NATO shoots Albanians

In a complete 180-degree turn, NATO troops now open fire on the Albanians, those innocent little babes they spent two years trying to protect. The exercise to arm them and clothe them in nice, smart uniforms seems to have backfired, as American Kfor troops open fire on groups of Albanian terrorists in Mijak, on the Kosovo/Macedonia border. These terrorists, who have penetrated inside Macedonian territory, start to target NATO troops with mortars. They call themselves the KLA, not the Kosovo Liberation Army but the National Liberation Army, sent to fight for the rights of Albanians in Macedonia, where this ethnic group makes up 25% of the population of two million. Kosovo is used as this faction’s safe ground, as it is also used by the UCPMB, another Ushtria Clirimtate (Liberation Army) fighting for the “Albanianisation” of the Presevo enclave in southern Serbia. The Macedonian authorities, for their part, have shown an incredible degree of patience and a political maturity much admired by all. The restraint they have shown has earned many friends but the question is, if NATO does not move to stem the trouble it started with its superiority complex, something will have to be done. A Greater Albania is as welcome as an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the Balkans. Greece has offered support to Macedonia, a country whose name it so bitterly complains about, because Greece also has an Albanian question to be resolved…it could well be the next country in line to feel the fury of the “Eagle People” (Shqiperi, Albanians), this time a country within the European Union. It will not take the Albanians long before they establish themselves in the heart of every European capital city, like they are said to have taken control of the New York Mafia rings. Macedonia is left in a delicate situation. NATO opened the cage, and the Albanian animal now runs riot with a savagery that few outside the Balkans could ever understand. NATO’s military strategy is to bomb targets from ever-increasing altitudes, trying to use smart weapons and IT technology (which the Serbs managed to circumvent easily in the Kosovo confrontation) as it tries a no-risk strategy. As far as fighting is concerned, NATO doesn’t fight. It bombs. This is the reason why Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski asked for international aid against the Albanian insurgents yesterday, but recommended the Americans did not enter the force. “The countries taking part should be less afraid of losing their soldiers”. No mother likes to lose her son and the worst nightmare of every father is to see his son buried. However, the NATO soldiers sent to the Balkans are all professionals (many, if not all of them, are there for financial gain…the Portuguese contingent, for example, receives something in the order of 15 times the national average salary per month) and it is not acceptable that NATO enters foreign arenas for political reasons, fails in its initial objective and then leaves other countries to clear up the mess they created. NATO was warned before it entered the Balkans that what it was about to do was misguided. Pravda.Ru has long been defending the interests of the innocent bystanders in the Balkans and will continue to do so until NATO assumes its responsibilities. In a tragic, ironic turn of fate, NATO’s chickens now come home to roost and they start to pay for the consequences of their misguided arrogance when they intervened in the Balkans. They wanted a cheap shot at what they thought was a weakened Russia/Slavic block and their gun seems to have backfired. The result is that NATO now gets to know the worst side of the Albanians, first-hand…it is not very nice. Good luck, NATO!! Next time, just don’t!!

TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.RU LISBON