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[KharBevNor]

You're a typo nazi.

[calenlass]

I have pretty much decided that since there were so many during the recent "war" and the fact that I don't really care about said "war" that I will post constructive things only after I have pretended to be high or corrected people's grammar or spelling.

"You're" versus "your" is not a typo, it's a grammatical error. A typo would imply that you accidentally hit the wrong key, and would possibly be "yuor" or "youe" or even "yourt".

[Patrick]

I see your mouth moving, but all I hear is "BLAH BLAH BLAH, I'M A DIRTY TRAMP."

Oh, I was telling Katie earlier that the Serbs have recalled their Ambassador in Washington DC. This doesn't look good, considering that they're being backed by Russia and China, two longstanding opponents to U.S. policy. God knows what kind of cold war (or what else) this could start.

[Liz]

Patrick I am thinking you should just leave the Balkans right now. Don't wait until summer.

[Storm Rider]

I highly doubt a Cold War would start over the Serbians declaring independence. The current global economic marketplace makes that sort of thing extremely unlikely. The US, Russia, and China are all extremely interdependent, and cutting ties with each other would cripple all three.

[Patrick]

Which is why it would make perfect sense for two of them to piss on the one. It'd cripple the U.S. while the other two would still have markets with each other.

[öde]

Are you planning on leaving soon? I really hope this doesn't turn lamer.

[Storm Rider]

Which is why it would make perfect sense for two of them to piss on the one. It'd cripple the U.S. while the other two would still have markets with each other.

If you think Russia is a big enough market to support China on its own in the absence of American consumption you're out of your mind. Neither China nor Russia could 'piss on' the US even if they wanted to. Russia's economy is almost wholly (some ridiculous amount like 70% at this point) dependent on oil exports, which America is responsible for the majority of, and the Russian populace isn't financially solvent enough to provide a consumer base for Chinese products like the US can. It won't happen in the current market, and do you really think China gives that much of a shit about the Balkans anyway?

[Jimmy the Squid]

Patrick, come to Sydney, we can hang out. For serious.

[RedLion]

the Serbs have recalled their Ambassador in Washington DC. This doesn't look good, considering that they're being backed by Russia and China, two longstanding opponents to U.S. policy. God knows what kind of cold war (or what else) this could start.

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. It can signal big problems, but it can also just be an act of protest to show how serious the country is about the issue. The Turks recalled Ambassador Sensoy after the whole "we're going to proclaim the mass ethnic cleansing of Armenians during World War I to be a genocide at the worst possible time" bill was almost brought before Congress.

[calenlass]

Dude Bryan, no one cares about the Balkans, but China would care about the opportunity to screw over the US.


Also I think I recall reading somewhere that Moscow is the world's most expensive place to live.

[Alex C]

There's money in Moscow, but Russia's economy is tremendously top heavy and one dimensional. They have wealth from oil but it isn't trickling down very well and the buying power over there is still pretty low once you hit what passes for the middle class, which is problematic because it makes developing the kind of service industries that employ so many people here in the States and Western Europe difficult.

[Storm Rider]

China would care about the opportunity to screw over the US.

Not until they have a viable economic substitute, which they don't. There is no state with the population, the buying power, and the appetite for non-essential goods like the United States, and there's nobody even really close.

[Alex C]

Never forget one thing about the ol' U.S. of A: We're the fuckers who made Ron Popeil a rich man. You bet your ass we'll buy your shit.

[Patrick]

the Serbs have recalled their Ambassador in Washington DC

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. It can signal big problems, but it can also just be an act of protest to show how serious the country is about the issue.

You are aware, mate, that this is still the part of the world where the Greeks hate Macedonia because they call their country "Macedonia", right?

[Jimmy the Squid]

I'm just pissed because we're going to have to deal with the 2nd gen refugees getting all up in arms about it. You know, the ones who have never been to Serbia or Kosovo and who couldn't point to it on a map having gang wars over it. Good thing I don't live in the suburbs anymore.

