Kosovo Essays - AlbaniaSerbia Relations, Kosovo War,

Kosovo Kosovo U.S. Involvement in Kosovo War has been waged in the Balkans for thousands of years. Yugoslavia has been divided, reunited, divided again, undergone wars and been through depressions. Each country within the Yugoslavia region has experienced hardships due to a failing economy, poor leadership, and civil wars. In the past few years, a major upheaval in the political structure and the disputes concerning land between the different religions and ethnicity's has caused a civil war. The country and ethnic group of this recent dispute is Serbia and Kosovo. The Albanian Kosovars want their independence from Serbia, while the Serbs consider Kosovo the location in which their cultural and ethnic identity is placed. The United States became involved in the Balkan conflict in the end of 1998 (Kosovo 1). U.S. involvement in Kosovo is making matters worse for the innocent people of Kosovo. Kosovo, a small area in the center of the former Yugoslavia, is playing an important role in the Balk an conflict. In the summer of 1998, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) decided to launch a guerilla warfare attack on Serbia in attempts to liberate themselves and gain their cultural rites. The President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, is refusing to allow Kosovo to break away from Serbia without a fight. Kosovo is a site of great emotional significance to the Serbs; it is the site of a historic defeat by the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. From this defeat, Kosovo became the cradle of Serbia's cultural and ethnic identity. Milosevic began an ethnic cleansing campaign in which he killed thousands of ethnic Albanians. NATO forces, as well as the United States, began stepping in in the winter of 1998. The United States made a cease-fire contract with Milosevic, which ended in the early months of 1999 (1). The United States believes that it is benefiting Kosovo by intervening. Many diplomats are saying that U.S. involvement in Kosovo is helping the Albanians because it is stopping th e ethnic cleansing by Milosevic. Another argument for U.S. involvement is that the air strikes against the Serbs will dampen their spirits and attacks against the Albanians. A third argument for U.S. involvement is that it will stop from drawing in other surrounding countries into the war. (1) The first argument for U.S. intervention is easily refuted. The U.S. diplomats believe that the U.S. is benefiting the situation in Kosovo by intervening. The US's main goal in Kosovo is to stop the ethnic cleansing conducted by Milosevic. The manner in which the U.S. is trying to resolve this conflict is wrong. The U.S. began bombing villages and towns in which ethnic Albanians live. This drove out the Albanians and forced them to immigrate to other countries. It seems that the United States believes that ethnic cleansing is wrong, but bombing innocent people is acceptable (Landlay 1). The Serbs are using the NATO air raids as a way to kill the ethnic Albanians. The Albanians are being used a s shields as the NATO forces bomb the Serbs. On one occasion, in the city of Kamena Glava, five hundred Albanian men were killed (Atrocity5). The Serbs are using NATO forces against what they are fighting for. U.S. involvement in Kosovo would be more welcomed if they weren't killing innocent people and instead, helping them come to a peaceful resolution between the two areas. However, the air strikes against Serbia are believed to be Clinton's goal for protecting U.S. investors and exporters. Although the humanitarian tragedies of Kosovo are in the foremost eye of the public, U.S. economic interests are in foremost eye of the government (Landlay 2). The second argument for U.S. intervention can also be refuted. Air strikes are proven to be ineffective in winning a war. This fact has been proven many times in other wars such as World War II and Vietnam. On the contrary, however, air strikes often stiffen the will to resist, as was the case in World War II with the German citizens. Th e Serbs, as history has predicted, have intensified their aggressions against the Kosovar Albanians. This has caused even more Albanians to flee from Kosovo. The Serbs spirits are far from becoming damp. If, once again, history prevails,