Bosnia's bid for NATO membership stalled

"An agreement was reached that the military property located in the territory of either entity should go to that entity. However, Bosniak (Muslim) politicians would not hear of it," Popović told the daily

Not surprising, the Muslims want everything as they believe that Bosnia is only theirs

The issue of state property is a red herring. It was taken up by OHR a few years ago but has little or nothing to do with the stalled NATO bid. The RS politicians and people have little interest in joining this organisation at present for two main reasons: 1) there is resentment within the RS about the NATO bombing in 1995 and some brotherly sympathy for the same plight suffered by other Serbs in 1999, 2) joining NATO as Bosnia would dramatically reduce the chances of the RS going it alone in the future. With a veto over membership within the Presidency, there will always be a reason for the Serbs to block progress, sometimes a justifiable reason other times not. Unlike accession towards EU membership there are no large pots of cash being handed out in the NATO process and therefore no real chance for the politicians to put it in their pockets or those of their family and friends.

Not surprising, the Muslims want everything as they believe that Bosnia is only theirs
(jb, 30 August 2012 12:16)

Yeah. They want a Bosniak Bosnia which is fine but then you have to part with over 50% of what is known as Bosnia i Hercegovina today. You can't have both. You can't handcuff over half of the population and well over 50% of the land in Bosnia under your narrow minded view of what you feel you deserve.

Pick either you want a highly decentralized federal state or you want a Muslim state where the Serb and Croat parts go their own separate ways then you can join your Turkish brothers in NATO all you want.

Maybe they want Bosnian taliban to fight afghani taliban? No, that would be stupid, which means quite possible if you are a member of NATO...

If Bosnia is not admitted to the MAP, it is a terrible shame and waste of many thousands of international peace keepers, negotiators, hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and the genuine efforts of the professional soldiers of the multi-ethnic army of Bosnia&Herzegovina to organize, equip, train, and sustain a NATO compatible democratic armed force under unified control of the multi-ethnic Presidency. The issue of excess weapons and munitions should have been settled long ago - all of it is obsolete, unusable, and unsellable to any legitimate nation. I was a primary planner and advisor for the transformation from 3 former warring armies to one unified army and planner for all the retention or disposal of all military infrastructure and equipment. Good, logical decisions were made by the Ministry of Defense and Joint Staff, with NATO, OSCE, and UN approvals. It is only the political parties who still want to blame each other for the war who keep the hatred alive and stall progress.

Well, the Kurdish part of Iraq even has its own army. The Iraqi army is not allowed to enter this territory. This is fine for US and EU.

So then why have problems with RS having a high degree of autonomy? Why these double standards?
This is part of the Dayton agreement. This is what we, the West, wanted. So let's not complain now!

Yes, RS can veto. But so can Federation!

"An agreement was reached that the military property located in the territory of either entity should go to that entity. However, Bosniak (Muslim) politicians would not hear of it," Popović told the daily

Not surprising, the Muslims want everything as they believe that Bosnia is only theirs

Not surprising, the Muslims want everything as they believe that Bosnia is only theirs
(jb, 30 August 2012 12:16)

Yeah. They want a Bosniak Bosnia which is fine but then you have to part with over 50% of what is known as Bosnia i Hercegovina today. You can't have both. You can't handcuff over half of the population and well over 50% of the land in Bosnia under your narrow minded view of what you feel you deserve.

Pick either you want a highly decentralized federal state or you want a Muslim state where the Serb and Croat parts go their own separate ways then you can join your Turkish brothers in NATO all you want.

Maybe they want Bosnian taliban to fight afghani taliban? No, that would be stupid, which means quite possible if you are a member of NATO...

The issue of state property is a red herring. It was taken up by OHR a few years ago but has little or nothing to do with the stalled NATO bid. The RS politicians and people have little interest in joining this organisation at present for two main reasons: 1) there is resentment within the RS about the NATO bombing in 1995 and some brotherly sympathy for the same plight suffered by other Serbs in 1999, 2) joining NATO as Bosnia would dramatically reduce the chances of the RS going it alone in the future. With a veto over membership within the Presidency, there will always be a reason for the Serbs to block progress, sometimes a justifiable reason other times not. Unlike accession towards EU membership there are no large pots of cash being handed out in the NATO process and therefore no real chance for the politicians to put it in their pockets or those of their family and friends.

If Bosnia is not admitted to the MAP, it is a terrible shame and waste of many thousands of international peace keepers, negotiators, hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and the genuine efforts of the professional soldiers of the multi-ethnic army of Bosnia&Herzegovina to organize, equip, train, and sustain a NATO compatible democratic armed force under unified control of the multi-ethnic Presidency. The issue of excess weapons and munitions should have been settled long ago - all of it is obsolete, unusable, and unsellable to any legitimate nation. I was a primary planner and advisor for the transformation from 3 former warring armies to one unified army and planner for all the retention or disposal of all military infrastructure and equipment. Good, logical decisions were made by the Ministry of Defense and Joint Staff, with NATO, OSCE, and UN approvals. It is only the political parties who still want to blame each other for the war who keep the hatred alive and stall progress.

Well, the Kurdish part of Iraq even has its own army. The Iraqi army is not allowed to enter this territory. This is fine for US and EU.

So then why have problems with RS having a high degree of autonomy? Why these double standards?
This is part of the Dayton agreement. This is what we, the West, wanted. So let's not complain now!

Yes, RS can veto. But so can Federation!