[Patrick]

A mob of 300 Serbs wielding clubs and tools gathered on a road near this small village of ethnic Albanians in northern Kosovo, prompting NATO to send armored vehicles and tanks to head them off.

Earlier, ethnic Albanian police officers, part of Kosovo's multiethnic police force, were forced out of the neighboring Serb village, where they were patrolling with fellow Serbs. It was the latest sign that Serbs in Kosovo, incensed by the declaration of independence, are trying to assert control over the northern part of Kosovo, the majority of whose residents are ethnic Serbs.

It's getting worse.

As soon as one Albanian or one Serb is killed, there's NOTHING that's going to stop them from killing each other off. And 16,000 NATO peacekeeping troops is nothing compared to 7 million Albanians (spread throughout the Balkans) fighting another 8 million Serbs. Sheer numbers isn't everything, either, because they're CLEARLY going to all be pissed off.

[KharBevNor]

300 Serbs

SERBS! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?

[Patrick]

"KILL ALBANIANS"?

[Johnny C]

I highly doubt a Cold War would start over the Serbians declaring independence. The current global economic marketplace makes that sort of thing extremely unlikely.

Well, there are much larger tensions brewing. This incident could theoretically spark those tensions but it would be little more than a catalyst. Besides, it's probably not presumptuous to say that if a new Cold War started it would be fought in the stock markets.

[RedLion]

...Woops. Spoke too soon. This could go downhill terribly fast.

-- Serb rioters broke into the U.S. Embassy Thursday and set fire to it after a massive protest against Kosovo's independence.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Serbia-Kosovo-Independence.html?hp

[bbqrocks]

Wow, this is pretty quickly getting quite bad. You OK KimJongSick?

[Patrick]

Every part of me is unharmed except for my anus, which is pretty severely torn from SHITTING BRICKS.

Man I get so many indie points for calling "THIS WILL ERUPT INTO A SHITSTORM" a week before it happened.

[bbqrocks]

You live in Albania right? So your not quite in the middle of the crossfire?

[Teh Geek Lord]

can we sum up the middle east in a single sentence?  yes?

"We are a discontent sector of the world that feels we should always be at war" or something like that, my money is on the Albanians jumping the gun

[bbqrocks]

Since when were the balkans in the middle east?

[Slick]

Man I get so many indie points for calling "THIS WILL ERUPT INTO A SHITSTORM" a week before it happened.

Dude, I totally called this shit, like, ten years ago.

[Patrick]

...exactly ten years ago? By then the war had been going for a full five days!

[Slick]

You don't get points for calling something once it's hit the BBC News front page, you get points for calling all the major points of the aftermath of a war a decade in advance.
We're officially at the point where my predictions run out, though, so I've no clue where it'll go from here. I've been spending most of my time make predictions about New Zealand recently, and you won't fucking believe what is in store for the sheep over there!

[Patrick]

Smartassery aside, you were definitely right in calling it back then. The war in '98 was a geographically smaller version of WWI and WWII, in some very specific ways. Both wars started when ultra-nationalists decided they should get their way, no compromises. Both wars ended with the losing party feeling humiliated. That humiliation bred a "LET'S SHOW THEM!" mentality of nationalism (starting to see a pattern?) which eventually festered and turned into downright arrogance and cockiness toward everybody else. That is exactly what is happening here and anybody who's been watching would be drunk not to see it too. The Serbs have long felt like the losing party (they lost their little empire Yugoslavia) and this is just the final straw after losing Montenegro.

The nationalistic fury has clearly been pushed over the edge into a rampaging state of chaos, and bonus fail is that we're seeing alliances start to form again, just like WWI and WWII. Tensions among the major members of the opposing alliances aren't much helped by the fact that the NATO countries, most especially the U.S., are already at odds with Serbia-backing Russia over missile defense systems being put in place in NATO member states (most notably in Ukraine, where, according to the BBC, Russia even went so far as to threaten nuclear strike).

