Are things getting hot in the Balkans again?

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Or did they ever really cool off?

Serbia on Monday placed its security troops on the border with Kosovo on “the full state of combat readiness,” ignoring NATO’s calls for calming down of tensions between the two wartime Balkan foes.

Serbia’s Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said he “ordered the full combat readiness” of police and other security units and that they be placed under the command of the army chief of staff according to “their operational plan.”

He said in a statement that he acted on the orders of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic so that “all measures be taken to protect the Serbian people in Kosovo.”
Serbia places its troops on Kosovo border on combat alert | AP News

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Getting good leaders is the problem. Men with power! Little men who will shed blood for things they have created as hatred between people.

Are the two countries NATO members? I am pretty sure Serbia is not.

Are either of the countries in the EU?

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I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to eventually learn that Russia’s traditional century-old affinity for Serbia was behind giving the Serbs coverage to challenge NATO over Kosovo - which neither Serbia nor Russia has ever acknowledged as an independent country (it’s treated by them in a similar context that we are now treating Russian claims to the “breakaway portions” of Ukraine and previously South Ossetia).

Jeff

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I keep rerunning Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August and Heather Cox Richardson’s post of today about missed opportunities to stop a foolish blood letting.

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