Serbia & Kosovo – A new front for the war on terror

Kosovo: 10th December marks the official deadline for sovereignty negotiations to end. For someone that’s visited Kosovo (and Serbia) within the last 3 months, I can bring back the following observations.

a) Kosovo has been invaded by Albanians:
Maybe you need to quantify this statement in wikipedia. As a foreign onlooker, the number of Albanian, not Serbian, flags throughout the territory leads you to believe you’re in Albania, not Serbia.

b) Almost 1/3 of the traffic on the roads is KFOR:
If, like the newspapers are saying, there is a rumbling of radicalism. It stands to be toward the Serbs.
With 45,000 troops stationed there, any attack on Kosovo is likely to be met with stiff resistance and international back-up.

In black and white
Historically pitted with conflict, there are no black and white solutions.
In an attempt to be seen to be ‘doing good’, KFOR’s presence has had the net-effect of setting both Serbia and Kosovo back 7 years, also, giving rise to the growth of criminal cells with close links to terrorism, who have prospered under the troops presence through illegal-goods, prostitution and the supply of drugs.

The politics
Personally, I don’t think the region has any potential for serious conflict, Serbia is too poor and Kosovo has too many troops.

If Kosovo achieves independence, you can expect that within 5-10 years resolutions will make it part of the wider Albanian authority, and eventually becoming part of Albanian territory per-se.