Why Shouldn

’t The U.S. Intervene In Kosova. Essay, Research Paper

My response to Patrick Buchanan’s article from the NY Post.

After reading an article in the October 3rd edition of the New York Post by Patrick J. Buchanan entitled “Why is Kosovo Our War.”, I was very frustrated when he asked “Why does Serbia not have a right to send its army to prevent the cradle of that country from being ripped away.” Serbia was the one that ripped Kosova away from the Albanians after Serbian leaders and Milosevic stripped Kosova of it’s autonomy in 1989 and began it’s widespread policy of ethnic cleansing, mass murder and rape. And before Mr. Patrick Buchanan starts comparing the situation in Kosova to how some states seceded during the civil war, he should be aware of some significant events in Kosova’s past history which he obviously is unaware of. I want to give him some brief facts about Kosova which he might have not known when he associated the situation there with the United States civil war or the south’s war to break free of the union.

First of all, Kosova has always been an independent entity, geographically, ethnically, and administratively. Under Tito’s Yugoslavia, Kosova was autonomous. Autonomy was granted to Kosova. Kosova automatically won the rights to secession, as did all the other coequal members of the confederation. Under the autonomous Republic of Kosova, the Serbian government exploited it as a colony under a system of apartheid. Therefore, it must be decolonized. Yugoslavia unraveled because the formula of coexistence did not work and therefore all the constituent parts, including Kosova, achieved the right to self-determination.

During the past ten years, Milosevic and the Belgrade regime has imposed a “soft” but systematic repression which has deprived two million Albanians of their rights. How are you supposed to live under a government which enslaves you and denies you of all your rights. How are you supposed to live under a government that makes your people, two million individuals suffer persecution and death daily. You can’t. There are no legal or moral arguments that would persuade Albanians to accept and remain under Serbian domination. After the bitter experience of the past decade, Albanians should have the chance which the Serbs were unable to make use of, to create their own states and build tolerant and democratic societies. Those that do not justify this decision justify hegemony, expansionism, colonialism, and apartheid.

Is it wrong for Albanians to declare their independence when a government no longer protects the basic rights of the people – Hold on, I thought America did this when King George III had unjustly used his power against American colonists. Jefferson once argued that people have a right to overthrow a government which no longer protects the basic rights of the people and set up a new one. It’s all in the United States Constitution. So why can’t the west recognize Kosova as an independent republic. The west knows very well what wrongs Milosevic has commited in Bosnia, and now against the Albanians. And as politicians do nothing but talk and talk, the butcher of belgrade is running loose with his army continuing his campaign of ethnic cleansing and massacre women, children, the elderly and other innocent Albanians daily.

The pictures of the brutally murdered Albanians in two mass graves which were released over the weekend speak for themselves. But how many mass graves have to be discovered before someone actually does intervene. As a seventeen year old Albanian-American student in the United States, it is a shame to watch my relatives in Kosova die when they are fighting for the same ideas that the founding fathers of the American Constitution stressed when they broke away from Britain and yet the United States looks away. I came to the United States because the Serbian government denied me the right to have an education simply because i was Albanian. The Albanians that wanted to have an education would have to learn about Serbian history and would have to speak and write in the Serbian language. But after Milosevic stripped Kosova of it’s autonomy, you weren’t even allowed to have an education if you were Albanian. We had to create underground schools which was the only way for the Kosovars to receive an education. And here I am being taught about the Ideas of Enlightenment by Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rosseau. The Kosovars cry out to have these enlightenment ideas, but Serbia has shunned them.

The West does not want to recognize Kosova as an independent republic so we have only one hope – the Kosova Liberation Army. This is the only defense we have against Milosevic and his army. Two million people is alot to kill and we will keep fighting and fighting until the last Albanian stands. We have only two things to do: Live free or die on our soil. As NATO, the U.N. and the U.S. talk about possible air strikes which definitely won’t solve the crisis in Kosova, President Milosevic drinks tea and laughs at Clinton’s and Albright’s empty threats toward him while a pool of blood engulfs the innocent people of Kosova. Milosevic has gotten away with genocide again and again and again. While he watches Clinton’s face on t.v., he says “what a sucker, he can’t do anything to me, no one can.”

If the United Sates or NATO or the U.N. wanted to help the Kosovar Albanians, they should stop wasti