Dear Marian,
I think it is very important that you and others from Eastern Europe post on this forum. We need to know what you think.
I live and was born in Canada as were my parents. Maybe you think the same thoughts about my country being immoral and unChristian. But I would ask you to be more patient with us all in North America. There are always good people everywhere even in bad countries. Sometimes, even some of us in Canada get angry at the USA and think they are too powerful or controlling of our economy. But I always find Americans of whatever religion to be very well intentioned and wanting to help others.

If God gives the opportunity I encourage you to visit the USA AND TALK TO PEOPLE YOURSELF AND LET THEM KNOW HOW YOU THINK.
I myself like to read British and German newspapers to get different points of view because so many of the American newspapers are the same and also CNN and TV.
God bless.
Orest

Weren't the Albanians being horribly massacred by Serbs last decade? Is that not important and relevant too?I understand the concern over Kosovo's independence, but can anyone tell me why they should stay?

Because Kosovo is part of the historic Serbian homeland.

Imagine historic Ontario (for the Canadians) or Pennsylvania (for us Americans) having a small minority population of some unspecified ethnic group. Over a few hundred years people from this minority ethnic group from outside the country start immigrating in large numbers. They eventually form a slight majority. Eventually ethnic tension increases and some of the people who had been living in Ontario/Pennsylvania leave for their safety. Now the minority group has become an overwhelming majority and wants to declare Ontario/Pennsylvania a seperate country from Canada/the U.S. How would you react? Do we let them take the historic heartland and become an independent country? Or do we sit back and do nothing?

Most regretably, the Serbian President and military chose the route of ethnic cleansing. But the Albanians are not innocent and committed atrocities as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy-xRW8hUok

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4012043.stm

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/apr1999/kla-a10.shtml

Why should Kosovo remain part of Serbia? Well, perhaps to demonstrate the much-proclaimed alleged policy of the self-styled World Leaders that territorial change cannot be accomplished by terrorism? To demonstrate that "ethnic cleansing" is unacceptable even when Mohammedans do it? Or perhaps to take historical realities into account?

It is true that Serbia was responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which was the spark that set off the terrible First World War and led to the horrors of the twentieth century. But there is plenty of blame to go around both for the outcome of WWI and for what followed.

It is also true that the relatively recent bombings of Serbia were by any definition a war crime. I remember when we were being assured that the "smart bombs" had absolute pin-point accuracy, which they proceded to demonstrate by bombing the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, of all things.

Does anyone seriously believe that the "independence" of Kosovo is going to have long-term peaceful results? Hitler famously asked "who remembers the Armenians?". To this one might add "who realizes that the almost exclusively Mohammedan population of present-day Turkey is the direct result of ethno-religious cleansing? Has everyone forgotten Smyrna?".

Fr. Serge

Precisely! Here's a video of Albanians detroying a church in Kosovo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM2-dFaphP8

Thanks Fr. Serge and Byantophile. I knew the history was very complicated and also that the Albanians were not innocent babes either(I've made the acquaintance of a coldblooded Albanian 'freedom fighter' before.) I can see why an immigration takeover is so frightening. Neither side has treated the other well, though, so humanly this can't end well whether Kosovo remains independent or not.


Difficult situation in need of many, many prayers for peace and respect on both sides. And many more prayers that China doesn't retaliate.

Not to be coy, but isn't this kind of how the
"foreigners" took over the land of the indigenous people's in both the US and Australia?

Orest,

I am 100% sure that there are many good and Christian souls, both in the U.S.A., or in Canada.

But the USA proceeded very wrong with Serbia. In fact, the USA are a dictator. I live at about 20 km far by the former Soviet Union's border. And I know how is to live in fear and to be lacking many things.

I think that the USA became a fat city. If they are worried by recession or such false things, then should come here and live with $200 per month. Or better, go to Africa and see how is.

The USA is the no. 1 in matter of weapons deals. The USA are in Afghanistan, are not they?!, but the production of drugs continues. Why?

The USA are also in Kosovo, which is a base for drugs and weapons dealer.

Also, I found out that in the USA, no idea in what state, it is forbidden by law to help an aborted fetus. This says something about that land.

Yes, I am so sure that there are many good and Christian souls in America. I am sure that there are not only one Lot, but many Lots. But that land produces much bad to many countries, in the name of freedom.

In Sodoma there was also a Lot, but God urged him to flee from that city of corruption.

The greatest enemy of the USA is America itself. If the USA will fail, then will fail from inside.

God have mercy!

