The "Placate the Muslims" theory.

Balkan experts at the US state department are drafting Kosovo's declaration of independence, to be proclaimed by the ethnic Albanian leaders of Kosovo in early February after Serbia elects a new president, the sources said.^[1]

Mr. Bush is routinely excoriated for having led the U.S. into Iraq, one, and then having committed us to another round of "nation building" thereafter.

The greater mystery is why the U.S. has committed itself to the cause of Kosovo independence. Certain U.S. acts or failure to act are inexplicable in terms of a foreign policy designed to advance U.S. interests. However, our involvement in the Balkans was one U.S. initiative that made absolutely no sense to me at the time. It cried out for the U.S. to step back and say to the Europeans that this was a problem in their back yard and to enjoy their dismay over a problem the world'soneremainingsuperpower decide decided not to solve for them.

But, no, instead of having the delicious pleasure of seeing the Europeans put on the spot, Mr. Clinton sent in U.S. troops to bomb the Serbs and involve us in an area of the world whose history, politics, and ethnic divisions are, I say with considerable understatement, recondite.

This particular hiccup in the then Five-Year United States Foreign Policy Plan is understandable in the context of Mr. Clinton's Oval Office amours but here we are several years later still adding more tar to that tar baby, and for what reason?

An anonymous commenter to Mr. Sobieski's post thinks that our difficulties in the Balkans stem from our support for "movements for the independance of 'muslims' at every turn." How else explain why we "turn a blind eye towards the plight of any Christian living in the East (think the genocide of over a million Christians in Biafra, Nigeria, the continuous denials of the Armenian/Assyrian/Pontus Greek genocide at the hands of over the Ottomans causing the deaths of over 4 million Christians, supporting Suharto at the expense of the East Timorese, etc."

Others have also raised the same point that U.S. foreign policy can be understood as an attempt to placate Muslims by taking up their causes around the world wherever possible. I think of this effect as the "Dark Matter Effect." Some of the time the universe seems understandable according to known physical principles but then there is some exception or wrinkle that isn't and which some try to understand by postulating some new thing or principle. This "placate the Muslims" concept appears to be such a postulate. Thus, American policy is understandable in terms of the defense and advancement of U.S. interests unless it is necessary to comply with the wishes of the Saudis.^[2]

Anonymous and the others have some traction on this point, I think. How else to explain those experts at the State Department beavering away at drafting a Declaration of Independence for a portion of another sovereign state in a confusing, complicated area in which we have no discernable national interest at stake. This reckless intervention is all the more inexplicable given its potential to cause serious Russian unhappiness and the advantage it gives to the Muslims in establishing a presence on the doorstep of Europe.

Thus, we continue on our present course governed by this "X" factor that has us with many, many chips on the table in the Balkans and a pittance invested along the southern border of the U.S. where our interest in keeping out foreigners seems reasonably clear to me.

It's a puzzle.

For some interesting views on Kosovo see what George Galloway (huh?) has to say about Kosovo^[3] and what Brad MacDonald has to say about German (huh?) involvement there^[4].

Notes
^[1] "State Dept. Drafting Declaration of Independence for Muslims of Kosovo." John Sobieski, Pedestrian Infidel, 12/15/07. H/t Klein Verzet.
^[2] E.g., "The Scandal of U.S.-Saudi Relations." By Daniel Pipes, danielpipes.org, Winter 2002/2003; "The Libel Tourist." By Rachel Ehrenfeld, YouTube, 11/15/07 (?).
^[3] George Galloway, quoted in "Galloway weighs in again." By Nikolaa, Victory or Death, 12/13/07.
^[4] "Misreporting Kosovo." By Brad Macdonald, The Trumpet, 12/13/07. H/t Julia Gorin..