3 Ways Kosovo Was Not Like Syria

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http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/3-ways-kosovo-was-not-like-syria/279473/


Flames from an explosion light up the Belgrade skyline after NATO cruise missiles and warplanes attacked Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

***SNIP

1) Kosovo is in Europe. Obvious, right? But that’s important because it pertains to a big fear that non-interventionists have: That taking any sort of action might further inflame an already tumultuous region. Already, the conflict in Syria is spilling over into neighboring Lebanon and at times even into Turkey, but the Balkan ethnic violence was hemmed in by stable democracies to the north.

***SNIP

2) There weren’t really any jihadists in Kosovo. Another big concern is that if the U.S. either purposefully or indirectly pushes the rebels into power in Syria, that the “wrong,” extremist rebels like Jabhat al-Nusra will take charge in the aftermath. That wasn’t an issue in Kosovo because those rebels, the Kosovo Liberation Army, didn’t have a strong extremist contingent and they were a reliable on-the-ground partner.

***SNIP

3) Syria is more ethnically diverse than Kosovo. The main point of tension in Kosovo was between the Serbs and the Albanians, who composed 90 percent of the population. Meanwhile, Syria is a cauldron where Sunnis, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, and other groups all have competing interests and, in some cases, massive rifts between them.