Dose not bother me at all. My political loyalties are to the United States (assuming the Vatican isn’t involved), and if protecting a minority from ethnic cleansing and then recognizing their independence from their oppressors several years later are in the best interest of the United States then great. Just because 70% of that minority are Muslim dose not take away their humanity, at least not in my belief system.

Besides Serbs make up like 4% of Kosovo, and half of them are probably athiests anyway.

There is an Albanian Orthodox Church, or do they not count as a venerable Christian culture?

Correction taken. Thank you.

:-)

I think I mentioned soapbox, so please keep in mind that while you’re free to disagree with me in any way, shape or form, trying to change my opinion would be a waste of time and pixels.

Soapbox may be a synonym for Slavic.

Nan

I said “soapbox” not “area of expertise,” but in that area of the world, it’s never as simple as that; historically, in the 15th century, Christian Albanians became Muslim, which I assume had something to do with the Ottoman Empire taking control of the area. At the same time, Serbs moved northward, around Belgrade and didn’t have control of the Kosovo area for a couple hundred years, then wanted it back. Even during the Yugoslavia years, Kosovo was an autonomous region within Serbia, which shows that they recognized it wasn’t really theirs.

Slovenia was variously part of the Roman Empire, Austria and France’s Illyrian Province. It hasn’t had self-rule since 9th Century but nobody argued too much; one tank in the square isn’t going to scare anyone, notwithstanding the US government thinking it was dangerously unstable by 1987.

I see your point, but hasn’t Kosovo always been a part of Serbia, the Serbia that existed for a millenium previous to Yugoslavia? Montenegro was a part of that strange comglomeration you rightly spurn: Yugoslavia. But Serbia was a whole prior to the creation of Yugoslavia, and Kosovo was a part of that whole.

Places like Croatia and Montenegro did not secede from Serbia, they secede from a confederation to which Serbia belonged. But splitting off Kosovo is like taking some random chunk of any country just because the demographics differ.

Maybe I am not explaining myself well. Also, I am not an ‘expert’ on the Balkans, so if I have the facts wrong I would welcome correction.

Within Yugoslavia, by virtue of geographic features and having gone through the Industrial Revolution as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovenia and Croatia produced 80% of the GNP. They had natural resources, factories, education and that good old reportedly Protestant work ethic.

Many of the Southerners (Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins, B & H-ins) came North to work, which created problems when workers returned from Germany.

Additionally, people were tired tired of money being sent South to build practical things like monuments instead of schools in which to educate the populace.

Even Montenegro has dumped Serbia, why would Kosovo want to stay? They’ve been agitating for an Albanian homeland at least since I went to school in Slovenia in 1987 and likely before that.

Okay, and I’m kidding, this has been on its way since Tito died…but actually I mean it was inevitable from the moment the ill-conceived Kingdom of Yugoslavia was created in the wake of WWI. I have to find my picture of that bridge.

As I step away from the soapbox and pretend I don’t have an opinion.

HUGE loss for Michigan in my estimation.

One word:

precedent

So I guess I really can’t blame Serbia for wanting to keep Kosovo.

By the way - enjoying Toledo Ohioans? Yeah that’s what I thought! Where is your copper now?!? Oh that’s right, you don’t have any copper in Toledo! AHAHAHAHA suckers!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War

Why should Kosovo break away? Just because it’s population changed to predominately Albanian? Maybe sections of Southwest USA should secede, since so many of us are Latino now. Or maybe parts of Baja California should secede from Mexico, since so many gringos live down there.

Oh, right, ethnic cleansing. Except many of those stories were not true (but the corrections are on page 27 the next day in the papers, “sorry folks, that mass grave was just a rock quarry, OOps, guess the Serbs were innocent.”) And the Albanians did their own number on Serbs, and the Croats on Serbs, and the Serbs on Croats, and the Bosnians…

I am not excusing any injustice the Serbs may have committed. But for the world to intervene, judge them, and remove part of their country (a part of their country many of their ancestors died defending a thousand years ago) is outrageous.

Okay, well, there’s my mildly stated opinion. :-)