Skip to main content

Syria is NOT Kosovo

I found a good article underlining why Syria's situation is not the same as the one in Kosovo back in 1999 whereby "apples are being compared not to oranges but to cobras". In view of these arguments, do you think intervention might be still justifiable?



  • The war between Serbia and Kosovo was a civil war, but was fought the casus belli being a territorial dispute. Kosovo wanted to become a new state. The Syrian rebels want to free the whole Syria from Assad. Maybe if a war breaks out with the Kurds, the comparison will be brought up again. 
  • The risks of the intervention were much lesser, both concerning outside involvement and regional spillover. 
  • Unlike today, the West had one crystal clear objective in mind: detaching Kosovo from Serbia.
  • The Kosovar opposition was united and, again, shared just one aim.
  • The drive behind both sides was nationalism and not religion. Religion was used, but as a feature of each identity that had to be differentiated in order to justify secession,
  • Even though Milosevic was not a beloved leader, the war was not fought to oust him. Democracy in itself (apart from the democratic right to decide on the future of the state) was not really at stake.
  • No side was able to resort to WMD.  
  • No territory was oil (or other key resource, for that matter)-rich
  • Syria is a more important ally to Russia than Serbia was.
  • Serbia and Kosovo are part of the greater Europe, a continent the West intends to conserve as an island of peace since the 90s (hence the Georgia fuss in 2008).


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

12 things you wanted to know about IS/ISIS

Tracking the events in Iraq - in the whole region, actually - might be a colossal task. Particularly so during the Summer, when it is sometimes even difficult to grasp a single headline. We all are aware about something called ISIS - or IS, as of lately - that seems to be messing around from Lebanon to Iran. A group of bearded man that scares everybody, the only ones able to force Obama to reconsider his mantra of non-intervention and to make Assad look like a harmless puppy. We've read about them, we've seen tons of maps showing their advance, we've heard rumours and conjectures. In case you've missed half of it, there go a few basic things you need to know about them. And yes, they are creepy!

Migrating

Aunque el título pueda referirse a uns de las varias mudanzas a los que me conocéis personalmente estáis acostumbrados, se refiere simplemente a este humilde blog, que tantas alegrias me ha dado. A partir de ahora podréis encontrar todos mis artículos en la página https://discoveringmena.blog Although the title could well refer to one of the rushed and unpredictable decisions those amongst you who know me are by now you used to, 'migrating' refers here to the new site this humble blog - which has given me so much joy - is moving to. From now on you can find all of my articles on the page https://discoveringmena.blog

Libros, películas, series y una canción para entender Israel

From Beirut to Jerusalem , Thomas Friedman (2002) Este es un libro de referencia a la hora de conocer Israel para muchas de las personas que he conocido cuando he estado en y/o hablado de Oriente Medio. Aunque teniendo en cuenta  en lo que Thomas Friedman se ha convertido , quizás recomendar uno de sus obras no parezca una introducción prometedora. En él, el periodista/comentarista cuenta en primera persona su paso como corresponsal por dos de las ciudades más simbólicas de la región en una época turbulenta como fueron los 80, desgranando en el caso del Líbano las aristas del conflicto que asolaba por aquel entonces el país, y en el caso de Israel las características y divisiones de la sociedad israelí, no únicamente desde el punto de vista ideológico en relación con el conflicto con Palestina, sino teniendo también en cuenta otros condicionantes clave, como puede ser el origen, la práctica religiosa, o las condiciones socioeconómicas.   Un grupo de israelíes celebran con band