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February 19, 2008
Some unsolicited advice to Serbia: enough already
The Balkans have not exactly been at the center of the world’s attention recently; but today that little part of Southern Europe did produce a news story: Kosovo’s independence.
If we go all the way back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, I would have to agree that Serbia has some reasons for complaint. The Ottoman Empire did absorb the country by force back in 1389. Thousand of Serbs were taken as slaves to serve the sultans in Istanbul.
But that was then, and this is now. In more recent times, the Serbs have more than evened the score. During the Balkan civil wars of the 1990s, Serb warlords shocked just about everyone with their brutality. Now after all that ethnic cleansing, the Albanians in Kosovo don’t want to be part of Serbia anymore. Go figure!
Serbia would do well to forget about Kosovo, and focus on proving that it can be a peaceful, productive citizen of the world again.
