http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7207266.stm

Many questions to be answered in the days ahead. Will these lead to armed conflict ? Will the United States disgracefully recognize an independent Kosovo ? How will Serbia and Russia react ?

As much as I am not fond of the Serbs for plummeting Europe into the Great War, I have to side with my co-religionists on this one. Kosovo is Serbia!!!

Somewhere around here on a disk from an old computer, I should have a picture of the grassy knoll; AKA Gavril Princip's Bridge.

But everybody else dumped Serbia, so why not Kosovo?

Can anyone explain why the governmant of the United States supports the radical islamic government of Kosovo against Serbia? To me it is as bizarre as when the Carter administration blocked any attempts in the UN to unseat the Pol Pot delegation from Cambodia. Evidently it was to protest the vietnamese takeover, but no one else had made any attempt to stop the killing there.

It doesn't look bizarre at all when you look at the countries this administration supplies arms to, and what countries it villifies.

This Sunday, while many of us watch the Super Bowl, Serbians will go to the polls for a presidential run off between incumbent Boris Tadic and nationalist Tomislav Nikolic. Both candidates oppose independence for Kosovo, but I see Nikolic as the much more realistic choice, since he supports closer ties with Russia instead of the EU, and has stated "Russia is our friend who will prevent the United States and the European Union from taking Kosovo away from us".

And here's an article from Reuters that shows where Russia stands on the issue http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL287999020080128

Some good news. Romania and Cyprus have announced they will not recognize an independent Kosovo http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7221816.stm

Hopefully this will begin the breakup of the EU and NATO.

My friend was in Kosovo for nine months serving in the Army. The base there was tightly restricted. What I would worry about is whether the internal economic framework in Kosovo would be sufficient to stustain a decent level of ethical market growth.

I do not mean ethics of the individuals, but of the economic system which allows and encourages commerse and investment. The poverty under which Kosovo has suffered has lead to instability and has fed its black market.

Terry

It's sad to see our Serbian Orthodox brethren be ethnically cleansed and their churches burned to the ground all so that radical Islam can set up a base in Europe.

How does anyone in their right mind think that the heartland of Serbian culture went from 90% of the population to 95% Muslim? The Serbs have been ethnically cleansed and the West had a hand in it toward the end with the bombing and occupying of Kosovo with the goal of handing it over to the Muslims.

I guess the Serbs don't have good enough lobbyists in DC?!


Monomakh

Huh???

Well the EU is a threat to the sovereignty of nations, and is subtly anti-Christian, and NATO has long outlived it's usefulness and was responsible for bombing Serbia during Holy Week.

The Bush Administration supports Kosovo independence because it weakens Russian strategic influence. The envisioned independent Kosovo will be beholden to the US and the EU, especially since, unlike Turkey, there is no way to claim that Kosovo is not Europe. I'd think the plan is to put some kind of joint-US/EU/NATO base there as a strategic position.
Of course, in the long run a binLaden type could possibly exploit that and claim that the "West" is infringing on "Muslim soil"..

I do not think that an imminent independence of Kosovo will weak the Russia's influence. I do not think that Kosovo will be able for an economical self-sustain.

I am sad that an important part of Serbia is broken.

The Western powers are cynical and, instead using their intelligent heads, they choose the most wrong solution on long term.

This is Europe and it will be a clear precedent in matter of international law, so I think. Russia will use this at maximum.

The Westerners are already there, but that land is full of wrong matters. I will not name them. The Occident, EU and USA, proceeded very wrong with Serbia.

Perhaps the USA are great as power, but rather they would focus on a few very important troubles, not dissipating their energies.

I think that the powers of this world declare something at TV, but behind they are very practical and negotiate many things.

According to Hezbollah's news service Al-Manar. Kosovo will declare independence on Feb 17 http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=35193&language=en Look's like they beat FOX News and the BBC on getting it out first.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7244333.stm

One of the reasons a few of us have a rather positive opinion of Mr Putin.