speechwriter, who says it all far better than I could.
www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25077
well i read the articel but i difer from one thing that kosovo is the onlo place in muslim world where usa is respected i am from pakistan and usa is respected in pakistan as well and i belive in other countries as well yes if u r talking about negative opnion on the polices of american govt thats another thing but u cant say if ppl in muslim countries do not agree with american govt policies they dont respect america its not the issue of respect its the issue of point of view on certian policies but as for as american public is concerend i belive they r respected every where like in my country ppl have diffrent view on polices of govt but that does not mean ppl hate americans in general,
The people of kosovo are not getting any better of the usa involvement.
They are no free state now but a part of the USA, a part of the ne world order, the USA decides what happens in Kosovo.
People think that the USA helps starting a islamic country but in fact they are destroying it.
On one side they are destroying the culture of kosovo and chancing them for the western values, they introduced a very high amount of cancer by spreading uranium in the war.
Now they are stationned on a huge base near Prizren, everywhere mountains are digged out for minerals and what ever, trees are being cut in a high tempo.
Every minute on the streets you see: US military, German military, Turkish military, Swiss military and maybe more.
Patrolling heavy armed.
I am not going to argue about who are the goods and who are the bads, this area has been destabilized for ages.
The PEOPLE of Kosovo dont want a great Albania they just want to live and to be left alone.
The kosovo albanians have been treated as second class citisins for years now they promised to be free, free like the American people, free to choose enslavement!!!
Don't mind the qonquerers kosovo!!!! your hearts still are close to god, be one with your creator and his nature!!! the intuition of the soul is always faster then any crooked ones mind!!! HAVE NO FEAR
In the history you kosovo people have chosen for islam, i dont consider myself of any religion but i love god and i know you people do as well!
KOSOVO you are special people, that scares the USA! always remember.
The USA creates and embraces his enemies, choose not to be their enemy.
Love them but don't mind them, live your own life with god in your heart!!
No genocide in Kosova? Are you kidding me
1 mil albanians we're fired from their homes from the regime.
and also 10,000 civil people were killed.
Look about The massacre of Recak,Likoshan,Meja and you'll see if it was genocide or not.
And about the comment that Kosova was populated only with serbs until TITO camed.It's 100% false.Kosova was always part of albania until the conference of London.And then serbian government started to bring serbs from serbia and put them in the best land's in Kosova.Also they fired
500,000 albanians from Kosovo,they directed them in Turkey.
So good for kosovars they're not asking to be together with Albania, all they want is freedom and evenness.
page: 1
I have a question for America.Feb 20th, 2008 - 05:58:52
Using this perverse islamic, kowtowing, moron logic, how about if the Mexican majority in the southern USA decides to have their own nation in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California?
How about if they just reunite with Mexico itself?
It would only be fair would it not?
Hopefully the morons here in the USA will realize that stealing land from a sovereign nation as Yugoslavia is a bad idea on every level.
If it is ok for Yugoslavia to be dismembered, than why not the same thing happen here in the USA?
Report this comment