In 1999, at the request of the EU, the US waged an unsanctioned (by the UN) was in the Balkans to alleviate the suffering of Muslims at the hands of the Serbs in Kosovo.
Since the UN was no help, mostly because of Russian vetoes, NATO embarked on a war that targeted Slobodan Milosevic and his Serbian thugs.
Later, the road to democracy was taken over by the UN and security was in the hands of NATO. 8 years later, this hasn't worked out so well.
The gleeful voices of several thousand people echoed along Bill Clinton Boulevard in the Kosovo capital of Pristina yesterday, celebrating a day of national independence that has not yet arrived.
Even though nothing really changed yesterday, as the United Nations gave up its attempts to find a compromise on the status of the embattled Serbian province, it was enough for about 3,000 young people to take to the streets, waving banners and shouting, in Albanian, "Free Kosovo" and the name of the outlawed Kosovo Liberation Army.
Here, in this unstable corner of Europe, was what must have been the world's only pro-American demonstration. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, who are largely Muslim, credit the United States with freeing them from Serbian control in the 1999 NATO war, and yesterday there were hundreds of Stars and Stripes flags in the air. One banner read "USA: Kick some Putin ass," a familiar sentiment....
Yesterday marked the deadline for a UN-appointed committee of world governments to determine the fate of Kosovo, and, effectively, the end of a UN truce that has kept the Serbian province in limbo. And it became clear that Kosovo's Albanian-speaking leaders are determined to declare national independence by the end of February.
The governments of almost all the European Union countries, plus the United States and Canada, seem sure to recognize the new nation, which will be angrily opposed by Russia, China and a few countries like Cyprus that have their own breakaway regions.
While the Albanian majority celebrated the day as a prelude to national liberation, the 100,000 Serbians who remain part of Kosovo's two million people reacted with silence, fearing vengeful attacks of a sort that have not been seen since 2004.
The problem is, of course, that even though they lost the war back in 1999, Serbia, with Russian backing, has been reluctant to give up control of Kosovo.
The United Nations in Kosovo today accused Serbia of provocation by opening a government office in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica.
The opening of the office on Monday came after the end of negotiations which had failed to resolve the fate of Kosovo, Serbia's UN-run southern province.
"The opening of this office is raising the level of the Serbian government presence in Kosovo," the UN mission spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, told a news conference. "We consider this a provocative act."
The only option now is for a NATO supervised independence of Kosovo in order to prevent bloodshed.
But will the US be involved in that effort? Not unless NATO begins to step up to the plate in Afghanistan
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will consider shifting U.S. troops from Kosovo to Afghanistan next year if NATO allies do not fulfil their commitments, U.S. government officials said.
Gates, in Ukraine on Sunday to ask eastern European countries for help in the war, had first considered laying the threat before NATO defence ministers this week at a meeting in the Netherlands, senior U.S. officials said.
The problem is not just the troop levels, but various rules of engagement authorized by the various countries
American, British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers do the bulk of NATO's fighting in Afghanistan and have sustained most casualties. France, Germany and other members have been criticized for imposing caveats on what operations their troops can take part in and keeping them in the relatively calm north.
The Marines, their job mostly done in Iraq, wants to fight al Qaida who is focusing again on Afghanistan. But Secretary Gates shot that idea down
Defense Secretary Robert Gates's decision to take a pass, at least for now, on a proposal to send marines to Afghanistan leaves the future security of that country an open question.
Secretary Gates appears to have rejected the proposal by Gen. James Conway, the Marine commandant, in part because Gates wants other nations to contribute more personnel to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. Many say security there has deteriorated in the past year.
And it's not because, as the Christian Science Monitor attempts to imply, "a move to send more American troops back to Afghanistan could be grist for Democrats in an election year" it's because Gates wants to put pressure on NATO to pull their weight in Afghanistan. Gates has been very clear on the matter
``The numbers are not that big, which, frankly, is one of the sources of frustration for me in terms of our allies not being able to step up to the plate and meet these needs,'' Gates told the House Armed Services Committee in Washington this week. ``I am not ready to let NATO off the hook.''
Despite the limits on the NATO forces, al Qaeda recently suffered a significant defeat
Afghan and NATO-led troops killed, wounded and detained hundreds of insurgents during fighting in the Taliban's biggest stronghold, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
Musa Qala, in the southern province of Helmand, took on a symbolic importance after the Taliban seized it in February following the breakdown of a much-criticized local truce that allowed besieged British troops to pull out of the town in October last year.
Thousands of Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops captured the town on Tuesday after one of the biggest operations the Afghan army has carried out.
"During the successful operation by ISAF and Afghan troops in Musa Qala, hundreds of insurgents including several commanders and tens of foreign fighters have been either killed, wounded or detained," Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told a news conference.
Ed Morrissey comments
The Taliban faces a desperate situation in that area. With the Afghan winter pressing down on them, they cannot easily move around in Helmand province. Their lines of communication have been cut, and they have few options for haven. Without gaining shelter, the force ejected from Musa Qala will likely die in the snow, and so their suicidal charge in Sangin highlights their desperation.
Now that the Taliban has lost its best footing in Helmand, its other forces will find themselves in the crosshairs of the NATO coalition. They still have control in three remote towns in Helmand, but without Musa Qala, those outposts will not last long. The Taliban has to face a decision whether to stand and get annihilated, or retreat back across the border into Pakistan before the coalition finds them -- if they can manage the trek at this time of year.
If the Europeans want our continued assistance in Kosovo, they need to live up to their committments in Afghanistan.
