Rats Are Your Friend

Rats have a nasty reputation.  Rats are the ones that hide in alleyways by the thousands and eat your garbage and if you believe the legend, tear apart small children in under ten seconds.  Rats are the ones that are responsible for the plague.  Rats eat mice for breakfast and make fun of your cats.  Rats multiply by the thousands.  Rats eat [...]

Mikhail Gorbachev to the U.S., EU and NATO: Buzz off!!

Add Mikhail Gorbachev to the list of Russians that are warning the U.S., E.U. and NATO that recognizing Kosovo independence would set a “dangerous precedent” for “international security.”  Mr. Gorbachev also declared that because Kosovo neither belongs to the E.U. and NATO, their involvement should be much more “limited.”  Interestingly, Mr. Gorbachev says nothing about Russia’s own involvement in Serbia’s [...]

Kosovo says to Serbia’s planned embargo: Don’t worry, Be Happy (Or: You See That Pig, It’s Horse. No, Really!)

A local Kosovo think-tank recently published a report that the planned closure of the Kosovo-Serbia border will have a “minimum impact” on local trade and the supply of goods.  Strangely, the same reported observed that imports entering Kosovo through the Serbia border amounted to “only about 31%.”  Okay . . .
A 31% loss in imports to an already fragile [...]

Benazir Bhutto: Who has the most to gain from her assassination? (Hint: It Wasn’t Pervez Musharraf)

I received an email alert yesterday afternoon from a colleague in Pakistan that Benazir Bhutto had been “injured” during an attack.  I thought to myself . . . ”injured”?  In the context of a government official, “injured” is often times a codeword for “assassination attempt.”  It was with greater anger, sadness and frustration that I learned later — [...]

Serbia’s Position Is Now Crystal Clear: We Are Not Joining The EU (Or: PM Kostunica . . . are you sure you want to do that?)

Not surprisingly, the Serbian Parliament past the resolution I reported yesterday against Kosovo independence, 220 to 14 (with 3 abstaining).  Although there were approximately 8 hours of “debate” over the resolution, as you can see from the final vote, it was less of a “debate” than it was a platform for every Serb nationalist to make [...]

Where oh Where is General Ratko Mladic?

Where the hell is one of the most wanted men in the world, Ratko Mladic, the Serbian general indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions surrounding the ‘92-’95 siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of over 8,000 Bosniak men at Srebrenica?    The failure to locate him has frustrated the international community and certainly [...]

Serbia To Retaliate Against the West When Kosovo Becomes Independent

Let the showdown begin.
Serbia apparently plans to adopt a set of “retaliatory measures” against those Western states that recognize Kosovo’s independence.  This, of course, includes the distinct possibility of cutting off diplomatic ties with the United States and also the EU.  So much for the road to Serbia’s inclusion in the EU.
Serbia also plans to adopt [...]