Why do we support thugs like this?

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The authorities who control Kosovo may have stolen organs from prisoners of war and political rivals when the Kosovo Liberation Army was fighting Serbian forces for control of the territory, European authorities allege in a new report.

The investigators have "made progress" toward "proving the existence of secret KLA places of detention in northern Albania where inhuman treatment and even murders are said to have been committed

The KLA was backed by NATO bombing when it fought for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/15/kosovo.organs/index.html?hpt=T2
 
If you watch Team America closely, you will see that mistakes are unavoidable. Apparently so is inaction. Hindsight will always be perfect, though.
 
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Originally Posted By: bepperb
If you watch Team America closely, you will see that mistakes are unavoidable. Apparently so is inaction. Hindsight will always be perfect, though.


[censored] if you do [censored] if you don't
 
Unless our interests are directly implicated, or likely to be implicated, we should mind our own business.

Let the rest of the world shed their blood and spend their treasure to solve their problems.
 
Originally Posted By: Win
Unless our interests are directly implicated, or likely to be implicated, we should mind our own business.

Let the rest of the world shed their blood and spend their treasure to solve their problems.


This is supposed to be a joke, right??

Why do you think the US was/is involved in that area of the world? It has little to do with "being the world's policeman" and everything to do with fueling all of the vehicles in your signature...

Oil in the Caspian Sea is pretty vital to our interest, particularly long-term. Until we're energy self-sufficient, involvement in foreign affairs is vital to our interests, like it or not.
 
Wasn't meant to be; had no idea the old Yugoslavia was such an oil rich region. Is it?

And the Caspian Sea... that doesn't border the Balkans, more like Iran.
 
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Originally Posted By: PandaBear
1st rule of foreign policy:

It is never about honor or morality; it is about the nation's interest.



Yes and many of those interests have given you and the rest of us oppertunities and freedom that we may have never had.

The US gets blamed regardless of what it does.If it doesnt get involved and things happen,its our fault.If we do get involved and things happen,its our fault.

I know that the US had made some bad decisions but it gets old hearing from some how bad a country it is.If some think it is so bad,they are free to leave.
 
We have seen how well the Europeans handle things,they usually ignore it or make things worse.

The US gets blamed regardless.If the US had stayed out of it and things went really wrong,we would have gotten the blame because we didnt get involved.

The US gets blamed either way as someone else has already posted.
 
Maybe true. But the US has got a reputation for jumping into other people's business. If we stayed out for a while maybe others would realize that they have to solve their own problems. Using their own money and their own people.
 
Originally Posted By: Win
Wasn't meant to be; had no idea the old Yugoslavia was such an oil rich region. Is it?

And the Caspian Sea... that doesn't border the Balkans, more like Iran.


The trans-Balkan pipeline (built by the US), and AMBO (a US-registered company) goes right through the Balkans. So while they may not have oil, it's a linchpin to ensuring a supply of oil from the Caspian see (where we already have oil leases). It's no accident we ended up with a military presence in the Balkans--and still operate a massive military base (Bondsteel) in the area.

I'm neither defending nor criticizing, since that's really a political discussion--but regardless, it's a fact: the Balkans were/are key to US interests, and that's why we were/are there.
 
Originally Posted By: Win
Unless our interests are directly implicated, or likely to be implicated, we should mind our own business.

Let the rest of the world shed their blood and spend their treasure to solve their problems.

Why, that would be unAmerican! We always have to meddle in other countries' business. We have tax dollars to spend. Can't let them go to waste.
 
Originally Posted By: motorguy222
Yes and many of those interests have given you and the rest of us oppertunities and freedom that we may have never had.

The US gets blamed regardless of what it does.If it doesnt get involved and things happen,its our fault.If we do get involved and things happen,its our fault.

I know that the US had made some bad decisions but it gets old hearing from some how bad a country it is.If some think it is so bad,they are free to leave.


Not sure what your take is, but I'm not blaming the US or criticizing the decision to get involved in this conflict. A destabilized Balkan means destabilized energy supply from the ME (pipeline) and potential hostile states near NATO, forcing us to help and spend more $ there.

If you follow that thinking, you'll realized that it is always about stability instead of humanity. Every nation does it, and it is unavoidable.
 
I always thought it was kind of strange that we backed & stopped the ethnic cleansing of the MUSLIM minority in that war-and were rewarded with 9/11 for our efforts!!
 
I'd be hesitant to say that NATO supported the KLA. The politics in the region are incredibly complicated. NATO supported Kosovar-Albanian civilians, who were being relocated during an ethnic cleansing campaign by the Serbs (who were retaliating against actions of the KLA). The influx of refugees had the potential to destabilize the region (esp. Macedonia and Croatia), cause rifts w/in NATO (Greece & Turkey), and become a major liability for the US. It was also a major show of NATO force against Russia and a very strategic location for an oil pipeline from the ME to Europe. And finally, it was a chance for the US to improve its image in Muslim world by supporting (pro-US) Muslims.

The KLA was a terrorist group financed by Albanian organized crime and committed awful war crimes in the name of a righteous cause (much like the IRA or similiar groups). Without a doubt, they were also mixed in the world of drugs, prostitution, extortion, etc.; however, a typical Kosovar-Albanian had nothing to do with the KLA but was subjected to genocidal retaliation by the Serbs.

I served several tours in the Balkans (including Kosovo) in the 1990's and that region of the world has always been an interest of mine.
 
Originally Posted By: JOD


The trans-Balkan pipeline (built by the US), and AMBO (a US-registered company) goes right through the Balkans. So while they may not have oil, it's a linchpin to ensuring a supply of oil from the Caspian see (where we already have oil leases)


Thanks for that, I had never heard of the Albanian Bulgarian Macedonian Oil corporation or the AMBO pipleine. Has it been built? The articles I saw were unclear about that.

It was interesting reading.
 
Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
I always thought it was kind of strange that we backed & stopped the ethnic cleansing of the MUSLIM minority in that war-and were rewarded with 9/11 for our efforts!!


Exactly. Don't forget us helping the jihadists in Bosnia and training and equipping Bin Laden a few years prior to that.

We seem to make [censored] poor decisions as far as our foreign policy goes. I guess we think these small players are just not important in the Big Game and yet because of this we are stretched thin and almost bankrupt.
 
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