Glick Eviscerates West on Kosovo

Glick weighs in on Kosovo and not surprisingly, sees it as   Bolton and Bostom and Williams and Jatras and Gorin and  Atlas does). Another intellectual leading light sees the terrible mistake we are making in supporting an Islamic state in the heart of Europe.

KOSOVO'S STARK WARNING Caroline Glick
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Additionally, the prosecution of Albanian war criminals is "hampered by the unwillingness of the local population to testify" against them. This is in part due to the fact that "there is still no specific legislation on witness protection in place."

The fledgling failed-state of Kosovo is a great boon for the global jihad. It is true that Kosovar Muslims by and large do not subscribe to radical Islam. But it is also true that they have allowed their territory to be used as bases for al-Qaida operations; that members of the ruling Kosovo Liberation Army have direct links to al-Qaida; and that the Islamic world as a whole perceived Kosovo's fight for independence from Serbia as a jihad for Islamic domination of the disputed province.

According to a 2002 Wall Street Journal report, al-Qaida began operating actively in Kosovo, and in the rest of the Balkans, in 1992. Osama bin Laden visited Albania in 1996 and 1997. He received a Bosnian passport from the Bosnian Embassy in Austria in 1993. Acting on bin Laden's orders, in 1994 his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri set up training bases throughout the Balkans including one in Mitrovica, Kosovo. The Taliban and al-Qaida set up drug trafficking operations in Kosovo to finance their operations in Afghanistan and beyond.

In 2006, John Gizzi reported in Human Events that the German intelligence service BND had confirmed that the 2005 terrorist bombings in Britain and the 2004 bombings in Spain were organized in Kosovo. Furthermore, "The man at the center of the provision of the explosives in both instances was an Albanian, operating mostly out of Kosovo... who is the second ranking leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Niam Behzloulzi."

Then, too, at its 1998 meeting in Pakistan, the Organization of the Islamic Conference declared that the Albanian separatists in Kosovo were fighting a jihad. The OIC called on the Muslim world to help "this fight for freedom on the occupied Muslim territories."

Supporters of Kosovo claim that as victims of "genocide," Kosovar Muslims deserve independence. But if the Muslims in Kosovo have been targeted for annihilation by the Serbs, then how is it that they have increased from 48% of the population in 1948 to 92% today? Indeed, Muslims comprised only 78% of the population in 1991, the year before Yugoslavia broke apart.

In recent years particularly, it is Kosovo's Serbian Christians, not its Albanian Muslims, who are targeted for ethnic cleansing. Since 1999, two-thirds of Kosovo's Serbs - some 250,000 people - have fled the area.

The emergence of a potentially destabilizing state in Kosovo is clearly an instance of political interests trumping law. Under international law, Kosovo has no right to be considered a sovereign state. Even UN Security Council Resolution 1244 from 1999, which the KLA claims provides the legal basis for Kosovar sovereignty, explicitly recognizes Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo.

For Israel, Kosovo's US-backed declaration of independence should be a source of alarm great enough to require a rethinking of foreign policy. Unfortunately, rather than understand and implement the lessons of Kosovo, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is working actively to ensure that they are reenacted in the international community's treatment of Israel and the Palestinians. Today, Israel is enabling the Palestinians to set the political and legal conditions for the establishment of an internationally recognized state of Palestine that will be at war with Israel.

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Comments

[daryl]

Remember where and how WWI started?

It is almost unbelievable, but the European Union and the United States endorsing the unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence actually has even WORSE implications than merely creating another potentially Islamist state, and one in the heart of Europe at that.

Poking the Russian Bear in the eye is pretty stupid, especially when the gangsters in the Kremlin can cut off Europe's natural gas supply in mid winter, freeze everybody, and collapse industries and economies.

But this action has still worse implications.

The entire post-war International System is based on two foundations: treaty relations between sovereign nation-states, and the integrity and primacy of nation-states in international law.

Accepting Kosavar unilateralism threatens the latter foundation of the world order.

There are literally hundreds of ethnic groups in dozens of nations that could cite this episode as a precedent for their separatist and irredentist claims. Think Chicanos, Quebecois, Scotsmen, Welshmen, Maoris, and Native Americans.

The historic imperial states of the Old World, Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, India, Pakistan, and most of sub-Saharan Africa, could join the Balkans in the flames of wars of independence fanned by resurrected tribal aspirations.

As we can see in Waziristan, not everybody wants to have the consumer comforts of modern life, especially if it means giving up on illiteracy, hunger, poverty, female bondage, infant mortality, vendetta, gun running, and drug smuggling.

A major feature of the historical surge of Modernity was modern states suppressing and subjugating ancient tribalities and setting up rational legal order and effective civil institutions. As Modernity commits suicide and fades out as the driving force for Progress in the world, we can expect the Timeless Chaos, Darkness, and Stagnation of tribal primitivism to reemerge.