Independence day

Pristina has declared independence according to the US's T's & C's, and Serbia is once again to be punished for it's failure to obey uncle Sam. And it's all Kostunica and SRS's fault, apparently.

I was listening to you successor's words at the AEI 10 days ago: utter head-in-sand delusion! How have you managed to convince yourselves that the manner in which you have gone about this, and the 'justifications' you offer up, are valid?

Well ex-Ambassador Montgomery, I guess you must really be feeling smug at this time. Where Chamberlain and Daladier failed in 1938, you and your cohorts in the US and EU have succeeded: you have made appeasement look like sound foreign policy. Congratulations!

It looks like armed forces and intimidation are going to settle future conflicts more than they ever did. International laws are going to be less relevant and broken only lip service are going paid to them ,only if they are in your country's favor. If you have the power and economical clout you might get justest or a gang behind you to enforce them. Laws of the jungle will be taking over it will not last with a major wold war breaking out in all our futures.

Welcome to the next North Cyprus. This 'greater albania' plan is not going well for the Americans and Germans. Most of the world is against it, and it will stay in limbo for years and years. Once the US empire declines and the Russian empire eclipses it, then things will change and Serbia will take back all of Kosovo. Legally, it is and will forever remain Serbian, and the Americans must feel so helpless because they can do zero about this. Serbia has tons of support and tons of new favoured trade partners, and will boycott trade as much as possible with countries that regognize this illegal and fake state.
Another foreign policy disaster for cowboy George, and Clinton before him. Complete and utter incompetence and ignorance from the US.

“The younger generations of Kosovo Albanians still suffer from the impact of greatly reduced educational opportunities for the 1990s, resulting in a shortage of higher-educated specialists.”

Josh said:
“Soon you will see that plenty of kosovars have diplomas form some of the finest institutions in the west. Plenty more will invest their hard earned money.”

Somehow I doubt conditions will improve Josh. Albanians have for instance had the same opportunity for many years to learn (english for example), but usually just focus on albanian. The results can easily be seen on this forum where their english grammar is considerably lacking compared to others. I really don’t think the EU opportunities will help much either. Attitude has to change first.

william montgomery waht an expert. Do you really think for one moment that Kostunica does not know that he will never get Kosovo/Kosova back? It is doen deal man. No foreign power that matters will back on their recognintion. Italy is wrong, Germany is wrong, USA is wrong, Japan is wrong only Serbia is right and the other countries that Russia has managed to intimidate. Soon you will see that plenty of kosovars have diplomas form some of the finest institutions in the west. Plenty more will invest their hard earned money.


We should just all get along. Serbia should accept that it lost kosovo a long time ago. they should move on.

It seems like this issue could have been one of semantics, i.e. independence vs. autonomy. Ethnic Albanians want only 'I' and Serbs are only willing (or capable in even the most rational sphere of domestic politics) to offer 'A'. The difference between 'A' and 'I' did not have to be that great - a seat at the UN seems the highest aspiration, a football team for the World Cup the lowest.

Why didn't the international community offer something else, i.e. 'X', to each negotiating party separately, telling the Sebs that 'X' does not equal 'I' and the ethnic Albanians that 'X' does not equal 'A'. In that I think I finally understand Wittgenstein.

Now, Ambassador Montegomery, your play-by-play of the situation shows clear understanding and I appreciate it. However, the end-game was always obvious. When you were at your post in Belgrade, was it so impossible to predict the events of this week? Was the US plan all along just to put enough space between UNMIK/KFOR and independence that no one would notice?

The choice given to Serbia this year is eerily familiar to that put forth by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914. A comment by someone calling themselves 'Princip' reminds us that one disaffected youth can cause a spiraling outcome. We witnessed such disaffection on Thursday night - is there any reason not to believe that another nut with a gun is in the midst? Must we pray for a peaceful Eurovision? Will Seferovic share the fate of the 1991 Yugoslav football team?

It's hard to dispute Mr. Motgomery's concerns. Yes, it will be a tough road ahead. However the question that Mr. Motgomery and other analysts like him ( I am referring to another writing last week on B92) fail to answer is:
What do you do when those that claim to be your government think that you are not worth living? Unfortunately this has been the case for K-Albanians for a number of decades. The pure answer is; It cannot get worse than being ruled by Serbia's MUPs.

"In Serbia itself, the moderates and those still wanting a European future continue over and over again to find themselves wrong-footed, on the defensive, and forced to concede more and more ground."

- but Montgomery why is this the case ? Could it be the case of so called 'friends' pulling the rug from under their feet just when they need their support so dearly; Et tu EU perhaps?

The likes of Tadic and many within his DS party have had an unfortunate learning experience at the hands of so-called 'friends' and I am sure have a new outlook as a consequence!

