Independence for Kosovo: Blessing or curse?

The Associated Press

Celebrating independence in Kosovo. But was the party over before it began?

Featured Topic | Posted 39 weeks 5 days ago

Independence for Kosovo: Blessing or curse?

So this is what foreign policy types mean by Balkanization. The Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, after years of violence among ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, and Serbs, who are primarily Christian.

Although the United States supports Kosovo's eventual independence, the Russian-backed Serbian government promises not to let the Kosovars go quietly. Violence erupted across Serbia and Kosovo in the hours after independence was declared.

This is a full-fledged international crisis. Is the time right for Kosovo's independence? What role should the United States play? What should the United Nations do? Is autonomy always the answer?

Ben likes: Be wise on Kosovo

Walid Phares/The American Thinker

The crisis of Kosovo is a crossroads with two directions. Either the Western alliance will acquiesce to wrong policies and end up being responsible for future ethnic violence and the spread of Jihadi forces in the region; or a new democracy alliance would become enlightened enough to find the appropriate solutions to all ethnic crisis in the former Yugoslavia on the one hand and stop the advancing Jihadi tentacles from reaching the belly of southern Europe.

Joel likes: Here comes Kosovo

Roger Cohen/New York Times

Kosovo is not Transdniestria or Abkhazia or South Ossetia. It is an anachronistic remnant of a now defunct country, Yugoslavia, a province that has been under U.N. administration for eight years pending a final settlement impossible within Serbia. Milosevic rolled the dice of genocidal nationalism and lost.

In the long run, I believe this outcome will be positive for Serbia. Instead of dwelling on medieval battles, victory-in-defeat symbolism, shrinking borders and a poisonous culture of victimization, Serbia will begin to see what it wrought and look forward — to the West rather than the East.