The Absurd Mr. Ahtisaari

The former Finnish president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, trumpeted recently that Serbia should not be allowed to join the European Union (EU) without recognizing Kosovo's independence. It should be noted that Mr. Ahtisaari “won” his Nobel Prize for proffering a “peace plan” in 2008 that ended with the independence of Kosovo, which is to this day not accepted by Serbia or the United Nations.

Would someone please tell Mr. Ahtisaari to be quiet!

The claims by NATO and the Western media of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" in Kosovo were false. Moreover, the war was carried out without U.N. sanction, which in my view is not a disqualifying factor, but rather a point of interest. As George Friedman of STRATFOR Global Intelligence astutely pointed out: “In 1999, the Americans and Europeans made political decisions backed by military force.” The U.N. Resolution 1244 negotiated to end the war, guaranteed Serbian interests and sovereignty in Kosovo. Yet, in February 2008, Mr. Ahtisaari supported the Albanian Kosovars' declaration of independence from Serbia: a clear violation of international law; a UN Resolution; and the principle of national sovereignty forged out of the horrors of World War II.

Recognition of Kosovo's declaration of independence was naive and absurd foreign policy. The crisis in Georgia was a direct result of American and European actions in Kosovo. The South Ossetians ran the KLA playbook and the Russians ran the NATO playbook. The lamentable little wars of independence will continue to sprout like spring poppies on the Kosovo polije.

In the last analysis, Mr. Ahtisaari, should just go away. He has no imagination; he is pedantic; and he is disingenuous. Only a pompous bureaucrat like Mr. Ahtisaari would spend $415.30 on himself for lunch when someone else is picking up the tab (reference Lunch with The Financial Times, published January 23, 2009). There will be blood. I would posit that for the next war in Kosovo, it be Finnish soldiers who do the fighting.