American Council for Kosovo - News from the American Council for Kosovo

Serbian Minister: No Kosovo Partition, No Separating Any Part of Our Country, However Small

Recognition of Kosovos Independence Lags Behind Western Sahara and Palestine

United Nations Role in Quandary: Whos in Charge?

NATO Blitzkrieg Solution Planned?

Albanian Terrorists Sale of Organs Torn from Living Serbian Prisoners

Editorial Comment from the American Council for Kosovo We apologize for the foregoing avalanche of headlines. But the rush of items needing urgent attention continues to grow, both in volume and in the number of interrelated topics all with one bottom line: the train wreck caused by Washingtons forcible and illegal attempt to separate the province of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia is getting worse by the day. Not only are the destabilizing consequences continuing to reverberate across the globe despite the State Departments breezy assurance that Kosovo is not a precedent (evidently someone forgot to tell separatist groups all around the world explicitly citing Kosovo as justification for changing borders by violence and foreign intervention), the notion that an independent Kosovo magically has come into being just doesnt pass the laugh test.

Lets look at the math. On February 17, the criminal and terrorist leadership of the UN-supervised Albanian Muslim administration in Kosovo declared the provinces independence from Serbia. Both the terrorists and their foreign cheerleaders smugly predicted rapid recognition by 100 countries. In particular, Americas European allies were subjected to merciless arm-twisting with the assurance that if the U.S. and Europe presented a united front, Serbia (and Russia, whose veto in the Security Council was being circumvented) would have no choice but to accept Kosovos loss. But not only did Serbia refuse to give in, the predicted international support has not materialized. To date (April 16), only 36 out of 192 member states of the United Nations have extended recognition. Thats under 19 percent.

How does that stack up against other putative states? The former colony of Spanish Sahara, now styling itself the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (also known as Western Sahara), is recognized by somewhere between 43 and 47 countries. The exact number is uncertain because 30-odd countries have cancelled, suspended, or downgraded their ties, reducing Western Sahara from a high point of over 80 recognitions. Western Saharas experience is illustrative of another fact of international politics: countries can and do withdraw recognitions, when they believe it is in their interest to correct what they later decide was a mistake.

Meanwhile, a couple of dozen countries (not including the United States) formally accept the claim extended over Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco, which took control of most of the former colonys territory after the Spanish withdrawal. It could be inferred that many other countries implicitly accept the Moroccan claim by withholding recognition of the aspiring independent Saharan state. Worthy of note is that due to Western Saharas membership in the African Union (AU), the Kingdom of Morocco is the only country on the continent that is not an AU member.

Another instructive example is the 1998 proclamation of a State of Palestine by the Palestine Liberation Organization, then in exile in Algiers. The State of Palestine, which never has had sovereign control over any territory, is recognized by about 100 countries -- more than half of the worlds total number -- and maintains embassies in most of them. Palestine also has a Permanent Observer Mission at the United Nations, the only non-sovereign entity to do so. So, does this mean there is a Palestinian state, and has been since 1988? Who knew?

The Saharan and Palestinian examples offer an interesting perspective on supposedly independent Kosovo. First, Kosovos number of recognitions lags behind both of the other highly dubious states, dramatically so compared to Palestine. Second, neither Western Saharas nor Palestines statehood claim involve separation from another state of which they were indisputably a part, as does Kosovos with respect to Serbia. Third, Polisario (the Algerian-supported guerrilla movement that proclaimed an independent Western Sahara) effectively controls at least some of the territory it claims, while even the part of Kosovo controlled by the Albanian Muslim regime remains under the tutelage of the UN, the EU, and NATO. Finally, some minimal level of international organization membership is held by Western Sahara (African Union) and the notional Palestinian state (Arab League, Organization of the Islamic Conference, and UN Observer), but Kosovo never will become a member of the Council of Europe, the EU, or the UN -- not even as an observer.

In short, for Kosovo its only a matter of time before the governments that were hoodwinked by the State Department into buying this dog decide they need to find a way out. With the feeble pace of recognitions slowed to a crawl, its only a matter of time before some countries pull back their recognitions, in fact if not yet in name.

