Empire’s Fate is Decided
by Nebojsa Malic
Another chapter of the Kosovo crisis was closed on December 19, when the UN Security Council accepted the report of the “troika” that negotiations between Serbia and the Albanian separatists in its occupied province of Kosovo had failed. As predicted, the U.S. and its EU allies moved to proceed along the lines of the Ahtisaari Plan, rejected earlier this year by both Belgrade and Moscow – in effect, trying to sneak “independence” for the province through the back door. Expectations in Washington, Brussels and other Western capitals are that Russia and Serbia will eventually accept the fait accompli. This belief is as dangerous as it is wrong, and portends a showdown in the near future that will decide matters far beyond the Balkans.
Perhaps the greatest irony in all of this is that it was completely unnecessary. Self-Made Trap
The 1999 illegal war against Serbia was supposed to be the crowning achievement of NATO after 50 years of existence, and provide a new role for the organization as the enforcer of American imperial ambitions throughout the world. Instead, it exposed the underlying weakness of America’s European satellites, and the limitations of Empire’s air supremacy.
Each subsequent conflict weakened the Empire further, destroying both its military might and political authority. Worse yet, the trampling of Serbia finally jolted Russia out of its rut, bringing about a national revival. Instead of a powerful ally in the “War on Terror,” the resurgent Russia became an enemy.
In 2005, following the debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush the Lesser adopted his predecessor’s Balkans policy and decided to reassert Imperial power via Kosovo. The foreign policy establishment in Washington counted on the servility of Serbian authorities, installed in power with Washington’s blessing and support. To their chagrin, Serbia refused to submit! Now the Empire was trapped, unable to dictate reality through diplomacy or force, but committed publicly to the Albanian separatist cause.
Turning Point
Throughout 2006, the defeats just kept on coming. At the end of the year, all of Empire’s efforts in the Balkans and elsewhere had ended up frustrated. In the political chaos following Serbia’s general elections, Washington sought to seize the prize, and its agent Martti Ahtisaari proposed his plan for the “final solution” of the Kosovo crisis. Once again, however, Belgrade refused to submit. A diplomatic offensive against Moscow failed utterly and completely. By April, Ahtisaari’s plan was dead; by July, it was buried.
In desperation, the Empire tried subterfuge: sending the “troika” mission, which was supposed to negotiate for 120 days. If nothing happened by that point, the Empire and its European satellites argued, the Ahtisaari plan would automatically apply.
The talks failed, of course. Having nothing to gain, Albanian separatists simply ran out the clock. Yesterday at the UN, the Empire tried to argue for independence, trotting out all the worn-out propaganda, false arguments and bluster its envoys could muster. Serbia remained adamant, as did Russia: Kosovo’s status cannot change without a new resolution, and it will not pass.
American and European diplomats have hinted that they would take matters into their own hands, using the EU and NATO to force the issue. This is a bluff. Moscow has made it abundantly clear that there is no legitimacy whatsoever for this sort of action in any UN or other international document, and it is no longer willing to stand idly by while the Empire conjures quasi-legal justifications for its illegal behavior.
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=12086