Bugger the Balkans!

To be fair (well, sometimes I try), I know very little of Sir Douglas Hurd but I do remember that he came in for a considerable amount of criticism for his real-politik approach to the recent Balkan imbroglio during which he stoutly refused to allow Britain to become implicated.  He took the view, apparently, that all Balkan problems are intractable and that outsiders should remain exactly that - outside!  I can remember sympathising with that view at the time even though it was causing problems with Bill Clinton who, between blow jobs, was all gung-ho for bombing the Serbs.  Anyway, there is a depressing but, I suspect, accurate report in The American Spectator by Doug Bandow confirming, in effect, the wisdom of Bismarck's famous saying that 'the Balkans were not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier':

Yet a dozen years ago Washington bombed Serbia, which had neither attacked nor threatened any NATO member. Western nations which over many centuries fought bitter conflicts against the hint of secession went to war to support independence for the territory of Kosovo. 

The status of Kosovo, historically Serbian but with a majority ethnic-Albanian population, remains unsettled. Belgrade refuses to accept the amputation of 15 percent of its territory, Russia has blocked Kosovo's entry into the United Nations, and a majority of countries, including five of the European Union's 27 members, refuses to recognize Kosovo. Violence recently erupted in Kosovo's north, where the ethnic Serb majority remains loyal to Belgrade.

The ethnic Serbs 'trapped in northern Kosovo are defying their 'Albanian' government and demanding the right to be re-united with Serbia:

Although a U.S. diplomat called the Kosovo Liberation Army -- since charged with selling the organs of Serb prisoners -- "terrorists," the allies suppressed any squeamishness and lent the rebels their air force, bombing for 78 days and killing hundreds or thousands Serb civilians, possibly as many as the number of Kosovars who died in two years of guerrilla war before NATO's intervention. The Albanian majority then mirrored earlier Serb brutality by kicking out around a quarter of a million ethic Serbs, Roma, and non-Albanian Muslims. Earlier this year the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe admitted that the allied intervention had "led to numerous human rights violations and [had] not produced lasting solutions for the underlying problems." (My emphasis)

In other words, one bunch of unshaven, moustachioed rascals are as bad as another and anyone who interferes in their internecine - and interminable - disputes is simply wasting blood and treasure.  Mr. Bandow's excellent report leaves you shaking your head with wonderment at the folly and puffed-up pride of so-called statesmen both 'over here' and 'over there'.  Still, at least Lord Hurd comes out of it fairly well.

 

Comments

[H]

As long as the Balkans were carved up between the Austrians and the Turks, they didn't give too much trouble. Would it be too much to ask for a restoration of the status quo ante?

[David Duff]

Very droll, 'H', but I don't think either of them are quite up to the job these days!

[Andrew Duffin]

"all Balkan problems are intractable and that outsiders should remain..outside"

If only some wise man had taken the same approach to Afghanistan.

The situation there would be exactly the same now, but we would not have sacrificed hundreds of brave young men (and a few brave young women) for nothing except Tony Blair's ego.

[David Duff]

I can understand, and sympathise with, Blair's desire to cuddle up to the USA whilst simultaneously recognising that such a policy is debatable. For myself, provisionally (until the history books are written), I blame the generals for trying to take on too much and for their failure to face down the politicians. Also, as an ex-soldier I salute the fallen and wounded and recognise that governments should not risk their lives lightly, nevertheless, if you take the Queen's shilling you should know what you are likely to be in for, indeed, that is precisely why they took it in the first place - well I did, anyway, but happily (in retrospect), I never had to fire a shot in anger.

[dearieme]

The wearying aspect of this kind of thing is that it was all bloody obvious in advance. I don't blame people if they get some intrinsically difficult decision wrong, as revealed by hindsight, but I hate it when a gorblimey, stone cold, certainly bad decision is made. Hang Blair!