<http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071209/EDITORIAL/112090001> http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071209/EDITORIAL/112090001 The Washington Times 9 December 2007 Letters to the Editor Kosovo's dark future With the pending independence of Kosovo looming over us like a lead balloon ("Serbs prepare for mass exodus," World, Wednesday), the front lines are amazingly quiet. While Kosovo Albanians are racing to cross the finish line, I ponder what exactly they think they are going to win. They remind me of unruly teenagers who have the run of the house while somebody else is paying the bills. Sheer audacity drives them forward to steal the title with no plan to support their thwart. Obviously, it is not a safe place to be eight years after the 1999 bombing. Foreign armies still occupy Serbian lands; the crime rate is horrific; minorities whisper and quiver. Slavery, drugs, intimidation, assault, smuggling and fear permeate the daily lives of ordinary citizens under the noses of complacent Kosovo Force troops and yawning European Union dignitaries. The largest economic force in Kosovo is the black market, fueled by the Albanian mafia, Islamic jihadists and sympathizers of Osama bin Laden. The average age of a Kosovar is about 16. Obviously, this is not a viable tax base — so much for jobs. Ironically, it is Yugoslavia that always paid for the infrastructure of Kosovo, not Albania. So what exactly is it about Albania that the Kosovo Albanians are trying to emulate? Given Albania's track record, do we really need two Albanias? After all, if Albania were a model for reform, shouldn"t they be running back there toward that finish line? The United States is planning to reward bad behavior by giving the radical Islamic terrorists more space in Kosovo. Is supporting Kosovo's independence supposed to make us look impartial? Lucky for us, it's not in our back yard, unlike Europe's. Then again, if distance were a safe metric, the attacks of September 11 could not have happened. We cannot justify or dignify our global position to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq and ignore it at our back door. We dare not entertain the idea, for the second time, of violating the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation that is compliant with the European Union to bow down to the tantrums of nominal players who are racing toward a finish line alone. GABRIELLE NIKOLIN Dallas • So, yet again, we see the results of our misguided State Department's doublespeak and its fanatically anti-Serbian policies. We say we're against ethnic cleansing, yet the Serbs are the most ethnically cleansed people in Europe. We say we support an agreement by both parties in Kosovo but then tell the Albanians that we will support independence and give them no incentive to negotiate. We say we're against the creation of a Greater Serbia, but we're for the creation of a Greater Albania. We say we support international law and justice, but not when it works against our interests. We are about to support the wholly illegal theft of Kosovo from Serbia, but we support the territorial integrity of Iraq (and, by proxy, Turkey). We say Russia is our "friend," but we are doing everything in our power to bait and provoke Russia into a conflict that may lead to World War III, or, at the very least, restart the Cold War. It really makes you wonder about what kind of people have been chosen to lead this nation. In nature, there are absolute laws that cannot be violated without serious consequences. Tragically, our leaders are so arrogant and ignorant that they think their power is beyond that of mere mortals and their laws. With these attitudes, they are leading us into oblivion. Americans need to learn the truth of what is really going on in Kosovo and to put a stop to the State Department shenanigans in the Balkans right now. MICHAEL PRAVICA Henderson, Nev.
