News Flash: The Bush administration acknowledges there is a such thing as international law.
What the US, the EU, and NATO have done here is to declare that any part of any country can, unilaterally and pre-emptively, declare its independence (if we say so), even though it may have been part of another country for centuries.
This would be like Texas, or, let's say, New Hampshire, declaring their independence from the US.
Would the government of the US say, "Gee, that's great: goodbye."?.
Or would every available military person be sent immediately to to the capitals of those states to bring them back into the fold of the Republic?
You know exactly what the answer here would be.
And from this precedent, Palestine may be ready to unilaterally declare their independence from Israel.
And at this point, after the US having supported the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, it's going to be rather hard to explain why Kosovo's independence is good, but Palestine declaring independence from Israel is wrong, bad, and impossible.(MR)
The question is, how far Serbia and Russia are prepared to go to bring Kosovo back to Serbia.
NEW YORK - The first big storm of the season burdened the metropolitan area with up to 9 inches of snow Friday, forcing airlines to cancel more than 1,100 flights and making travel miserable on highways and sidewalks.
Moscow - Russia could resort to military force in Kosovo if the situation degenerates and NATO oversteps its boundaries in the region, Russia’s NATO envoy said Friday. “We, I think, will need to assume that in order to be respected we have to resort to brute military force,” Russia’s newly appointed NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.
Russia’s envoy to NATO charged Friday that Kosovo’s independence fight was funded by local drug-lords as Moscow steps up last-ditch rhetoric aimed at warning the international community against recognising the independence of the former Serb province.
BELGRADE -- Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica has today commented yesterday's mass rally in Belgrade.
BELGRADE -- A peaceful rally in Belgrade that organizers say gathered 250,000 people turned into rioting yesterday.
Pristina _ United Nations police fired tear gas at protesters during a rally held by Serbs in north Kosovo's flashpoint town of Mitrovica.
The United States cannot justify supporting a free Kosovo at the same time it supports Israel's continued occupation and enslavement of the Palestinians.(MR)
In American and EU eyes, a Kosovar declaration of independence from Serbian sovereignty should be recognised, even if Serbia does not agree. However, their attitude was radically different when Palestine declared independence from Israeli occupation on 15 November 1988. Then the US and EU countries (which, in their own eyes, constitute the "international community", to the exclusion of most of mankind) were conspicuously absent as over 100 countries recognised the new State of Palestine, and their non-recognition made this declaration of independence "symbolic", unfortunately for most Palestinians as well.
Russia's ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, has warned that Russia could use military force if the Kosovo independence dispute escalates.
"If the EU develops a unified position or if Nato exceeds its mandate set by the UN, then these organisations will be in conflict with the UN," he said.
In that case Russia would "proceed on the basis that in order to be respected we need to use brute force", he said.
Anyone who couldn't imagine that the declaration of Kosovo's independence wouldn't possibly come to this is both not terribly bright, and also unencumbered with any appreciation of the history of this region.(MR)
This includes the policy wonks wonks at the EU and NATO and the US (who should absolutely have known better, but obviously didn't).
Here is a quick question. The US supports Kosovo breaking off from Serbia and forming a new nation. Why doesn't the Us support Palestine breaking off from Israel and forming a new nation? (MR)
A charred body was found inside the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, after rioters stormed the complex Thursday evening in protest of Kosovo's declaration of independence, sources in Belgrade told FOX News.
