Down to Kosovo (we'll get there fast, and we'll take it slow)

http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/3790/59

Mark's Mailbox
Monday, 07 March 2011

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THE BLAME GAME

Re “Arid Uka’s Gratitude”:

This is a criticism from a big fan of yours, and I do mean that I am a big fan of yours. But in your implicit blame of Kosovars for the shooting in Germany, I think you were quite off the mark, Mark.

First of all, the Kosovars are strongly pro-American (as Michael Totten has pointed out; see “The (Really) Moderate Muslims of Kosovo” and “An Israeli in Kosovo”). Secondly, Arid Uka, the shooter, was born and raised in Germany. His family moved to Germany about 19 years before he was born. This Daily Mail article also notes that, “like the vast majority of Kosovo Albanians, the family is pro-American.”

So the shooter was a German Muslim, not a “Kosovar Muslim”, and his online activities clearly show that he was primarily influenced by German Islamists. And if an entire country is to be blamed for Uka’s actions, then why Kosovo and not his native Germany (though neither would be fair)?

Larry Boeskool

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LOVE HURTS

In my opinion, Kosovo had a profound effect on world affairs, and it entirely changed the outlook of all the Slavic Orthodox Christian people (and Russians are the most numerous among them) toward Western democracies. I know this because I am maternally related to Kosovo and felt the war in my guts.

Until then, many Eastern Slavs thought that they could actually live comfortably beside the US and the West, especially if those countries were led by “nice guys” like Clinton and Blair. Orthodox Slavs appreciated Western ways and felt encouraged to emulate them. However, in 1999, those people suddenly realized that Western— even liberal (before the war, concern was mostly about conservatives) — ways can suddenly turn deadly when it comes to such alleged “sub-humans” like themselves. Overnight they found collateral damage excused and feelings of betrayal.

It is not an accident that 1999 was the end of Yeltsin’s era in Russia and the beginning of Putin’s. At that time, I said to myself: “Clinton just restarted the Cold War. He played right into the hands of guys like Putin. If I were unlucky enough to live in Russia, I would vote for Putin, too, and I would do it out of conviction— because it is still better than the old Commies, who benefited from bombing of Serbia the most.” (That was also the time, Mark, when I started reading your columns regularly).

There was a reason for Kosovo, and the reason was the subconscious contempt the Western world feels towards the Slavs. No, this is not an inferiority complex speaking, as I have none of it. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the absurdity of temporary convenience of moral posturing on behalf of a terrorist Muslim organization (and providing the KLA with all the air power of NATO nations) did not give anybody in the West any second thoughts how all this will resonate on the other side of the old Cold War divide.

The old Cold War ended because most Russians wanted to be like the West; the new Cold War has reached its current level because the West did not (and still doesn’t) give a rat’s ass about it. Kosovo resonated in the Russian actions toward Georgia and it will resonate for a foreseeable future with the “War on Terror”— Islamists and the Russian communists being the only beneficiaries of it all.

Hate is love betrayed.

Jakub C (former Pomeranian tank commander)

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BONDSTEEL, CAMP BONDSTEEL

Mark, one thing you forgot to mention about our sad adventure in Kosovo is that we are still there! The United States has an enormous base there called "Camp Bondsteel," which was named after US Army Staff Sergeant James L Bondsteel, a Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient. Built in the eastern part of Kosovo, the base is NATO headquarters for the Kosovo Force's (or KFOR's) Multinational Brigade. The facilities there can hold up to 7,000 troops, which makes it the largest US base in the Balkans. But twelve years after the war ended in Kosovo in 1999, NATO— and the United States in particular— is still there. Why we're still there is anybody's guess.

One odd thing about America and its wars: We never seem to go home. It has been 113 years since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, and we're still in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It has been 66 years since the end of World War II, and we still have bases in Germany, Japan, and Italy (the three countries we defeated in that war). It has been 58 years since the end of the Korean War, and we still have bases in South Korea. We have now been in Afghanistan for almost ten years and in Iraq for almost eight— does anybody really think we're leaving anytime soon?

Ironically, the only places where we have not kept any major military bases have been in Vietnam (for obvious reasons) and in Europe after World War I, where American isolationism forced Woodrow Wilson to bring all of the troops back home. At that time, Americans actually had a silly notion that after a war was over our troops had to come home. Ah, were we ever that young?

Anyway, seems pretty clear that whenever we win a major war, we tend to stay a while in the country that's been beaten by us. True, you could probably make the case that we stayed in Germany and Japan after World War II to provide some stability there, but why are we really there now? As for Kosovo and Camp Bondsteel, well, that's just an embarrassment that we're still there. Although people in Washington keep saying that we have "world-wide military commitments" and that we need these bases to "guarantee the peace" and to "project power overseas," it's starting to look way too much like an empire to me.

Maybe, like well-meaning parents, we're afraid to let our children grow up? We seem to always know what's best for them and we try to protect them from the outside world, thinking that they could never, ever, stand on their own two feet. Well, I think it's about time we let Germany, Japan, South Korea, and especially Kosovo, stand on their own two feet. Like all parents, at some point we have to let these kids grow up. Maybe the best thing we could do for them to make them strong and independent is to pack our bags and go home, because I know one thing: I don't want to wake up thirty years from now and find out we're still supporting our troops in places like Kosovo, South Korea, or worse— Afghanistan and Iraq.

Remo Salta
Ridgewood, New Jersey

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POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

The dirty little secret as to why the US military is still in Europe (as well as Japan and other rather exotic locations) is simple: recruiting. In an all-volunteer force, the enticement of travel to Germany, South Korea, Italy, et al, is a key element in getting young Americans to sign up for the service.

Kevin C


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