Bush Bungling on Kosovo Fueled Belgrade Riots
Just yesterday, I documented George W. Bush's hilarious - and pathetic - history when it comes to Kosovo. Now with Serbian rioters storming the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Bush's dubious grasp of the implications of an independent Kosovo doesn't seem so funny any more.
That the United States would come to grief in the Balkans under Bush's leadership was foreseeable back in 1999. Bush at first refused to back President Clinton's air war against the Milosevic regime's campaign of terror against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. As he explained to Talk Magazine in 1999, Bush's first problem was not strategic but geographic:
"Nobody needs to tell me what I believe. But I do need somebody to tell me where Kosovo is."
Bush, of course, later came around and supported the U.S. strikes against Belgrade. (Not before criticizing Bill Clinton's lack of an "exit strategy," an ironic foreshadowing his own subsequent Iraq misadventure.)
But the real warning signs that Bush knew little - and cared less - about the impact of Kosovo's looming declaration of independence came last June during his visit to neighboring Albania.
Even as President Bush basked in the warm embrace of Albanians grateful for American support of Kosovo independence and Albanian membership in NATO, he still struggled to understand the policy he claims to advocate. Bush told the Albanians, "At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you've got to say, 'Enough is enough - Kosovo is independent.'" During his Albanian visit, President Bush said he supported bringing the UN Security Council talks on Kosovo independence to an end, "In terms of a deadline, there needs to be one. It needs to happen." But as the New York Times reported, within 24 hours Bush backed off his tough talk, lest he once again run afoul of Russian opposition at the UN.
But on Sunday, Mr. Bush tried to backtrack when asked when that deadline might be. "First of all, I don't think I called for a deadline," Mr. Bush said, during a press appearance with Mr. Berisha in the courtyard of a government ministry building. He was reminded that he had.
"I did?" he asked, sounding surprised. "What exactly did I say? I said deadline? O.K., yes, then I meant what I said." The reporters laughed.
Speaking in Tanzania during his African tour this week, President Bush downplayed the impact of the Kosovo announcement and the need for immendiate and intense diplomacy to defuse Russian opposition to Serbia's loss of its ancient province. As the Washington Post detailed:
"There's a disagreement but we believe as many other nations do that history will prove this to be the correct move."
"We have been in close consultation with the Russians all along," said Bush on Tuesday in Tanzania when asked about Russia's critical reaction to the Kosovo independence.
Asked about timing of the declaration and whether there was any effort to smooth things over with Russia, Bush said: "We worked with the European nations. This strategy was well-planned."
As it turns out, not so much.
As the UN scrambled to reestablish border security posts between Serbia and Kosovo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the EU's new 1,800 man mission in Kosovo "illegal." On the ground, Serb mobs are trying force a de facto partition of northern Kosovo, apparently with the tacit support of Belgrade. Even as Russia pledges to use its Security Council veto to block Kosovo's admission into the United Nations, the moderate pro-western Serbian government of Boris Tadic faces growing pressure from nationalist opponents his party barely defeated in the recent elections. Meanwhile, China and Spain, among other countries concerned about the national aspirations of their own regional minorities, joined Russia in their opposition to Saturday's unilateral declaration.
The Economist is likely right that Kosovo's independence was inevitable and that its people could not be indefinitely held in a state of limbo. But managing global reaction and the predictable emotional tide in Serbia accompanying the undoing of hundreds of history is a delicate diplomatic task for the international community and especially for President George W. Bush. That, of course, has never been his strong suit.
Unphased by it all, Bush told reporters in Dar es Salam on Tuesday:
"What you may be interested in knowing is that we have been in close consultation with the Russians all along. This wasn't a surprise to Russia. And you know, today's announcement is simply putting an exclamation point onto a series of announcements that have been made over the last 24 hours.
Thank you all very much. See you in Rwanda."
By Thursday, the American embassy in Belgrade was burning.
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Is there anything you won't blame on President Bush?
Posted by Brad on February 21, 2008 1:46 PMGood article. I just disagree with you when you wrote:
"The Economist is likely right that Kosovo's independence was inevitable.."
Kosovo independence was not inevitable.
Karl Haudbourg
Posted by Ambassador Serbia on October 29, 2008 4:07 PMAmbassador of Serbia to the world