Exposure of Kosovos bogus statehood claim goes hand-in-hand with Serbias increasingly effective presence in the Serbian enclaves in Kosovo, both north of the river Ibar in Northern Mitrovica and in the smaller pockets to the south. Those desperate to vindicate the Kosovo independence project recognize their efforts are doomed if the enclaves remain outside of the control of the administration of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders and the illegally deployed European Union mission EULEX. No doubt partly for that reason, Serbias Minister for Kosovo, Dr. Slobodan Samardzic, proposed that Serbia and Serbs in Kosovo continue to work with the UN authority in the areas of the province where Serbs are concentrated.

If accepted, Dr. Samardzics proposal to the UN means the acknowledged authority of Security Council Resolution 1244, which was adopted at the end of the 1999 NATO war against Serbia and which affirms Serbias sovereignty in Kosovo, would remain in force despite the violations that have occurred to date. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated that the UN will continue to exercise its mandate until a new Resolution to replace 1244 is adopted by the Security Council, which wont happen because of opposition from Russia, China, and most of the non-permanent members. The Samardzic proposal challenges the international community to abide by the principles it claims to uphold. Naturally, those hostile to Serbias sovereignty over Kosovo have tried to misrepresent what he had proposed. Wrote Dr. Samardzic:

Some observers have denounced our proposal as an attempt to partition Kosovo, or to have Serbs secede. Such accusations are knowing and malicious falsehoods. It is patently obvious to any fair-minded observer that we seek not partition or secession but maintaining the integrity of Resolution 1244 where possible (the areas where Serbs live) as opposed to the Albanian-dominated areas, where the U.N.'s authority under Resolution 1244 has been negated by the separatist declaration of Feb. 17, the illegal deployment of EULEX, and null and void foreign recognitions. Any suggestion of partitioning Kosovo which would be a partition within a partition of Serbia's sovereign territory contradicts every argument Serbia has made. We consistently have rejected any attempt by any party to impose an illegal and forcible separation of any part of our country, however small. Serbia will never accept an independent Kosovo, in whatever portion of the province it may consist. One must wonder if the real agenda of those talking about partition of Kosovo and then blaming it on the Serbs is further Balkanization in other regions of the world.

It remains to be seen whether the UN will take Serbia up on its proposal. However, if it is refused, or if UN authorities on the ground begin a stealth transfer of competencies to the Albanians and EULEX, Serbia would have no choice but to reassume direct administration of the enclaves. Such an action, which would be peaceful because it reflects the wishes of the Serbian areas where the KLA administration and EULEX currently have no presence, would be another nail in the coffin of the bogus, nonviable terrorist statelet.

It is no wonder, then, that ominous noises have been made about a possible NATO blitzkrieg to impose the authority of the KLA criminals in Serbian-inhabited areas -- and present their residents with the choice of submission, flight, or death. Most Americans would find it hard to believe our government would insist on such an option, but given the sheer illegality that has formed the basis of the State Departments policy toward Kosovo, no enormity can be considered beyond the bounds of credibility. The more problematic aspect is mechanical. First, with our worldwide commitments, notably in Iraq and in Afghanistan, it is doubtful the United States has the manpower -- oops, personpower -- to undertake such a task. Second, with so many of our European allies feeling burned over going along with U.S. demands of recognition, would they allow themselves to be browbeaten into starting a new Balkan war? For that matter, Washington is having little success in getting our allies to pony up troops for the NATO operation in Afghanistan. Hopefully someone at the Pentagon, if presented with expending U.S. political capital to get European help either to defeat a resurgent Talibanistan or to midwife a stillborn Kosovastan, would know which is the right choice.

Clearly, theres no moral inhibition on the KLA side. Nothing better illustrates that point than the horrible accounts in the recently published book by former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that Serbian prisoners of the KLA were held in special camps where their organs were removed and sold on the European black market. As described in the book:

These [i.e., Serbian] prisoners were initially held in sheds and other structures in Kukes and Tropoje [in northeastern Albania, near Kosovo]. According to the journalists' sources, who were only identified as Kosovo Albanians, some of the younger and fitter prisoners were visited by doctors and were never hit. They were transferred to other detention camps in Burrel and the neighbouring area, one of which was a barracks behind a yellow house 20 km behind the town. One room inside this yellow house, the journalists said, was kitted out as a makeshift operating theatre, and it was here that surgeons transplanted the organs of prisoners. These organs, according to the sources, were then sent to Rinas airport, Tirana, to be sent to surgical clinics abroad to be transplanted to paying patients. One of the informers had personally carried out a shipment to the airport. The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the other prisoners in the barracks were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified to be killed immediately. Among the prisoners who were taken to these barracks were women from Kosovo, Albania, Russia and other Slavic countries. Two of the source said that they helped to bury the corpses of the dead around the yellow house and in a neighbouring cemetery. According to the sources, the organ smuggling was carried out with the knowledge and active involvement of middle and high ranking involvement from the KLA.

