The Washington Times
Sunday, March 15, 1998

GINNING UP ANOTHER CRISES?

By Bob Djurdjevic

Here we go again. "Bosnia II" is in the making in the Serbian province of Kosovo. The U.S. government officials are stoking the fires of another ethnic war while publicly opposing it. They are playing their usual, duplicitous roles pulling the strings behind the scenes. Just as they kept adding fuel to the ethnic fire in Bosnia while claiming to douse it.

The special U.S. envoy for the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, was in Serbia only days before the latest outbreak of violence. And just as his predecessors at the State Department declared in June 1991 that the territorial integrity of the former Yugoslavia is inviolable, Gelbard warned the secession-minded Albanians that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia.

But words are cheap. Especially those of the U.S. diplomats. Less than a year after such a solemn declaration, the U.S. recognized in April 1992 Slovenia's, Croatia's and Bosnia's secessions, setting off the three-and-a-half year Bosnian war.

So Kosovo looks like Bosnia "déjà vu all over again," in the words of Yogi Berra. Why should we, Americans, care? Because Kosovo, just like Bosnia, will ultimately lead to American involvement, including a deployment of U.S. troops.

How do we know that? Well, the New York Times, for example, has already been clamoring for redeployment of American troops in Macedonia, a stone's throw from Kosovo. In a Mar. 2 lead editorial, which "coincided" with the latest outbreak of violence in that Serbian province, it called for "new peacekeepers, possibly under the auspices of NATO and OSCE" to be sent in when the U.N. mission leaves. And, of course, international troops are already deployed in the neighboring Albania, following this country's brush with its own civil war last year.

Another tell-tale sign of upcoming trouble in Kosovo was the arrival of some U.S. establishment media buzzards there. The New York Times reporter, for example, was given a private tour of Albanian terrorists' hideouts BEFORE the latest outbreak of violence. This implies a coordination between the U.S. government, the Albanian terrorists, and the "independent" U.S. media.

A far-fetched speculation? Only for the ignorant. For, the same pattern was discernible during the war in Bosnia. The western media buzzards "miraculously happened to be in the neighborhood" when grizzly killings occurred. The CNN, ABC, or SKY... cameras were rolling even before some of the victims died.

Good journalism? Luck? Or careful coordination? Take your pick...

But while the media are willing accomplices, it is the U.S. government, that keeps manufacturing crises around the world. Now that Iraq has quieted down again, "why don't we light a match somewhere else?" one can just see our Secretary of Hate, Madeleine Albright, hinting. Nor is she the lone hawk in the U.S. government's bloodthirsty foreign policy crowd.

 Back to Index of Columns...

Or check out TiM GW Bulletins: "Thugs of the World Unite!", "Milosevic: 'A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery'...", "Kosovo: Ancient Monastery Under Siege?", "New World Order's Inquisition in Bosnia", "Murder on Wall Street",  "Kosovo: 'Bosnia II'",  "What If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot?" and/or "Clinton arme secrètement les musulmans bosniaques"