The Balkan Problem, Part 2a
Did the US and NATO pick the wrong side in the Yugoslavian Wars?
Submitted 30 Dec 2009
Next is Part 2b: Who are the KLA?
See this link for a Timeline of the Yugoslav wars
We ended Part 1 by attempting to understand why the Serbian Army and the Paramilitary Scorpions (both Serb Orthodox) perpetrated the massacre at Srebrenica; we also noted the lack of reporting on the history of violence between the Muslims and Catholics against the Serbian Orthodox in the region.
I would like to move back a few years to 1990 for some further background. The Communist government collapsed and the elections in the former Yugoslav Republics returned nationalist provincial governments. Marshall Tito’s dream of a unified and peaceful Yugoslavia was soon to die a very violent death.
The first country to walk out of the Yugoslavian government was Slovenia, this was easy for them as they were ethnically and religiously homogeneous. Croatia was next to try to leave rump Yugoslavia, this was going to be problematic at best. The map shows that several areas of Croatia were majority Serb. The problem was the Croatian Defense minister was caught on tape arming civilian Croats in preparation of a fight with the Serbian Army and the Croatian Government entities that did not side with the Catholic Croatians, many of the comments on the tape alert the Serbs that nationalism will be used against them in Croatia.
By March of 1991, there were demonstrations against Milosevic and rule from Belgrade. In June, Slovenia is independent after a quick 10 day war with the Yugoslavian Army. The army departs Slovenia and begins to support the Serb minority in Croatia. Given the history that the Croatian Catholics have when dealing with Orthodox Serbs, this supports seems the right thing to do. There is full blown war in the FYRs by September 1991, in 1992 Bosnian Muslim Govenment declares independence as well, note on the map the distribution of Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia. The areas in Croatia that are vast majority Serb declare independence, the Republic of Serbian Krajnia. The Serb entity is never recognized.
The siege of Sarajevo begins and the Bosnian Serbs take 70% of Bosnia Herzegovina, the Yugoslav Army left all of their equipment for the Serbs to use against the Muslims. The press then eagerly covers the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Catholics by the Serbs. They move to areas cleansed of Serbian Orthodox a year ago in Croatia. The caterwauling of the international press was absent when the Serbs were shelled and forced out of their homes in Knin region during the Croatian, Muslim Bosnian, and Western Backed operation Storm in Aug of 1995 Often termed by critics as the “biggest ethnic cleansing operation of the Yugoslav Wars”, it resulted in the exodus of the entire Serbian population in these areas, approximately 250,000 refugees.
Concurrently the ‘massacre’ in Srebrenica is beginning, The Serbs asked the Muslim Commanders to surrender and lay down their arms, the UN commander asked the same thing. The Muslim refused, officers left the area, leaving their soldiers and civilians to be killed by the Serbs. The Serbs at least have the mercy to send almost all of the women and children away to safety before they begin the massacre of Muslim soldiers, many of whom were mujaheddin, Hezbollah, and Muslim civilian men of military age. It would have been a better bargaining chip for the Serbs had they sent those 7800 to a prison camp; given the narrative in part 1 of this series, one can understand the generations old rage from the concentration camps in WWII and see at least why the Serbs did not do this. ( I am not sure that I have the whole story here, there might be a part 4 just on what happened in Srebrenica because there are details in the press that do not match with later formal official investigations.) By late 1995, the war in Bosnia Herzegovina has ended. Cooperation between Croats and Serbs begins. There is still open animosity between the Bosnian Muslims and the Orthodox Serbs
The next war in former Yugoslavia is from an external force. In March of 1998, fighting breaks out in the republic of Kosovo between ethnic Albanians Muslims and the Serbs. Milosevic sends in the army to battle a new entity. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The KLA comes out of the Albanian Communist Party under Enver Hoxa. The KLA also enjoyed support from Iran, Bosnia Herzegovina under Alija Izedbegovic (see part1), USA, UK, Turk, Croats, and Muslim fighters from all over the Ummah. By 1997, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command had been moving massive amounts of weapons, Iranian trained and controlled al-Quds men, training and money into Albania to be used in Kosovo. Again Serbia is on the front line of a war against expansionist Islam; an Islamic enemy that is backed by the USA. The Clinton administration had been supporting the KLA since 1992. The core of the KLA comes from the 5000 Muslim Kosovar and Albanian men that had fought along side of the Croats and Muslim Bosniaks against the Orthodox Serbs.
Why would the US back radical Muslims in Europe who are backed by Iran and Hezbollah? In the 1990’s Kosovo is attempting to break away from Yugoslavia, of which Serbia is the main power. Kosovo becomes a breakaway republic, Milosevic orders the military to quell an externally agitated rebellion. This is a sovereign state acting on it’s own territory. It does not warrant US involvement. But, according to Clinton’s people this could domino throughout the southern Balkans and spread and cause a wider war in Europe. In reality, by turning a blind eye to the external forces in the KLA, one can only assume that the Clinton administration and NATO were in fact more interested in destabilizing Serbia, preventing Albanian refugee flight to Western Europe, and cleaning up the pieces with an expanded NATO.
The Domino theory was trotted out by the same left wing ex-hippies that protested against the exact same theory in the 1960’s. Combine this with a mission-less NATO in need of an expanded role and expansion of itself to survive, a defeated and inwards looking Russia, and the later need for the Clinton administration to get the Lewinski matter behind them so the Clinton administration could get back to looking presidential. Milosevic was the perfect target, an ex-communist who looked like a dictator and was backed by Russia. This would also assure the real world example of the Clinton Doctrine, where if the US and the world can stop genocide and ethnic cleansing it should (unless its in Africa i.e. Rwanda). The Serbs are not the party with expansionist ambitions in the southern Balkans; the Albanians are. Kosovo Liberation Army commanders have stated that their ultimate goal is, not merely an independent Kosovo, but the creation of a Greater Albania. Nationalist groups in Albania openly circulate maps of Greater Albania — an entity that includes not merely Albania and Kosovo but an additional slice of Serbia, all of western Macedonia and a large chunk of northern Greece.
The Clinton Administration persuaded NATO, Germany and the UK to follow its lead in Yugoslavia. The West, pushed by Clinton sided with Expansionist Islamist over Christian Orthodox Serbs for political and Clinton Doctrine-place-in-history reasons. The West chose to support the KLA which was backed by the Muslim Ummah because the West did not want to deal with the possibility of Albanian Muslim refugees on their borders, and was naïve of the Islamic threat, especially the Americans do not realize that Islam had already declared war on them in the 1990’s.
Up next: Who are the KLA?
Tags: Balkans