No more damning commentary could be made on Americas clients in Kosovo. The question now is whether the State Department will heap further dishonor on our country by bringing American force to bear on behalf of people who have perpetrated such acts, or whether we will pull back our support and allow the misbegotten KLA project to grind down to its ignominious and foredoomed conclusion.

James George Jatras, Director

American Council for Kosovo

Kosovo�s Illegal �Declaration of Independence� and U.S. Recognition Trigger Destabilization, Threat of Violence

President Bush's Authorization of Military Assistance Pours Oil on the Fire

False Charges That Serbia Wants Partition of Kosovo Raises Questions About Separatist Agendas Worldwide

Editorial Comment from the American Council for Kosovo � Following the Bush Administration's ill-advised decision to recognize an illegal and invalid 'declaration of independence' by Albanian Muslims in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, the results of a policy designed to bring 'stability' and 'democracy' to the region already are painfully clear. Far from settling the status of Kosovo or stabilizing the western Balkans, the decision of the U.S. and some of our allies to circumvent the UN Security Council and extend recognition has made a bad situation worse. A global competition has been opened up between recognizing and non-recognizing states, with countries constituting the large majority of the world's population either hesitant to follow the U.S. lead or refusing outright. Violent separatist groups around the world already are citing Kosovo as validation of their aspirations. Protection of the territorial integrity of sovereign states enshrined in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other international commitments binding on the United States has been shattered. An already strained U.S-Russia relationship has been further aggravated. U.S. and European Union relations with Serbia, the key country in the region, have been set back. Fears of renewed conflict and a human rights and religious freedom nightmare in Kosovo are increasing.

The critical 'red lines' on the ground today in Kosovo are whether the Bush Administration will attempt to force Kosovo's Serbs to submit to the will of the illegitimate 'authorities' in Pristina and the European Union's oxymoronically named 'rule of law' mission, or try to enforce a 'border' between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. Serbia will not accept any such unlawful and aggressive actions, and Kosovo Serbs will vote in their country's May 11 election. Russian assistance to Serbs in Kosovo is beginning to flow without approval from the criminal and terrorist Albanian administration in Pristina. Meanwhile, President Bush's March 19 presidential determination to extend American military assistance to the Albanian administration in Pristina sends the most ominous signal that Washington intends to throw further oil on the smoldering fire. Recently the Serbian Minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, proposed that mainly Serbian-inhabited areas of the province should remain under UN administration in functional separation from the Albanian-dominated areas. This is because Serbia is still willing to work with the legitimate authority present in Kosovo under Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999), despite the flagrant violation of the Resolution by Washington and other recognizing states, by the EU, and by the separatist Albanian Muslim pseudo-government. Even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has admitted that 'The declaration of independence and subsequent events in Kosovo have posed significant challenges to the ability of UNMIK [i.e., the UN authority in the province] to exercise its administrative authority in Kosovo. To address these challenges, UNMIK, guided by the imperative need to ensure peace and security in Kosovo, has acted, and will continue to act, in a realistic and practical manner and in the light of the evolving circumstances.' This of course is just the practical and realistic opportunity Serbia is offering the UN, which so far has given no final answer but says it is willing to discuss the Serbian proposal. However, failure to seize that opportunity would be tantamount to the UN's giving up its role in Kosovo, leaving Belgrade with no choice but to restore direct administration over Kosovo's Serbs.

Predictably, the Serbian proposal was labeled an attempt to 'partition' Kosovo. No one familiar with the specifics of Minister Samardzic's proposal could come honestly to that conclusion. Serbia consistently has been and remains clear: not one hectare of Serbian land may be torn away. Having demanded a partition of Serbia by claiming to have detached Kosovo, attempts of further partition -- over Belgrade's objections -- may be evidence of ulterior motives with global application. For example, with reference to recent events in Tibet, one noted cheerleader for an independent Kosovo has observed:

'India, anxious to keep the torturers of Tiananmen Square happy, had arrested and beaten Tibetan demonstrators, and Nepal had surrendered to a Chinese demand to close its border and prevent protestors from heading to Mount Everest for a pro-Tibetan action. . . . Over the weekend of March 16 and in the week that followed, Lhasa and other places would still be defying Chinese �order,' and stone-throwing Tibetans would repeatedly be answered with rifle fire. Kosovo and Tibet, on the front lines between liberty and tyranny, make the case for a new international League of Democracies, from which Russia and China would perforce be excluded.'

