The Problems of America
Kosovo

Kosovo is not really a problem…it may very well be in the future…but it is indicative of a big problem—what I call the Kosovo Principle. Kosovo is part of Serbia. On 17 February 2008, Kosovo’s Parliament declared independence from Serbia. For some time the US has been pushing for Kosovo independence and of the very next day recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty. Why? Because it has as a majority that is Muslim. They are mostly ethnic Albanians who have a murderous and drug cartel pedigree. Yet, it seems that they must be independent. Never mind that Kosovo is the heartland of the Serbian Medieval state or that it contains many of the artifacts and architecture of Christianity that define Serbia’s contribution to the common heritage of Europe. That is no longer important. And, therein lays the problem.

The cultural elite and those puzzled about the world of Islam are joined together to do two things. One is to do away with the ancestry, heritage and history of western Europe. The “new” Europe rejects all that is specific and distinctive about its common heritage both on a country to country basis and as European in general. Like Eva Peron’s “new Argentina” the “new” Europe is just that…new and without connection or remembrance of the old. Second is to curry favor with what are deemed to be “moderate Muslims who have no common cause with the “old” Europe. This premise is, like most based on western loathing, is extremely questionable. The Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA] of ethnic Albanians have trained at al-Qaeda camps and al-Qaeda operatives have fought along side the KLA in their terrorist campaigns against Serb targets. Hardly are these the Muslims of the “moderate” stripe.

Hatred of Serbia is driven, in part, by the recent Balkan wars. But, it goes deeper than that. Recently, I was in Cyprus. There, the Turks have occupied northern Cyprus since 1974. They even call the occupied zone the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Why has there not been a solution found? It is a religious standoff…Eastern Orthodoxy versus Islam. There is night and day difference between the two areas. The northern sea areas, only 50 miles from Turkey, have been settled by Turks building new homes overlooking the water. But, the rest of the north is sub-standard compared to the south. When the Turks moved in whole villages were abandoned and remain vacant even today.

Can Greek and Turkish Cypriots live side by side? They had for many years. But, a solution is hard to forge when the religious question intrudes. Greek Cypriots driven out of the north lost home and hearth and until recently could not even return to visit. The leaders of the west have no affinity any longer for the traditional Judeo-Christian cultures that lead to the development of Europe and the US. So, in places like Serbia and Cyprus, the “old” ways are willingly sacrificed because the cultural elite say those ways are passé and the Casper Milquetoast world leaders want to find a way to get along with Muslims to avoid future terrorist attacks.

Here is the principle. Cause enough problems as an ethnic group distinct from the heretofore dominant cultural group through intimidation and violence and you will be rewarded. The fact that you want to split up a county to do so is o.k. because we have to recognize that we live in a “new” world and the “old ways” have to go. No heretofore sovereign state is immune. So, ethnic Albanians in Serbia should have their own republic. Black North African Muslims should have their own states in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. And, in the US, we struggle with the illegal Mexican immigrant problem. Why not give southern California, Arizona and New Mexico to them? Farfetched? When we fail to understand that the US is more than a “proposition about freedom” but is a culture of shared virtue, language, history, beliefs and law, such an outcome is as possible as the Republic of Kosovo. That’s the Kosovo Principle.