Everyday less and less respect given to our Resident Moron

[Guardian Unlimited, U.K.]

La Jornada, Mexico

Bush's 'Stupid, Irresponsible' Interference With Kosovo

"Bush's statement is one of extreme stupidity politically, and of grave irresponsibility in general."

EDITORIAL

Translated By Barbara Howe

Mexico - La Jornada - Original Article (Spanish)

Yesterday, in response to statements by U.S. President George Bush to the effect that his government is willing to impel, in unilateral fashion, the final separation of Belgrade from Kosovo, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica let it be known that American recognition of the troubled province's independence would constitute an act of, “injustice and violence that the Serbian people would not forget.”

This declaration was made against the backdrop of the bloody Balkan wars which - in addition to leaving hundreds of thousands dead - ignited resentment and opened wounds in Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenians and Kosovars, inflicted by the acts of barbarism committed by a number of parties. In the wake of that war was left a precarious peace and a very fragile balance in both the local and international environments.

On the other hand, conflicts in this region have historically had an insurrectionist element, which is why various countries have intervened, including Germany, France, Great Britain, Turkey, the United States, the extinct Soviet Union and later Russia, among other powers. In that context and with those antecedents - and setting aside the question of an independent Kosovo - Bush's statement is one of extreme stupidity politically and of grave irresponsibility in general. Without necessity, the U.S. President stirred up the Balkan hornets' nest in a region which - to make matters worse - is a focus of global tension in which the interests of several governments are at play, and where a resolution demands the removal of the seeds of war rather than their germination.

It's dangerous nonsense, to say nothing else, to speak of independence and separatism amid continental surroundings in which such phenomena exist in several countries. If Europe has to live through new processes of disintegration or national fragmentation such as those that undid the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, let it be the result of decisions by the corresponding societies, not the impulse of an interventionist government outside the region. In this regard one might ask oneself how comfortable the governments of Canada and Spain must be with Bush's comments, given that they too have regional separatist movements on their respective territories (Basque and Catalan in Spain and Quebequois in Canada).

As if it wasn't enough to subvert the June 1999 [Dayton] Peace Accords, which stipulate that Kosovo is a protectorate under U.N. administration, Bush has once again shown a reprehensible tendency to act independently of the decisions of international organizations, debilitating and discrediting America's presence in the world and damaging the integrity and sovereignty of other countries.

In sum, this recent blunder by Bush worsens the global tension being generated by the enormous political and diplomatic ineptitude of the United States. The task of the international community is to encourage solutions of peaceful consensus, guided by the very states that experience the phenomena of these complex and almost always heart-rending independence movements. The last thing these countries need is an ignorant and ill-tempered foreign leader pouring salt in the wounds.Original article posted here.