A weekend dispute in northern Kosovo has fueled a new round of controversy, and tensions, as the Kosovar military threatened to move against ethnic Serbs who were blocking the road, leading to a standoff.
This happens from time to time, mostly starting with the Kosovo government preventing the northern Serbs from trading across the border with neighboring Serbia. This leads to a lot of threats back and forth, and unresolved standoffs.
With its endless military operation in Kosovo, NATO finds itself threatening to be sucked into the situation. Kosovo wants NATO to intervene on their side against the Serbs, while Serbia contacted NATO and asked permission to deploy peacekeepers into Kosovo to prevent the crackdown.
NATO’s original war in Kosovo, in 1998, gave the region de facto independence from Serbia, though the Serbians have never recognized that as legal. This has led NATO to a more or less forever deployment in the center of an ever-sparking powder-keg, assured to be impacted alliance-wide if and when it all falls apart.
The Kosovo War preceded a deep NATO expansion into the Balkans, former Warsaw Pact areas. Far from bringing any enhanced regional stability, it has just left NATO insinuated in the middle of everything, and problems like the Kosovo Serbia border issue remain unresolved more or less forever.
This can’t help but be recognized with the ongoing NATO push further north, into the Russian neighborhood, recruiting where they could and heavily arming Ukraine to fight the Russians.
There, too, NATO imagines itself a stabilizing influence, but seems destined to keep the current Ukraine War going and keep a NATO vs. Russia clash forever on the brink.
Historical note: “NATO’s original war in Kosovo, in 1998, gave the region de facto independence from Serbia, though the Serbians have never recognized that as legal.” This and US involvement provided the impetus for the start of Antiwar.com. And, look! still going on!
Dear Antiwar, this title: “NATO Pressed for Action as Tensions Rise in North Kosovo,” is exactly what you expect from an MSM outlet or NATO apologists. However, when reading the article, you start to understand that NATO created this volatile situation and Kosovo sparked this latest conflict. Why the ambiguity?
It is likely meant to get more Americans to read the whole article.
The last paragraph is the thesis of the article. The rest of the article slowly builds up to this thesis, in my opinion, in a steady and powerful way.
“NATO to provoke another war in Europe.” Here, I fixed it for no charge as Thomas would say.
Useful and timely feature. Though as a matter of clarity, Yugoslavia was never a members of the Warsaw Pact.
Good to hear from you, brother. Where are your articles?
Tito made Yugoslavia independent of the Soviet bloc.
NATO = Not A Thinking Organization
Well said.
Look how well that NATO war turned out. Still no peace 24 years later and Kosovo is as impoverished and unrecognized as ever.
NATO needs a reset… It’s time for solving problems, not contribute towards making them. Nuclear war is not a dynamic I care to experience…
“gave the region de facto independence from Serbia, “? UNSC 1244 —the peace agreement— did no such thing. It gave autonomy within Yugoslavia (Serbia). A pity that such a great editor of Antiwar died and whose legacy is not living on
NATO and western intelligence organizations along with American NEOCONS are fomenting war in Kosovo against Slavic people once more.