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Nation-building and Kosovo
IHT IHT
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Nation-building and Kosovo
Regarding "Start honoring the nation-builders" (Views, Oct. 22) by
James P. Rubin: In his otherwise persuasive article, James Rubin
grossly overstates the achievements of the Kosovo model.
If, as Rubin states "Kosovo has been a success" and "there was only
one victim of ethnic violence this year," perhaps it is because
Kosovo
is no longer the multiethnic province that the United States and
NATO
went to war to preserve in 1999.
If there was no one-on-one interethnic violence this year, perhaps
it is
because whatever citizens of Roma, Serbian, Vlac or ethnic Turk
descent remain in Kosovo live in guarded enclaves, encircled for the
most part by barbed-wire fences.
As Rubin well knows, and the United Nations and the State
Department have documented, thousands of non-Albanians fled or
were forcibly expelled from Kosovo between the end of the war on
June 10, 1999 and the arrival of peacekeepers weeks later.
Thousands of these refugees ended up in towns in southern Serbia,
where they still live in squalor and poverty, unable to return to
their
villages in Kosovo, or afraid to do so. I know this first-hand from
visiting the area in April 2001.
Even Rubin's claim that the Kosovo economy is on the mend is rather
flimsy. Kosovo's economy today is largely a gray one in which
prostitution, gun-running and cigarette-smuggling figure
prominently.
There is little new foreign investment and few workplaces where
Serbs, Albanians and Roma work side by side.
Peacekeeping and nation-building have their proper place in U.S.
foreign policy. But it is naive to think that without a whole lot
more
planning, commitment and support on the ground the United States
can make a success of it in Iraq or even Afghanistan.
When asked in the spring of 1999 what would happen to Kosovo
after the bombs stopped falling, the Brookings Institution analyst
Ivo
Daalder said, "We'll get in there and we'll run the place."
My point is: We didn't and we haven't.Joan McQueeney Mitric,
Kensington, Maryland
A nuclear double standard
Regarding "America's Nuclear Hypocrisy" (Views, Oct. 21) by Tad
Daley: Tad Daley performs a public service by reminding readers that
the United States cannot realistically expect other powers to forgo
weapons of mass destruction and adhere to international
nonproliferation agreements when it holds the lion's share of such
weapons and ignores such agreements, to which it also is a
signatory.
Why are members of Congress not drawing the public's attention to
this hypocrisy? Why is there not a single U.S. television news
network whose commentators raise this issue? American hypocrisy in
such a vital aspect of international security must be a major reason
the
United States is not as trusted overseas as Americans would like.
Will American opposition to this double standard make its voice
heard between now and election day in November? The world is
watching.Thomas J. Osborne, Santa Ana, California
Copyright C 2002 The International Herald Tribune
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http://www.iht.com/articles/74495.html
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Nation-building and Kosovo
Regarding "Start honoring the nation-builders" (Views,
Oct. 22) by James P. Rubin: In his otherwise
persuasive article, James Rubin grossly overstates the
achievements of the Kosovo model.
If, as Rubin states "Kosovo has been a success" and
"there was only one victim of ethnic violence this
year," perhaps it is because Kosovo is no longer the
multiethnic province that the United States and NATO
went to war to preserve in 1999.
If there was no one-on-one interethnic violence this
year, perhaps it is because whatever citizens of Roma,
Serbian, Vlac or ethnic Turk descent remain in Kosovo
live in guarded enclaves, encircled for the most part
by barbed-wire fences.
As Rubin well knows, and the United Nations and the
State Department have documented, thousands of
non-Albanians fled or were forcibly expelled from
Kosovo between the end of the war on June 10, 1999 and
the arrival of peacekeepers weeks later.
Thousands of these refugees ended up in towns in
southern Serbia, where they still live in squalor and
poverty, unable to return to their villages in Kosovo,
or afraid to do so. I know this first-hand from
visiting the area in April 2001.
Even Rubin's claim that the Kosovo economy is on the
mend is rather flimsy. Kosovo's economy today is
largely a gray one in which prostitution, gun-running
and cigarette-smuggling figure prominently. There is
little new foreign investment and few workplaces where
Serbs, Albanians and Roma work side by side.
Peacekeeping and nation-building have their proper
place in U.S. foreign policy. But it is naove to think
that without a whole lot more planning, commitment and
support on the ground the United States can make a
success of it in Iraq or even Afghanistan.
When asked in the spring of 1999 what would happen to
Kosovo after the bombs stopped falling, the Brookings
Institution analyst Ivo Daalder said, "We'll get in
there and we'll run the place."
My point is: We didn't and we haven't.
Joan McQueeney Mitric, Kensington, Maryland
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