R. Nicholas Burns & Kosovo on Charlie Rose

S2 · 26 Feb 08,, 16:28

Lots of Russia and Kosovo discussion. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. As you'd expect, an authoritative representation of the U.S. position.

R. Nicholas Burns on Charlie Rose

**~~ShayGaetz~~** · 28 Feb 08,, 20:13

What will Serbia do now?! ... Now that it can no longer pilfer the pantry of its former neighbors?

Let us remember:

Gangsters in black uniforms with skull and cross-bone insignia slaughtering innocents and massacring the blameless all in the name of a racially pure "Greater Germany".

Now let us remember:

Gangsters in black uniforms with skull and crossbones insignia slaughtering innocents and massacring the blameless all in the name of a racially pure "Greater Serbia".

Slava Bogu - Kosovo is free of Serbian Hegemony!

**~~ShayGaetz~~** · 28 Feb 08,, 20:15

In Serbia today - crypto-Nazi nationalist leaders continue to rant about Greater Serbia, Slav racial purity, an Orthodox crusade against Islam, and medieval Kosovo - Serbia's Sudetenland.

Let's cut to the chase - Kosovo is sitting on one of Europe’s most lucrative mineral deposits. The potential wealth of northern Kosovo’s Trepça Complex coveted by Serbia is vast! It alone could solve either nation’s desperate economic problems.

The debate is no longer about democratic decentralization; this is really about Serbian Lebensraum, as international interests divvy up the spoils of war.

Russia fears this new American initiated precedent of rendering the UN irrelevant!

If the US and its NATO allies can stymie the creation of a "Greater Serbia" built on genocide's charnel remains, Russian ambitions in former Soviet Union territories can be similarly thwarted. China is similarly worried - think Taiwan or Tibet.

Remarkable as it may seem to some participants - USA is acting with honour unadulterated by financial self-interest or ulterior motive!

**~~ShayGaetz~~** · 28 Feb 08,, 20:18

It should also be noted that Albania's "neighbors" wanted the total partitioning of Albania, after WW I, so that it would no longer exist as a separate entity and nationality.

The one person who prevented that from happening at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 which eventually confirmed Albania's official boundaries was President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America who declared,

"I shall have but one voice at the Peace Conference, and I will use that voice in behalf of Albania."

yet again the Balkans must obligedly raise the refrain -

God Bless America!

Tung!

**BarbaMitso** · 29 Feb 08,, 04:13

"Now let us remember:

Gangsters in black uniforms with skull and crossbones insignia slaughtering innocents and massacring the blameless all in the name of a racially pure "Greater Serbia".

Slava Bogu - Kosovo is free of Serbian Hegemony!"

Listen up son. When the Serbs were fighting the Nazis, the sneaky Albos were collaborating with the Italians and fighting the Greeks (of course the out manned and out gunned Greeks beat the Italian and their Albo sidekicks halfway to Naples).

The Serbs were rescuing downed US pilots when the Albos would try to find them to turn them over to the Nazis and Italians. SO DONT EVER COMPARE NAZI GERMANS TO SERB FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

The US, drunk off its power post Soviet Russia, made a mistake and ventured into the Balkans. It was ignorant of the history and regional dynamics. Right now they're just trying to patch things up and leave.

**BarbaMitso** · 29 Feb 08,, 04:17

Also, Kosovo has 50% unemployment (I wonder if car thiefs, pick pockets, and heroin dealers classify as "employed"), will be blockaded, and run by a gangster named Thaci. GOOD LUCK!

People don't know this, but next week the Serbs are holding talks with the World Bank. The Serbs have 1.5 billion dollars in loans (that went into Kosovo post 1999) and the debt servicing is 130 million a yr. The Serbs are going to offload that onto the Albos. HOW THE HELL WILL THEY COPE? That's a lot of heroin they'll have to sell.

**~~ShayGaetz~~** · 29 Feb 08,, 15:07

In Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, there were two main puppet states, the Ustashe in Croatia and the regime of Serb General Nedic in Serbia, which contained the core of the pre-war Serb monarchical state. “Serbian” Belgrade was the first city in Europe to be declared Judenfrei (free of Jews). Serbs loyal to the recent monarchy formed an organisation called the Chetniks which terrorised all non-serbs.

Serbian Chetnik forces initially fought against the Ustashe regime, as its goal of a “Greater Homogenous Serbia” was in conflict with the Ustashe's “Greater Croatia”. But the Chetniks' main enemy was Tito's partisans and they eventually became full-scale collaborators of the Nazis.

Just as collaborators existed on all sides, so did partisans. The overwhelming bulk of resistance activity occurred in Bosnia and Croatia. According to Yugoslav statistics, at the height of the war in late 1943, there were 122,000 partisans active in Croatia, 108,000 in Bosnia, and only 22,000 in Serbia.

Of course many partisans in Croatia and Bosnia were ethnic Serbs, but many were from other nationalities -- in Croatia, 61% of partisans were Croats and 28% Serbs. While figures do not exist for Bosnia, a large proportion were also Muslims, who were being slaughtered by all sides.

so the mythology that the Croats were all fascists = "bad guys"

and the

mythology that the serbs were all Partisans = "good guys"

is a patent fiction!