[badsector]

Some lesser known facts about the region:<br /> <br /> The Serbs aren't kidding when they claim that Kosovo is the original Serbia. The ethnic landscape changed when the Ottoman Turkish Empire invaded Southern Europe and stayed there for around 500 years. As the Turks took over Serbia, Serbs migrated North while other people found their way into Serbia. When the Turks started attacking the Hungarian Kingdom, the Hungarians started moving North as well while the Serbs moved into Hungary. After WWI the allies rearranged the map and created a handful of faithful allied countries in Eastern Europe, in the backs of the Germans and Austrians. They combined Southern Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and a bunch of other Balkan states and turned it into Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was multi-ethnic and it took Tito's iron fist, and the will of the West, to keep it in one piece. As it turns out though, the Serbs made a political move that the West didn't like. After the collapse of the Warsaw Pact the US quickly got its hands on the Baku oil fields on the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia. They planned an oil pipeline from Georgia through Romania, to ports in Yugoslavia, where the goodies could be loaded on Yank ships. The Russians, however, weren't happy about this and the Serbs took their sides, blocking the pipeline idea. The Americans then did what they do best: they instigated the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to rise and start fighting for independence. Predictably the Serbs got upset and started a massacre to "restore the peace" in good ol' Balkan fashion. This provided the US with the pretext to attack Serbia and even made the Americans look good for saving the poor Albanians. Milosevic got jailed and the new Serbian president Kostunica permitted the oil pipeline and allowed the Americans to set up some bases to protect it. Our NATO troops are risking their lives trying to maintain the peace in Kosovo. The Serbs claim that it's their land, which it is. They claim the Albanians commit a lot of crimes, which they do. The Albanians claim that the Serbs like to rule via mass murder, which is also true. Poor blue helmets are struggling to make a sense out of this, meanwhile the oil is flowing and Uncle Sam is happy.

[FootPrints]

Thanks for the info!