Not to comment on the justice of the Tibetans' cause or the appropriateness of China's response, this kind of rhetoric can only be seen as a positive incentive for violence as the preferred instrument for changing borders. India, China, Russia, Nepal, Burma -- a fuse should be lit for the explosion of how many other countries? Who decides which state should be next on the chopping block? Indonesia? Sri Lanka? Israel? Cyprus? Spain? Georgia? Thailand? Please take a number and get in line.

James George Jatras
Director, American Council for Kosovo

Recognition of Kosovo�s Unilateral Declaration of Independence Slower than Expected

Many Countries -- Including Israel, India, Spain, and Most of Africa and Latin America -- Reluctant to Recognize an Illegally and Forcibly Detached Kosovo
Washington Times Editorial Board: Kosovo is Europe's New Jihadist Statelet

It would be unfortunate if anyone came to the conclusion that Kosovo's independence is in any way an accomplished fact. Despite the declaration on February 17 by Pristina's gaggle of war criminals, jihad terrorists, and racketeers, followed by recognition by a number of countries, including the US, Kosovo is no more independent than it was the day before. Indeed the opposite is the case. Kosovo will be the Biafra of the first decade of the 21st century.

The miscalculation by the State Department that through an act of breathtaking illegality it could redraw borders and create a fiat state carved out of the territory of a recognized state has not turned out to be the expected cakewalk. As of this writing, just 20 countries have been foolish enough to recognize Kosovo, an illegal, criminal-ruled, economically nonviable entity.

To be sure, three nuclear-armed permanent members of the Security Council have recognized Kosovo. But Russia, China, and India (two permanent members and a country that should be) have not recognized it and almost certainly will not. Washington's facile claim that 100 countries were lining up to extend recognition was a soap bubble. Some observers think the real number may hardly break 25. Non-recognizing countries already constitute more than half the world's population, and with the likely support of Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, perhaps Israel, and most of Africa and Latin America, may exceed three-fourths. Maybe Washington is counting on mighty Tonga and Lesotho. Outgoing Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns has expressed high hopes from Arab and Islamic regimes.

The State Department has made much of the regrettable disorders in Belgrade, particularly the attack on the US embassy. Some context is in order. Despite the complaints of US officials obviously lacking any sense of irony that "sovereign" American territory has been violated, Serbian riot police were deployed within the hour, the violence suppressed, and fault admitted. Some 200 suspects were placed in custody and the dragnet is out for more. No doubt Belgrade will pay compensation for damages. (For that matter, If an independent "Aztlan" were declared in the US and recognized by, say, Russia, China, and India, who then deployed troops to guard the Aztlan-US "border," I'd think some Americans might get a bit violent too.)

Serbia's failure to fully protect embassies is a far cry from the US-led NATO's non- and malfeasance in protecting Serbs in Kosovo over the past nine years. Belgrade's inadequate enforcement of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations pales next to Washington's calculated breach of the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, UNSC Resolution 1244, the North Atlantic Treaty, the US Constitution, the Serbian Constitution, and pretty much every standard of law or decency it is possible to violate.

The developing stillbirth of 'Kosova' and the resulting frozen conflict is shaping up as an embarassing and unnecessary isolation of the United States. Besides the competition between recognizing and non-recognizing countries -- at last count decisively in favor of the latter -- the next flash point will be if NATO presses forward with use of force to draw a border between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, or to impose on Serbs in Kosovo the will of the illegitimate 'authorities' in Pristina and the EU's paradoxically named 'rule of law' mission. Serbia will not accept either action and NATO has no such mandates under Resolution 1244. It remains to be seen if Washington compounds political violence with physical violence to help our "friends" in Pristina.