Marian+

"The USA are in deep moral decline. It is not true that is a Christian nation. Not at all.
Marian "

As an American I can reply YOU ARE RIGHT.

America is a secular country promoting Masonic ideology to the world. I am not talking about a wacky 'backroom conspiracy theology' but an outlook, a worldview, that is materialistic, humanistic (man before God) and hostile to any religion except that of an anonymous 'God' who lets man choose how to worship him and make and change the core values as they want.

Anyone who truly believes in their religion (Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim) is a 'fundamentalist' enemy.

Private worship is freely allowed, thankfully. But, Christians are loudly condemned when they try to 'legislate morality' against the cult of man (i.e. abortion, homosexual marriage).

To create a Muslim state in the middle of the Balkans is insanity...and we claim that we are fighting terrorists?!?!

We hear the old echo of 'Balkan ghosts'-- the West against the Orthodox East....

Their are alot of myths about what has been happening in Kosovo, and what role the US and NATO have played, but the truth is out there for those who want it, and it's easily provable. The first myth is that the Orthodox Serbs were ethnically cleansing the Moslem Albanians when the US and NATO intervened. FALSE, the Serbian army conducted a major offensive against the terrorist KLA who had been involved in numerous attacks on the Serb population. It is the Serbian population of Kosovo that had been steadily declining through regular harrassment and not that of the Albanian Moslems. Most tragically, the US and NATO intervened on the side of the terrorists, and the KLA (recognized as a terrorist organization by the US 2 years earlier) now under the protection of high tech American jet fighters, proceeded in it's campaign of systematic destruction of Orthodox Churches and the ethnic cleansing of the Serb population. Lt General Michael Short of the US Air Force, who conducted the bombing campaign, spoke openly of destroying Belgrade and complained bitterly of being limited in his choice of targets. Apparently hitting hospitals and apartment complexes didn't satisfy his blood lust. Don't hold your breath waiting for him to be sent to the Hague to stand trial though.

Once the full scale NATO occupation of Kosovo began, life for the Serbian Orthodox community went from bad to worse with Moslem terrorists carrying out attacks on churches and homes sometimes in full view of the so called NATO peacekeepers. In 2004 dozens of churches and hundreds of Serb homes were firebombed, while NATO again did little to protect the Christian population. Meanwhile, the BBC, The Guardian and Amnesty International published reports of the Albanian Mafia bringing in prostitutes to satisfy the needs of our brave boys and their NATO allies.

America and it's NATO allies have Christian blood on their hands for their vile actions in this region. They have sided with radical Islam against Christianity and it will come back to haunt them. The Russians are looking more and more like the guys in the white hats.

P.S. Watch the encouragement this lends to Macedonia's Moslem community who know a thing or two about firebombing Orthodox Churches.

Good for Kosovo! My best friend is an Albanian and he had family there during the last war, a lot of them died and those that lived, in particular his aunt, had their village plowed over by Serbian tanks. (he and his family are Albanian Orthodox, so are a lot of other Albanians for that matter, that didn't stop the Serbs though)

I'm getting the impression that as far as who owns what that's too complicated to unravel since there's been fighting for Kosovo for centuries and centuries.

But on common sense alone, to allow a group composed of a poorly educated populace with little or no way of supporting themselves and even less chance of attracting businesses to help build the country economically to break away and declare independence is so not smart.

That the majority of the populace are Muslims is a recipe for disasters because we already know that poverty+bad education+Islam=terrorism. Again, not so smart.

Yes and no. With the U.S. many of the religious English settlers imagined living side by side with the Native Americans (e.g. the Puritans in New England, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholics in Maryland). It was not until corporate interest began to become heavily involved in the Colonies that things started to go bad. But it was not until the 1800s, when the Protestant idea of "Manifest Destiny" became powerful in the American imagination, that the land to the West was seen as ripe for the taking from Mexico and the Native Americans. As for Australia, it was originally a penal colony for English prisoners to help alleviate the over-crowded English prisons, but the British soon realized the usefulness of having a large colony near the East Indies. I do not remember as much about Australian history, but I think the treatment of the Aboriginal Peoples mirrors American treatment of the Native Americans. Anyone know more about Australia?

As for the Albanians in Kosovo there are many similarities, but a closer modern comparison would be the way in which the Jews took over Palestine.

So, Albanians took over Kosovo or were they taken over?
What point of view does the book Black Lamb Grey Falcon take? I'd be interested in reading a balanced account that presents both the Serb and Albanian take on Kosovo. Any suggestions?