Kosovo and Serbia

[boaz]

I watched all these historic events occurring all through Serbia and i can't help feeling somewhat torn as an American. From what I understand, Serbia was our ally in WWII and Kosovo is their heartland. It was defended in an historic battle back in the 14th or 15th century.

I understand the horror that has occurred there and I am very happy to see all the Kosovo people free from terror but as an American i am somewhat concerned about breaking up Serbia. I was wondering how others feel about it. I was relieved to hear the President mention during his trip in Africa that the Russians were at least aware of it before happened.

boaz Reviewed by boaz on 02-26-2008. Kosovo and Serbia I watched all these historic events occurring all through Serbia and i can't help feeling somewhat torn as an American. From what I understand, Serbia was our ally in WWII and Kosovo is their heartland. It was defended in an historic battle back in the 14th or 15th century. I understand the horror that has occurred there and I am very happy to see all the Kosovo people free from terror but as an American i am somewhat concerned about breaking up Serbia. I was wondering how others feel Rating: 5

[Psycho4Bud]

Kosovo is B. Clintons war....my kid spent time there. Here's a bit of interesting history:

[YOUTUBE]http://youtube.com/watch?v=0RrOcMcclBA&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

As far as I'm concerned; this country is on the edge of the European Union.....let them deal with it.

One thing for the Serbians on this...IF this does go through they'll have an independent Muslim dominate country on their doorstep. In this day and age, this might be something for the E.U. to consider also.

Have a good one!:s4:

[Rusty Trichome]

I watched all these historic events occurring all through Serbia and i can't help feeling somewhat torn as an American.

Why, did you cause the political strife and ethnic 'cleansing' there? They are simply doing the same thing that Bezerkly and San Francisco wish they could do. Seceding from the long-established government.

I understand the horror that has occurred there and I am very happy to see all the Kosovo people free from terror but as an American i am somewhat concerned about breaking up Serbia.

Free from terror? Have you not been watching the news?
Let me see...The Mujahideen thrives on terror. The Soviets thrive on terror....

Yup...it falls into the "I couldn't care less" file. Let 'em nuke it out.
Or better yet, send in more incompetent UN troops.

[boaz]

Kosovo is B. Clintons war....my kid spent time there. Here's a bit of interesting history:

As far as I'm concerned; this country is on the edge of the European Union.....let them deal with it.

One thing for the Serbians on this...IF this does go through they'll have an independent Muslim dominate country on their doorstep. In this day and age, this might be something for the E.U. to consider also.

Thanks, i think i'll watch this at work today. I think what your kid helped do, in stopping the violence over there, was a good thing to do. I kinda agree with Rusty, don't really care that much, right now either way, but I think its interesting. This is the region where world wars start.

[Psycho4Bud]

He said that entire region is a shithole. Piles of trash all over hell; toothless women. LOL...where they set up base the natives didn't understand the use of toilet paper. They thought the paper was to wipe your hands off AFTER wiping your ass with your hand!

Last saturday was his mark where they can't call him back in.....time served in full.:thumbsup:

Have a good one!:s4:

[boaz]

.....time served in full.:thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

I was glued to the t.v. during all that. not to start an international incident or anything but remember when we accidently took out the chinese embassy. old maps, i believe.


On a much lighter note . . this story is pretty funny.

==========================
Enough With the New Countries

TIME
By JEFFREY KLUGER
Mon Feb 25, 2:40 AM ET

So let me get this straight: Serbia and Montenegro were all that remained of Yugoslovia after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded during the Balkan Wars of the '90s. Then Montenegro declared independence in 2006. Kosovo seceded from Serbia last Sunday, and now the northern region of Kosovo wants to secede and rejoin Serbia. I don't have a dog in this latest fight - or even understand it much - but if someone wants to quit the firm, it seems to me you ought to let him go. The tension arises, of course, because the ones eyeing the door usually want to take a pile of the firm's assets along with them. And you do have to question where this will end. Will some family named Knezevic decide it's time to secede from northern Kosovo? Will Bob, the Kenezvics' 17-year-old son who doesn't really talk to anyone at holiday dinners anymore, decide he wants to secede from the family? At some point you hit what scientists call the terminal unit - the smallest reducible component of any system - and this feels like it may be it.


Secession can often be a good idea. We'd all be eating Marmite and bangers for lunch if the United States hadn't opted out of the British Empire in 1776. But just as often it doesn't work, and with 192 current members of the United Nations and limited space for new flagpoles out front, I'd suggest it's time to close the books.


Consider Quebec: Separatists north of the border still agitate for a split from Canada, evidently believing that that now would be a great time to establish a Little France right next door to the United States, since Americans always react so happily to all things French - and what better tonic for a struggling global economy than another country that spends three-quarters of its work week threatening to go on strike and the remaining part walking off the job in a huff?


The mini-republics that the U.S.S.R. released like so many Tootsie Rolls from a piñata in the 1990s have not exactly turbocharged the Central Asian economy. And while Pakistan may have seemed like a nifty idea around the time they cut the ribbon, it's been plagued by troubles pretty much ever since - including the, uh, secession of Bangladesh in 1971.


Countries aren't the only geographical entities that try to secede, of course. Staten Island has made noises over the years about quitting New York City, an idea generally scuttled when residents realized that a lot of Manhattanites didn't know it was part of the club to begin with, and at least a few were confusing it with the little triangular island also named Staten at the southernmost tail of Argentina - which would at least explain why the ferry takes so long. Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley have similarly talked of seceding from greater Los Angeles, but the deal has repeatedly gotten hung up over merchandising rights.


Even new countries that do manage to get started face a load of problems, not the least being their flags. Consider how hard it is for the NFL to come up with a helmet logo for a new team that doesn't look like the trademark of the Altria Group or a symbol on a super hero's cape - and they've got only 32 franchises to worry about. The tricolor flag has been done to death. When you get to the point that Luxembourg and the Netherlands are both a horizontal red, white and blue, with the only difference being that Luxembourg's blue is lighter - a Pantone 299c pigment to be precise - you know you're running out of ideas. The Kosovars, being mostly Albanians whose desire is less for independence as much as to be part of a greater Albanian entity, wanted their flag to be double-headed black eagles on a red flag - the same as Albania. But mindful of multiculturalism and hoping to assuage the Serb minority, the West wouldn't allow it. Kosovo's new flag is thus a focus-group mishmash: a yellow Rorschach splot (the country's shape on the map, at least as long as the northern part sticks around) on a blue EU style flag with a few yellow stars. Want to guess which one the Kosovars will wave when their soccer team scores?


The danger in all this is not just what so much cartographic flux does to our maps, but what it does to our language. Must we live in a world with both a DMV and a DMZ? Did a globe with one Congo have to confuse things with two? And after I worked so hard when I was a kid remembering to call Russia the Soviet Union, was it really sporting to wait till I reached adulthood to tell me to forget it?


Some time ago, I ran across a grocery store on the east side of Manhattan that had that odd New York habit of including several names on the same awning, as if they could never quite figure out what to call the place. One of the names - I'm not kidding - was East Cheese. For the rest of the afternoon I worried that deep in the little store's past there had been a bloody war of secession from the autocratic West Cheese. Somewhere in the neighborhood, I feared, some disgruntled Curds might still lurk.

[boaz]

^^^^ just to clarify, i did not mean to imply that Clinton bombed the embassy on purpose, even tho that is what i assumed at the time.