Friday, 02.22.08

Let Belgrade burn

Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Serbian demonstrators attacked the US embassy in Belgrade after the US supported Kosovo's independence. Serbia had repressed Kosovo's ethnic Albanian Muslims during the 1990s.

George Bush trumpeted American support for Kosovar independence: Was he inviting blowback from a violence-prone region we'd be better off ignoring?

Were it only so easy. If the United States and NATO were to abdicate their roles in safeguarding Kosovo, its Muslim population -- now closely allied with the West -- would find itself caught between Serb nationalists and the imperial designs of their Russians allies.  And it would find nowhere to turn for protection except Islamic radicals, who are keen on converting them to jihad.

Robust support for Kosovar liberty hardly guarantees less embassy-stoning, or less blowback than if we were to remain neutral. But isolationism brings its own risks.  In a contest between Putin's Russia and international jihad, victory on either side would prove far more dangerous than a few Serbs with Zippos and US flags.

— Conor Friedersdorf

Filed Under: Balkans, Belgrade, embassy, independence, Kosovo, secession, Serbia