CLINTON AND THE BALKANS
Madam
Secretary of State and the Balkans
By
Georgy
Gounev
January
24, 2008
What could be easily predicted on the eve of the beginning of Mrs Clinton’s
service in her capacity of diplomat number one of the United States is
the fact that the Balkans won’t be in the focus of her attention. Obviously,
according to her, everything in the Balkans is in order, and true to the
principle “if something isn’t broken don’t try to fix it”, the dynamic
Madam Secretary won’t pay attention to the area unless something dramatic
happen,( as a new massacre, for instance).
The only context, within which such important and volatile area as the
Balkans has been mentioned during Mrs Clinton’s unsuccessful bid for the
Presidency of the United States, was the fairy tale involving her heroism
when she bravely crossed an airfield while unidentified bullets were raining
around her. It was a lie, of course, but the bulk of the American media
ignored it. The unusually kind reporters accepted Mrs Clinton’s explanation
that she “misspoke” while describing the above mentioned episode. With
the exception of Mrs Clinton and her illustrious husband however, the rest
of the world would assume that if you say that you were under fire while
as a matter of fact no one was shooting at you, such statement can’t be
qualified in any other way but as a lie.
It would represent some interest to try to take a look at the image
of the Balkans that exists in the mind of the future American Secretary
of State. To start with, it has been the area where her husband while enjoying
her full support, heroically saved from a brutal ethnic cleansing the Albanian
majority of the Kosovo province. He was the one who created the necessary
pre-conditions that made possible the emergence of the new independent
state of Kosovo. Due to the activities of President Clinton, again fully
supported by his wife, the United States were successful in proving to
the Muslim world that the Americans are able to protect a Muslim community
from the ethnic cleansing exercised by the armed and police forces of a
Christian state.
There are though, some important dimensions of the Balkan situation
missing from Mrs Clinton’s list of American achievements. From political
point of view, the actions of the Clinton administration against Serbia
violated one of the most important principles regarded as an absolutely
necessary condition for the preservation of the peace on the continent-
the inviolability of the borders established at the end of WWII.
From strategic point of view the lack of reciprocity in Washington’s
actions with regard to the ethnic conflict in Kosovo created the impression
among the Christian population of the Balkans that the entire might of
the United States is behind the Albanian community and the American actions
were directed not just against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, but, rather,
against Serbia and the Serbians. This fact contributed immensely for the
expansion of the anti- Americanism throughout the Balkans.
From a moral prospective this feeling has been reinforced by the way
Serbia was virtually bombed out of an area that historically, culturally
and emotionally always has occupied a particularly important place in the
heart of the Serbian people. It was the place where one of the most important
battles has been fought by a Christian force against the ferocious assault
of the Turkish invaders- a fact completely ignored, or much more probably,
never learned by Mrs Clinton.
In all fairness, it is true that the actions of Clinton administration
have made America popular with the Albanian people and the Albanian communities
of Kosovo and Macedonia. At the same time, there could be a little doubt
that Albania and Kosovo are the only Muslim populated areas where the United
States is a popular country. No Muslim statesman or leader outside the
Balkans has expressed gratitude for the American protection of the fellow
Muslims.
The other side of the coin is that regardless of everything done by
America for Albania and the Albanians, neither Kosovo is able to function
as a democratic and economically viable state, nor the Americans have managed
to find some effective way to suppress the drug producing and drug trafficking
activities of the Albanian Mafia.
The very first statement of Mrs Clinton made even before the formal
confirmation of her new position was to call Afghanistan a” narco state”.
Well, so is Kosovo, and so is Albania. In addition to that, an even more
important than drugs threat by the name of Radical Islam is advancing throughout
the Balkans.
This is only a part of the complex Balkan situation the new American
Secretary of State most probably will try to ignore. It remains to be seen
for how long…
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