Conservative Student News

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Many Americans pay little attention to news from far away places in the world. More important is the latest news about Britney Spears or what just happened on American Idol.

Largely ignored is news from Kosovo, a province of Serbia, which has recently declared independence. Western media coverage of this event has presented the independence of Kosovo as a good thing. They report that,"Now the people of Kosovo can determine their own future." Yet this one-sided media coverage on Kosovo is flawed. Further, US support for the independence of Kosovo is the wrong policy and will come back and haunt us.

Supporters for Kosovo independence have a lack of historical perspective. Serbia has claimed sovereignty over Kosovo for about one thousand years. In Kosovo the Serbs fought bloody battles against the invading Ottoman Empire. Overwhelmed, the Serbs continued to resist while guarding the gates of Europe against Islamic aggression.

The Serbs were on the side of the Allies in both World Wars. Pro-Nazi Croatians and Muslims persecuted and killed a large percentage of the Serb population during World War II. Many Serbs died in the notorious Jasenovac death camp. In Kosovo during this time, Albanian Nationalists were given a free hand to terrorize the Serbs.

After the war, the Communist government allowed uncontrolled settlement of Albanian immigrants in Kosovo at the expense of the native Serb population. Authorities stood by as Serbs were discriminated against. This resulted in the exodus of many Serbs from the providence. By the 1990s, a number of settlements where Serbs once lived became ethnically-clean, Albanian villages.

Not wanting to lose Kosovo to ethnic Albanians who were pushing for secession, the Serbian government retained control of Kosovo through police action. Serbs and Albanians committed acts of ethnic cleansing against each other in Kosovo thereafter. During the late 90s, the Clinton administration, in its infinite wisdom, decided that the Serbs were the instigators of evil and had to be stopped. Thus began the NATO air campaign against Serbia.

The NATO bombing despicably began when Serbs were celebrating Easter Sunday (President Clinton and Madeline Albright gave the go ahead even after the Pope plead with them not to begin bombing on this day). Thousands of Serbians suffered as the bombings destroyed civilian infrastructure. This unjustified action by NATO paved the way for the withdrawal of Serbian forces in Kosovo, placing it under UN administration.

Since Kosovo declared independence, Russia and other nations are backing Serbia's position that the province's declaration is illegal. There are deep seated fears that unilateral recognition of Kosovo's independence could set a dangerous precedent for other disputed regions in the world (i.e. Basques, Catalonians, and Flemish). Further, there is concern that this move will undermine stability in the Balkans.

Moreover, an independent Kosovo could become a haven for extremist groups and corruption. Al Queda has already made inroads in Kosovo. The region suffers under mafia control, and is the drug and human trafficking center of Europe.

An independent Kosovo could also put in danger an already religiously persecuted Serb population. Christian Solidarity International has reported that Albanian Muslims in Kosovo have been "systematically destroying Christian churches and other sites in Kosovo and the Serbian Christian population in the province is being squeezed down to oblivion." Furthermore, hundreds of mosques have been built in Kosovo, financed by Gulf Arab money.

There are many reasons why support for the independence of Kosovo is a bad thing. Yet some contend that the real problem goes beyond the obvious. It is found in the realm of morality. The moral argument against support for Kosovo's independence reveals the danger of the secular, post-modern Western world, oblivious now to its own culture, heritage, and code of morality. The current support for the independence of Kosovo indicates a secular European and American assault on Christian Serbia. So not only was Serbia bombed by NATO in 1999, but its territory will now be taken away so that a new Islamic state in Europe can be created.

By doing this the West has committed the ultimate act of betrayal. For centuries Orthodox Christian Serbians defended their heritage, and our mutual, shared, Western Civilization. By standing up for their beliefs they have made the world a better place. The people of Serbia guarded the entrance of Europe against Islamic incursion since the middle ages; they fought with the allies in World War II (estimates put the number of Serbs who died in Nazi death camps over 500,000, meanwhile one-fourth of the Serb population died during war). The West has repaid Serbia with a knife in the back.