I'm not trying to fear-monger here (although I am seriously scared out of my goddamn wits), but if people don't stop being FUCKING STUPID here in the Balkans, epic shit's gonna go down and it's not really going to be all too fun for anybody.

[supersheep]

Being stupid over the Balkans has been how you get your great power status since, oh, the 1870s or something.

[Narr]

There's a major hottie in one of my classes that's from Albania.  I should read into this in hopes I can use information about a foreign country to get her in bed.

(In all seriousness, I wouldn't do something so callous.  I think this is a pretty traumatic thing.  I hope it can get cleared up without a civil war happening.)

[Patrick]

In my experience, Albanian girls are holy fuck did you just see that girl

Also, it appears one of the people who stormed the Embassy in Belgrade last night ended up getting burned to death. Ask me if I feel bad for the diplomacy-jeopardizing son of a bitch.

[Johnny C]

Do you feel bad for the diplomacy-jeopardizing son of a bitch?

[David_Dovey]

Do you feel bad for the human being who undoubtedly died in an incredible amount of pain for no particularly good reason?

You're losing your touch, Johnny

[Patrick]

Do you feel bad for the human being who undoubtedly died in an incredible amount of pain because he was retarded enough to set a fucking building on fire for no good reason?

You're losing your touch, Johnny

[RedLion]

You know who I hate?

Vojislav Kostunica.

Even though Tadic won the Presidential election a mere, what, 2 weeks ago, this douche of a P.M. is acting like the ultranationalist Serbian factions have been handed some mandate to fuck everyone in the Balkans in the ass.

[Patrick]

When your citizens are setting foreign embassies on fire left and right and half the world hates you, the CLEAR solution is to blame the Americans.

Seriously Serbia, you're doing it wrong, you're supposed to aim a bit further north. Have you never seen South Park?

[sean]

Perhaps Serbia has good taste in television.

[öde]

I doubt it if this is what they think 'making their own entertainment' means.

[Patrick]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWZoKWBYXE

I lol'd. Real hard. The guy filming is totally trolling these two girls while they're looting, and they're getting pissy at him, and he's like, "But you're the heroines of the protest for me! Did you find your size yet?" and it is for lol.

[negative creep]

i don't get it.

[IronOxide]

Guys, I am calling this on track for a third Red Scare.

If I turn out to be right, y'all owe me twenty bucks, or I'll out y'all as communists.

[Tom]

Remember, there is a difference between socialists and communists.

[Patrick]

Shut your commie mouth, pinko.

[bujiatang]

When I was in Turkey my sister witnessed the PKK staging a protest in Izmir.  It never made the news when we were there.  Now Kurds are "allowed" to speak their language in Turkey, but it was in the news this morning that Turkish forces are crossing into Iraq and killing off the Kurds there.

an interesting article from January

the npr article

at least some countries are recognizing what they are doing abroad.  We seem to be in denial about our activities.

[frullic]

I bet my nice new computer screen that the serbs will start the shooting and that it will lead to WW3 and act as a catalyst for WW4. Notice how history is repeating itself? Check how the first WW started and you might see the resemblances. Plus with today's weaponry and dumbass politicians, it's not a question of shit hitting the fan: It's a question of nuke hitting where.

[Nodaisho]

Wasn't that (nuke hitting the fan) what we worried about all through the cold war? And yet, despite multiple shooting wars, no nukes were used. As long as the whole mutually-assured-destruction thing is still around, I won't be too worried.

[Patrick]

Russia showed a stunning display of restraint, cool, and calm when they straight up were just like "We are going to nuke Ukraine if you build missile defense bases there, fuck you NATO."

[doombilly]

The band Franz Ferdinand started WWI. Or something. Funny how a 90 years later they are still fighting about the same things. I'm starting to miss Tito all over. /kidding