The ensuing frozen conflict over Kosovo should not be seen as a prelude to partition. Instead, it must be seen for what it is: Serbia's reassertion of effective control over part of Kosovo, and the pending liberation, over an uncertain time frame, of the remainder of its territory, which now is subject to an illegitimate administration misguidedly propped up by NATO. Belatedly, wide segments of the American public are now taking note of the train wreck into whcih the State Department has driven the US.

The sooner Washington's ill-advised triggering of the current crisis is seen for the failure it is and annuls its recognition, the sooner the ersatz entity will collapse and real negotiations between Belgrade and decent elements of the Kosovo Albanian community, with no predetermined outcome, can begin.
James George Jatras
Director, American Council for Kosovo

Special Appeal from the American Council for Kosovo

'We are all expecting something difficult and horrible. Our message to you, all Serbs in Kosovo, is to remain in your homes and around your monasteries, regardless of what God allows or our enemies do.'

Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren, archpastor of Orthodox Christians in Kosovo.

The American Council for Kosovo today issued this Special Appeal to all Americans and citizens of other countries in the aftermath of the illegal and void unilateral 'declaration of independence' by Albanian Muslims in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija and their recognition by some countries, led, regrettably, by the United States:

The struggle for the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija has entered a new phase, one likely to extend far into the future. With an illegal and void "declaration" by Kosovo's UN-supervised Albanian Muslim administration, which is dominated by the criminal leadership of a terrorist organization, the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)," followed by recognition of Kosovo's independence by a number of countries -- shamefully, led by the United States -- an unprecedented violation of the international order and global stability has been committed. Countries claiming to be paragons of democracy and the rule of law proudly assert that they have forcibly amputated, without its consent, the territory of a sovereign state and member of the United Nations.

But despite any declaration, despite any foreign recognitions, Kosovo is no more independent now than it was before. Legally, it remains part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Serbia, and will remain so. What has changed is the status of the international mission in Kosovo. Since 1999, the United Nations and NATO have been present in Kosovo as unwelcome guests with Serbia's agreement, pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which affirms Kosovo as part of Serbia and provides for its "essential autonomy" within Serbia. Despite corrupt reinterpretations by the recognizing countries, not one syllable of Resolution 1244 provides for Kosovo's separation from Serbia. In addition, Serbia specifically has rejected the illegal deployment on its territory of a mission of the European Union (EU) tasked, ironically, with legal reform.

Through their support of what Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has called a "puppet entity" on Serbia's territory, the recognizing states and the EU have inflicted a grave act of political violence on the international legal system. Their actions undermine the most basic principal of international peace: guarantees of the territorial integrity of sovereign states in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other universally binding commitments. Every multiethnic country, especially those with violent separatist movements, is now placed at risk. Americans should take note that what our government seeks to inflict on Serbia today may be the fate of the southwest United States tomorrow.

Even worse than the act of political violence, the declared establishment and recognition of an illegal, separatist entity on Serbian territory presents the threat of stepped-up physical violence. As the archpastor of Kosovo's endangered Orthodox Christians, His Grace ARTEMIJE, Bishop of Ras and Prizren, warned during his most recent visit to Washington:

"Threats have already been issued that after an independence declaration and recognition, force would be used to shut down so-called 'parallel structures' in Serbian enclaves -- in reality the legitimate institutions of our state -- including the Mitrovica office of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. Such actions, with expected attacks on Serbian citizens, would constitute a direct assault on the Serbian state and the Serbian nation. While it would be inappropriate to disclose Serbia's specific response, we will defend our territory and our people as would any other democratic country. Russia and other friendly countries are prepared to assist us. . . . We Serbs have suffered many occupations in the past and triumphed over them. If necessary we would survive this one as well. Despite any intensification of the terror to which we Christians have been subjected since 1999, my flock in Kosovo has no intention of leaving their homes."

It would be up to the KLA and their supporters to decide whether to kick off a new cycle of violence by attacking Serbs, who live in fear that the remaining third of their pre-war population would be eradicated and the rest of their churches destroyed. While advocates of Kosovo's amputation from Serbia have taken comfort from the expectation that Serbia would not respond appropriately to attacks on its citizens, that expectation is a miscalculation. The Kosovo Albanians' terrorist leadership and the recognizing states have needlessly created a volatile mixture: shattering the international legal system, US-Russia confrontation, violence on the ground, criminality, human rights violations, and a new frozen conflict.