There will be no partition of the sovereign Serbian province in terms of territory that is for certain but you clearly have not explained to the ethnic-Albanians that partition is what you wish. At the very least all can see that partition of 'governance' is the reality;

EU's INLEX (lawless) Kosovo mission will be a dictat for the ethnic-Albanians alone while all others continue under Serbian institutions. What can the EU or NATO do to stop the reaility on the ground - use force?

Oh what a tangled web we weave and how easily some are deceived...

long live USA and Europe

We are disagreeing in our views Gabriel.
"The choice given to Serbia this year is eerily familiar to that put forth by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914. A comment by someone calling themselves 'Princip' reminds us that one disaffected youth can cause a spiraling outcome. We witnessed such disaffection on Thursday night - is there any reason not to believe that another nut with a gun is in the midst?"

Gavrilo Princip was not nut with the gun. Those who believed that Serbs should have been satisfied as the only feudal serfs in Astrian Empire were nuts.
Nuts who think that Serbs should be satisfied when treated worst.

"Given the lack of opportunities in the Milosevic era for Albanians, there is also a general lack of bureaucratic and managerial expertise": this sounds almost like a plea for a union with Albania.

"most Western analysts are making a very dangerous and incorrect assumption": I think this assumption that everything will soon be over is the most dangerous for Kosovo. It will be very difficult to create a prosperous Kosovo as long as it is faces a hostile Serbia.

"In Serbia itself, the moderates and those still wanting a European future continue over and over again to find themselves wrong-footed,": Those who you call 'moderates' find themselves at the extreme end of the polical spectrum when it comes to Kosovo and therefore might as well be called extremists. On the other hand Kostunica might be called a centrist because his political instinct for staying in the center of the public opinion. If the US or Kosovo wants a dialogue they will need Kostunica - not Tadic.

Dear Dragan, have you any idea what the current life expectancy of the russian male is? If you think that russia could again become an empire then you can't know what is happening to ordinary russians today.
Of course, in London currently the ten richest men are russian tycoons. But find out what is happening in russian hospitals.

no,tesla we did not had the opportunity to learn english under the serbian rule.
thamks God,it's over and i will be all my life thankfull to the USA for having put an end to that.
in less than 7 years,we have had more albanian students from kosovo attending internationnal universities than in all your 95 years of rule!
Sure it will not be easy because we are beginning from zero,but when i see all the young kosovars speaking english ,i think the most important thing has been achevied:no more albanian with slavic endoktrinement in our country!

long live USA and Europe

william montgomery waht an expert. Do you really think for one moment that Kostunica does not know that he will never get Kosovo/Kosova back? It is doen deal man. No foreign power that matters will back on their recognintion. Italy is wrong, Germany is wrong, USA is wrong, Japan is wrong only Serbia is right and the other countries that Russia has managed to intimidate. Soon you will see that plenty of kosovars have diplomas form some of the finest institutions in the west. Plenty more will invest their hard earned money.


We should just all get along. Serbia should accept that it lost kosovo a long time ago. they should move on.

It's hard to dispute Mr. Motgomery's concerns. Yes, it will be a tough road ahead. However the question that Mr. Motgomery and other analysts like him ( I am referring to another writing last week on B92) fail to answer is:
What do you do when those that claim to be your government think that you are not worth living? Unfortunately this has been the case for K-Albanians for a number of decades. The pure answer is; It cannot get worse than being ruled by Serbia's MUPs.

"In Serbia itself, the moderates and those still wanting a European future continue over and over again to find themselves wrong-footed, on the defensive, and forced to concede more and more ground."

- but Montgomery why is this the case ? Could it be the case of so called 'friends' pulling the rug from under their feet just when they need their support so dearly; Et tu EU perhaps?

The likes of Tadic and many within his DS party have had an unfortunate learning experience at the hands of so-called 'friends' and I am sure have a new outlook as a consequence!

There will be no partition of the sovereign Serbian province in terms of territory that is for certain but you clearly have not explained to the ethnic-Albanians that partition is what you wish. At the very least all can see that partition of 'governance' is the reality;

EU's INLEX (lawless) Kosovo mission will be a dictat for the ethnic-Albanians alone while all others continue under Serbian institutions. What can the EU or NATO do to stop the reaility on the ground - use force?

Oh what a tangled web we weave and how easily some are deceived...

“The younger generations of Kosovo Albanians still suffer from the impact of greatly reduced educational opportunities for the 1990s, resulting in a shortage of higher-educated specialists.”

Josh said:
“Soon you will see that plenty of kosovars have diplomas form some of the finest institutions in the west. Plenty more will invest their hard earned money.”

Somehow I doubt conditions will improve Josh. Albanians have for instance had the same opportunity for many years to learn (english for example), but usually just focus on albanian. The results can easily be seen on this forum where their english grammar is considerably lacking compared to others. I really don’t think the EU opportunities will help much either. Attitude has to change first.

