Kosovo: A New Nation
February 20th 2008 00:09
Many countries and their politicians have rushed to welcome the move in the form of official diplomatic recognition. American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and British representative to Pristina, David Blunt, both delivered their documents of support to the new Kosovan President, Fatmir Sejdiu, whilst Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd went so far as to hail the declaration ‘the right course of action’.
Of course not everyone was in favour and several countries led by Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia dismissed the declaration of independence as ‘illegal’ and a move 'against international law’.
I don’t want to be sanctimonious and offer another unwelcome judgement on whether the declaration is illegal or positive, morally just or simply wrong. I believe every country in the world has the right… no, the obligation, to map out its own history without fear of interference or repercussion from so called ‘world leaders’.
All the countries who have been quick to condemn (or support) Kosovo for its historic move have surely got problems of their own that should warrant their attention. America, for example, is leading a global recession, Great Britain has found a penchant for losing (literally losing) vital and private statistic for many of its citizens, and Spain has 20% of its entire population living under the poverty line. Never has the phrase ‘people in glass houses…’ ever seemed so appropriate.
Now, I don’t want it to seem like I support apathetic neutrality against dictators and mass murders posing as politicians, but I think that real and sustainable change has to come internally from social uprising rather than external forces, which nine times out of ten will have an agenda of its own. Just ask the good people of Panama.
For me the difference lies between the United States’ two conflicts with Saddam Hussein. The first Gulf War began when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Now, we can sit here and argue about the motives of the US to enter into a conflict that has oil at its very heart, but the truth is one country invaded a smaller country illegally and I believe the rest of the world has a moral obligation to stop the invasion dead in tracks. They did. Iraq retreated and showed no real signs of repeating the invasion.
The second Gulf War came about not by the actions of the Iraqi’s or even Saddam Hussein but rather the US’s unjustified search for Weapons of Mass Destruction. My full opinion on this conflict is for another day, but I’ll just point out the mess and devastation that has been left in Iraq. Civil war and internal fighting is prevalent and only an idiot would say that the Iraqi people are now better off.
Kosovo certainly still has a battle on its hands to create a completely free and democratic nation, but shouldn’t we at least allow them to opportunity to sort it out for themselves?
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