Purported justifications for Kosovo's independence based on the supposed 'humanitarian intervention' by NATO in 1999 are misplaced. Far from the usual claims that NATO stopped a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo, the past nine years have seen a slow-motion genocide in progress against the province's Christian Serbian population under the nose of the UN and NATO, and at times with their assent. Two-thirds of the Serbian population already has been expelled and have not been able to return safely to their homes. Over 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed. Hundreds of new Saudi-funded mosques fomenting the extreme Wahhabi doctrine have sprung up.

The American Council for Kosovo asks all Americans and citizens of other countries to contact your government to demand:

No diplomatic ties should be established with the illegal, criminal, separatist, KLA regime in Pristina! Any ambassador nominated to Pristina must be denied confirmation!
No foreign assistance to the illegal, criminal, separatist, KLA regime in Pristina!
No support by the foreign mission in Kosovo should given to KLA terrorist efforts to expand their 'authority' into Serb-controlled areas!
The EU 'rule of law' occupation force must be withdrawn!
The illegal 'puppet entity' on Serbian soil must be dissolved!
New negotiations, without preconceived results, must be started between Serbia and responsible representatives of the Albanian community to reach a lasting settle consistent with international law!

Americans immediately should contact their Senators and Congressmen with these demands. They should call the White House (202-456-1111) to protest U.S. recognition and demand the above measures, or email to:

President George W. Bush:
comments@whitehouse.gov

Vice President Richard B. Cheney:
vice_president@whitehouse.gov

James George Jatras
Director, American Council for Kosovo
(www.savekosovo.org)

Kosovo �Train Wreck�: is the Warning Bell Starting to Ring in Washington?

Former Secretary of State Eagleburger Opposed to "Grabbing a Hunk of Territory" from Serbia

Former National Security Advisor Scowcroft Warns: U.S. "Pushing Too Hard" on Kosovo, "Potential Ethnic Cleansing" of Serbs, "Radicalization of Serbia," Russians "Not Going to be Pushed Around Anymore"

Admiral Lyons: Don't Trigger "Optional" Crisis with Moscow, Create "Failed, Nonviable Rogue" Kosovo State

Editorial Comment from the American Council for Kosovo � As noted before in this space, America's Kosovo policy has been set on a course for disaster, desperately crying out from some adult supervision. No one has yet blown time out on this misguided policy, but there are increasing signs that serious minds and eyes are paying attention to a little-noticed issue that could set off a big crisis.

To recap where we stand at the current juncture, Washington has stated its intention to recognize a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) by Kosovo's Albanians sometime in the next few months, maybe weeks. This is despite the fact that Serbia has said it never will accept the amputation of its province, which despite phony 'assurances' would mean eradication of Kosovo's remaining Christian Serbs and destruction of their spiritual and cultural heritage by Muslim Albanians. It is also despite the fact that Russia, standing on a firm legal foundation under the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other binding commitments, refuses to permit such an outrage through the UN Security Council. Moscow has warned that an American-led attempt to circumvent the Security Council, and recognizing Kosovo's UDI while Resolution 1244, which reaffirms Kosovo as part of Serbia, is still in effect, would be 'crossing the Rubicon' and would set off a possible 'uncontrolled crisis.'

Russia's military establishment has indicated it would be willing to supply unspecified material assistance to Serbia if asked. Belgrade's coalition government has not spoken with one voice as to what steps it would take if foreign states were to recognize a Kosovo UDI, which would be a blatant act of lawlessness and aggression against the territorial integrity of a sovereign state; in this case, that state is a democratic, multiethnic, European democracy, unlike Kosovo itself, which is an increasingly monoethnic Albanian and monoreligious Islamic entity, controlled by jihad terrorists and racketeers. But if the UDI and U.S.-led recognition were to go forward, with the inevitable violence and destabilization, no one should assume the result would not be a political earthquake in Serbia and the prospect that Belgrade would take Moscow up on its offer.

It is understandable that with all the issues on America's front burner, starting with Iraq, few Americans, or even most U.S. policymakers, have been paying attention to Kosovo. Sadly, that's why the U.S. course has been steered by the State Department so far into the fever swamps. But there are now indications that this is changing, not so much because of Kosovo, or even Serbia, but because the larger damage to U.S. global interests is becoming evident to some sober-minded people, who are sounding the warning.