Pristina has declared independence according to the US's T's & C's, and Serbia is once again to be punished for it's failure to obey uncle Sam. And it's all Kostunica and SRS's fault, apparently.

I was listening to you successor's words at the AEI 10 days ago: utter head-in-sand delusion! How have you managed to convince yourselves that the manner in which you have gone about this, and the 'justifications' you offer up, are valid?

Well ex-Ambassador Montgomery, I guess you must really be feeling smug at this time. Where Chamberlain and Daladier failed in 1938, you and your cohorts in the US and EU have succeeded: you have made appeasement look like sound foreign policy. Congratulations!

Welcome to the next North Cyprus. This 'greater albania' plan is not going well for the Americans and Germans. Most of the world is against it, and it will stay in limbo for years and years. Once the US empire declines and the Russian empire eclipses it, then things will change and Serbia will take back all of Kosovo. Legally, it is and will forever remain Serbian, and the Americans must feel so helpless because they can do zero about this. Serbia has tons of support and tons of new favoured trade partners, and will boycott trade as much as possible with countries that regognize this illegal and fake state.
Another foreign policy disaster for cowboy George, and Clinton before him. Complete and utter incompetence and ignorance from the US.

It looks like armed forces and intimidation are going to settle future conflicts more than they ever did. International laws are going to be less relevant and broken only lip service are going paid to them ,only if they are in your country's favor. If you have the power and economical clout you might get justest or a gang behind you to enforce them. Laws of the jungle will be taking over it will not last with a major wold war breaking out in all our futures.

It seems like this issue could have been one of semantics, i.e. independence vs. autonomy. Ethnic Albanians want only 'I' and Serbs are only willing (or capable in even the most rational sphere of domestic politics) to offer 'A'. The difference between 'A' and 'I' did not have to be that great - a seat at the UN seems the highest aspiration, a football team for the World Cup the lowest.

Why didn't the international community offer something else, i.e. 'X', to each negotiating party separately, telling the Sebs that 'X' does not equal 'I' and the ethnic Albanians that 'X' does not equal 'A'. In that I think I finally understand Wittgenstein.

Now, Ambassador Montegomery, your play-by-play of the situation shows clear understanding and I appreciate it. However, the end-game was always obvious. When you were at your post in Belgrade, was it so impossible to predict the events of this week? Was the US plan all along just to put enough space between UNMIK/KFOR and independence that no one would notice?

The choice given to Serbia this year is eerily familiar to that put forth by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914. A comment by someone calling themselves 'Princip' reminds us that one disaffected youth can cause a spiraling outcome. We witnessed such disaffection on Thursday night - is there any reason not to believe that another nut with a gun is in the midst? Must we pray for a peaceful Eurovision? Will Seferovic share the fate of the 1991 Yugoslav football team?

We are disagreeing in our views Gabriel.
"The choice given to Serbia this year is eerily familiar to that put forth by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914. A comment by someone calling themselves 'Princip' reminds us that one disaffected youth can cause a spiraling outcome. We witnessed such disaffection on Thursday night - is there any reason not to believe that another nut with a gun is in the midst?"

Gavrilo Princip was not nut with the gun. Those who believed that Serbs should have been satisfied as the only feudal serfs in Astrian Empire were nuts.
Nuts who think that Serbs should be satisfied when treated worst.

"Given the lack of opportunities in the Milosevic era for Albanians, there is also a general lack of bureaucratic and managerial expertise": this sounds almost like a plea for a union with Albania.

"most Western analysts are making a very dangerous and incorrect assumption": I think this assumption that everything will soon be over is the most dangerous for Kosovo. It will be very difficult to create a prosperous Kosovo as long as it is faces a hostile Serbia.

"In Serbia itself, the moderates and those still wanting a European future continue over and over again to find themselves wrong-footed,": Those who you call 'moderates' find themselves at the extreme end of the polical spectrum when it comes to Kosovo and therefore might as well be called extremists. On the other hand Kostunica might be called a centrist because his political instinct for staying in the center of the public opinion. If the US or Kosovo wants a dialogue they will need Kostunica - not Tadic.

Dear Dragan, have you any idea what the current life expectancy of the russian male is? If you think that russia could again become an empire then you can't know what is happening to ordinary russians today.
Of course, in London currently the ten richest men are russian tycoons. But find out what is happening in russian hospitals.

no,tesla we did not had the opportunity to learn english under the serbian rule.
thamks God,it's over and i will be all my life thankfull to the USA for having put an end to that.
in less than 7 years,we have had more albanian students from kosovo attending internationnal universities than in all your 95 years of rule!
Sure it will not be easy because we are beginning from zero,but when i see all the young kosovars speaking english ,i think the most important thing has been achevied:no more albanian with slavic endoktrinement in our country!