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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lacelle who wrote (17348)	1/6/2001 5:18:09 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Re: The part I find most disturbing is the way Russia sold out the Serbs so they could have a free hand in the Chechnyan conflict. It was about as ugly a foreign policy situation as what we saw when Hitler and Stalin decided to carve up Poland in 1939. Actually, I'd rephrase your comparison as follows: ...It was about as ugly a foreign policy situation as what we saw when Hitler and Chamberlain decided to carve up Europe in 1935 following the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. Anyway, the Russian gambit in the 1999 Kosovo crisis is not surprising (keep in mind that Russia's the homeland of the world's greatest chessplayers): they pretended to let their fellow Serbs down because they anticipated the ensuing internecine quarrels within NATO that, ultimately, would bring it down.... as the article below shows: Friday January 5 12:18 PM ET EU Backs Prodi Over 'Balkan Syndrome' Warning LONDON (Reuters) - The European Commission on Friday stood by warnings from its president about the potential dangers of uranium-tipped shells amid a swirl of competing claims about the health risks to troops using the controversial ammunition. The Defense Department said it had no plans to suspend use of the tank-killing shells but would cooperate with any NATO study into possible deaths from cancer and other ills --the so-called ``Balkan Syndrome.'' Britain said it had no evidence NATO's use of the munitions adversely affected British peacekeepers in the Balkans and had no plans to screen soldiers who served in Kosovo and Bosnia. Turkey and Yugoslavia found no cases of radiation exposure among their troops and the International Committee of the Red Cross disclosed that tests on over 30 staff deployed during the 1999 Kosovo war showed no traces of depleted uranium. Kosovo moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova said he feared irresponsible claims could lead to a stampede of peacekeeping and international agency staff from the province. But Germany's Taz daily newspaper reported that tests conducted by the United Nations Environmental Program on sites in Kosovo struck by NATO forces showed evidence of significant radioactivity. [snip] dailynews.yahoo.com Again, the demarcation line on that issue follows the political rift that splits Europe between Atlanticists (read pro-Yankee) and post-Atlanticists (read Eurasians) with Germany as the odd one out.... This whole "Balkan Syndrome" yarn is just the latest episode of a deep-seated animosity against NATO as an American police of occupation inside Europe. Gus.