Way down in Kosovo -- Bermuda, Bahama ...

By Rick Morris

I am someone who is intrigued by geopolitics, but even I find the situation in the Balkans (both over the last 20 years and historically) very confusing. I do know that I opposed the 1999 US war on Serbia as something that was not in our vital national interest and I would have rather seen a minimal US presence in international peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia over the years -- but beyond the few issues very clear to me one way or another about our national interest, I don't have too many strongly-held beliefs about how our country should navigate through this swamp of ethnic and religious hatred and endless cycles of revenge.

But, as I do in general when it comes to international affairs, I find myself nodding affirmatively to the writings of Pat Buchanan, perhaps the foremost "America Firster" on the scene today. His latest article, "Does Balkanization Beckon Anew?" raises questions that the Einsteins in our State Department who eagerly led the United States to recognize the new "country" of Kosovo cannot possibly understand.

Again, I don't claim to understand all of the radioactive factors at play in this particularly sticky corner of the globe. But after reading Pat's article, I do know this: we have set an absolutely horrible precedent here. Consider the list of countries who are dealing with their own secession movements -- and who we now are bound by precedent to anger by supporting their breakaway republics:

^ Serbia (again)
^ Montenegro
^ Macedonia
^ Bosnia and Herzegovina
^ Romania
^ Georgia
^ Spain
^ Turkey
^ Moldova
^ Russia
^ China
^ Canada

Huh. That's a long list of countries to have PO'd at us, don't you think? And all because the eggheads at Foggy Bottom couldn't wait to scratch that anti-Serbian itch one more time.

Everybody in this country that praises diplomacy has apparently never studied our diplomats ...