To be sure, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was one of the first household names in the foreign policy stratosphere to point out the wrong-headedness of America's Kosovo policy. Now add the names of retired Admiral James Lyons (former commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations, and deputy chief of naval operations, where he was principal adviser on all Joint Chiefs of Staff matters), former Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade Lawrence Eagleburger, and former National Security Advisor to the President, General Brent Scowcroft.

Writing in the Washington Times, Admiral Lyons, whose thoughts on strategic topics command wide respect in national security circles, takes note of Washington's and Moscow's glaringly asymmetrical understandings of what Kosovo is about:

It is difficult to see what advantages exist for the U.S. to force a resolution for Kosovo, especially one that threatens to unleash instability in the troubled region, as well as a broader political showdown with Russia, and China too. Not only do we have enough serious issues with those countries, over Iran, Taiwan and North Korea, the U.S. can ill afford with our ongoing efforts in the Middle East to commit additional military forces to a new confrontation in the Balkans. With an unemployment rate of up to 70 percent, no one who has been to Kosovo, as I have, can doubt we are looking at the creation of a failed, nonviable rogue state. This, notwithstanding claims by the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman that somehow Muslim-led governments will embrace the United States for supporting creation of a Muslim state in the very heart of Europe. They will embrace us the same as Iran did after our elimination of their archenemy Saddam Hussein. There is no reason for the secretary of state to be beholden to the Holbrooke Cabal in the State Department. A recent op-ed by Richard Holbrooke, President Clinton's former ambassador to the U.N., urged the U.S. to move forward with Kosovo's UDI - a position also embraced by Hillary Clinton's campaign. Oddly, even Mr. Holbrooke concedes that supporting Kosovo's UDI would set the U.S. toward a 'train wreck' with Russia. Before the Kosovo UDI turns into what the Russian Foreign Ministry has called 'crossing the Rubicon' and a possible 'uncontrolled crisis,' someone in the Bush administration needs to call for a long overdue reassessment of our Kosovo policy. America has much more important business to take care of that we cannot afford to jeopardize over a seemingly minor dispute to vindicate a Clinton agenda item.

Secretary Eagleburger, in an interview with the U.S. government's Voice of America, states:

I have really very serious problems with the international community and part of that being the United States, advocating grabbing a hunk of territory from one country and making it independent. I don't think that's a tradition that we want to establish very substantially. There are perfectly good reasons for objecting to international efforts to hive Kosovo off from Serbia. You can argue all you want to about the difficulties between Serbs and Kosovars, but there is another issue involved here which is the international tradition of all of a sudden establishing the right of the international community to order or pressure the taking of a particular territory and telling the nominal host country that it's no longer a part of their territory.

Also speaking to Voice of America, General Scowcroft says the following with respect to the U.S.-Russia relationship and our headlong rush on Kosovo:

We really have to go back to the end of the Cold War. We think it was a very smooth ending and so on and so forth. But I think we sort of overlook what must be a great sense of humiliation in the Russian soul at their fall from one of two superpowers to a country that nobody paid any attention to unless we wanted something. And I think that probably was a deep scar on the Russian psyche. And now, after the complete collapse in 1998, Russia is now a strong power primarily because of energy exports. And I think Putin is taking advantage of that to say, "Look, we're not going to be pushed around anymore. We want to be paid attention to and we want to have a major seat at the table everywhere." . . . My own sense is that we have been moving too fast on Kosovo. I think that situation is not really ripe to be turned loose. Even in Bosnia - we've been in Bosnia five years longer than in Kosovo and without a European presence, Bosnia would revert to what it was before. These are very difficult, emotional issues. And there is potential ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, there is the possible radicalization of Serbia - it's an issue filled with emotion. Kosovo is, after all, the psychological heartland of Serbia. It is where Serbia got started. It is where their religious roots are. Their Fourth of July is the battle of Kosovo (1389) and so it has deep feeling for them. And I sort of think we are pushing too hard.

Let us hope that Washington is beginning to wake up to how bad the unnecessary confrontation with Moscow is likely to be if the U.S. pulls the trigger on illegally recognizing an independent Kosovo. There is little doubt that if most policymakers were sufficiently aware of that now, before the crisis were unleashed, Washington would take a step back from the brink. But the paradox is that, as of this writing, other American responsible actors, preoccupied with other problems, will not take note of the mess the State Department has made until after we move, by which time it will be too late to avert the crisis. Respected voices, like those of Secretary Eagleburger and Admiral Lyons, can help change that.