Today is a day of celebration in Kosovo, as the ethnic Albanians declared independence from Kosovo this past weekend. World reaction has been mixed. Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States have all supported the move towards independence, while Russia, China, and Spain have all rejected it. That should make us feel pretty good that we’re on the right side of this situation, right?

Not so much, at least not in my case.

It wasn’t so long ago that American-lead NATO forces went into Kosovo to try to drive out Serbians who were accused of “ethnic cleansing” and other atrocities against the ethnic Albanians there. Our actions lead to Serbian troops being driven out of Kosovo and the eventual unseating of Slobodan Milosevic. At the time, it was generally thought that we were the good guys, a sentiment many share today when (or rather if) they remember the Kosovo situation.

There’s one tiny problem with that line of thinking, however. It doesn’t quite match up with reality. One of the justifications given for going into Kosovo was the existence of mass graves, proving that the Serbs were killing the Albanians. Yet, when journalists and others went to Kosovo to review the magnitude of the “ethnic cleansing,” they didn’t find any of the mass graves that we said were there. In fact, two American journalists came back and admitted that they moved what few bodies were there to give the impression that there were more bodies than there actually were.

So, if there weren’t any mass graves as had been thought, why would American forces have been put into harm’s way? You can thank Bill Clinton for that. Conventional wisdom has it that we went into Kosovo to divert attention away from impeachment proceedings pertaining to the Monica Lewinsky affair (if you’ll pardon the expression), but it’s only part of the equation. There was a story from a major news magazine from January 1998 that showed Clinton as obsessed with his legacy, including a statement to the effect that he wanted to go to war so he could be seen as a great President.

Also, Kosovo gave Clinton a chance to appear to be a world leader instead of a fluke. At NATO’s 50th anniversary celebration, it’s been reported that the reaction of world leaders to Clinton was rather cold, as though they didn’t really consider him to be that great. Consider, also, that it was European countries who wanted NATO to go into Kosovo in the first place, accusing Milosevic of being “the next Hitler.” With that, Clinton had the perfect scenario to take action. Kosovo allowed Clinton to go to war, impress the Europeans, and push aside his impeachment.

Yet, as international as Clinton wanted to be, he was woefully inept on the world stage, especially when it came to handling the Middle East and international terrorism. Whether it was treating the first World Trade Center bombing as a criminal affair instead of a matter of national security or forcing Secretary of State Madeline Albright down the throats of Middle Eastern countries, Clinton’s foreign policy was not about doing what was right for the country, but what was right for him personally. This short-sighted approach to policy made it possible for our actions to inadvertently help al Qaeda, but I’ll talk about that later.

There are other troubling aspects to our Kosovo exercise that didn’t get as much media play as others. For example, Slobodan Milosevic was detained at an airport in Europe in January 1999 and was not allowed to speak to his lawyer. America knew it happened and allowed it to occur without so much as a raised eyebrow. From a country that fought a war or two to protect the rights of individuals, this is utterly disgusting.

Then, there’s the whole “ethnic cleansing” and mass graves talk. Whenever people mention Kosovo, one of the points that keeps coming up is how Milosevic was killing Albanians in mass graves. Yet, when journalists and investigators went to Kosovo, they couldn’t find any mass graves. Furthermore, two American journalists came back and said they moved bodies for photographs to give the impression that there were more bodies in the graves than there were.

But at least we brought peace and stability to the region after we drove out the Serbs, right? Nope. As soon as we drove out the Serbs, the same rapes, murders, and “ethnic cleansing” went on as before, this time with the Albanians doing it. And with NATO troops doing nothing to stop it. A story that came out after we “won” in Kosovo showed that Serbs pelted NATO troops with rocks and snowballs to protest how badly they were now being treated by the Albanians.

I don’t bring up this information to bash Clinton’s actions. Instead, I do it to establish a pattern that I’ve seen come up time and time again in discussing Kosovo with others, a pattern that is again at work with Kosovo’s declaration of independence. We don’t have the whole story because no one’s bothering to do the digging to find it out. Oh, we have a story, but it’s one that has been scrubbed for public consumption and has a ton of lies designed to keep our attention away from the truth.

Here’s a statistic that probably won’t make the evening news and hasn’t even been referenced in the foreign press. Most of the ethnic Albanians are Muslim. The Serbs, on the other hand, are predominantly Christian. Now, consider the fact that Kosovo has a 90-10 split in favor of the Albanians. We’re supposed to believe the Serbs were the ones who were oppressing the Albanians?

But let’s bring this discussion into the current day. Although Kosovo has said it will make concessions for the Serbs in Kosovo, I can’t help but think the old animosity will rear its ugly head as soon as nobody’s looking, just like it did after the US bailed out of Kosovo with a “victory.” The fighting between these two groups have been going on for centuries, and the Albanians declaring independence from Serbia won’t change that. I sincerely hope I’m wrong in that analysis, but I don’t think I am.

Now, consider the fact I mentioned earlier about the Albanians being mostly Muslim for a moment. What isn’t so well known by many Americans is that al Qaeda had connections in Kosovo when we were there in the 90s. In fact, Kosovo was a major hub for drug running for al Qaeda. By running out the Serbs, who were fighting to shut down al Qaeda’s drug trade, we helped the terrorists who came after us on our soil, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. And it’s a good bet that there are some Albanians who will be more than happy to give our enemies safe haven, which may give them an ideal spot to hit Eastern Europe, where some of our staunches allies in the world right now are.

And France, Germany, England, and America don’t even see it.

One of the reasons we may not see the danger just yet is our attachment to the concept of independence. Americans value freedom and independence like no other country in the world because we were founded on the notion of man being free. So, when a country declares independence, we feel our chests swell a bit because we’re reminded of what makes America great. However, we should not let these feelings cloud our judgment, as they appear to have done with us. Whether it’s optimism, ignorance, or suspension of disbelief at work matters not. What matters is that we look at Kosovo’s independence with from as wide a perspective as possible.

As much as I like independence, I also understand the costs involved. Let’s say for example that Kosovo is allowed to be independent, but things start to go wrong for them, like their economy doesn’t take off like expected. When you have a number of negative experiences without much to speak of on the positive side, people will look to anyone who will deliver hope and success. It happened in the former Soviet Union. It happened in Germany after World War I. It’s happening in America right now. And it may happen in Kosovo. In each of the cases I mentioned (save for America right now because the jury’s still out on it), the change lead to something catastrophic. Whether Kosovo winds up the same way is yet to be seen, but given what we’ve seen out of Kosovo in the past decade, I can’t say I’m overly optimistic.

For the sake of the world, I pray I’m wrong.

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