The Roth Journals

Originally Posted by Blaze

For The Love of Russia
A personal word

Yesterday, I spent the day finding out why Serbia would hold such support for Gadafi. To say the least it is complicated.

However, I noted key points.

While looking for a good quote on fighting corruption other than one of mine, I found:
"one does not fight corruption by fighting corruption,"

It appears first to be quoted in an article by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld in September 1999 in reference the Russian money laundering scandal of that same period. Later the quote was attributed to Daniel Kaufmann. More than likely though it was just standardized internal motto from the World Bank.

The quote is noteworthy and worth so many words because while looking at Serbia, why they would remain supportive of Gadafi; I noted some patterns. Mainly, after the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, I noted:

“Following the Kosovo War, due to the many weapons in the hands of civilians, law enforcement inefficiencies, and widespread devastation, both revenge killings and ethnic violence surged tremendously. The number of reported murders rose 80% from 136 in 2000 to 245 in 2001. The number of reported arsons rose 140% from 218 to 523 over the same period. UNMIK pointed out that the rise in reported incidents might simply correspond to an increased confidence in the police force (i.e., more reports) rather than more actual crime. According to the UNODC, by 2008, murder rates in Kosovo had dropped by 75% in five years.”

In addition, due to the corruption already established, the area has remained a hot bed of horrific crimes of profit by organized criminals.

“Kosovo is extremely vulnerable to organized crime and thus to money laundering. In 2000, international agencies estimated that Kosovo was supplying up to 40% of the heroin sold in Europe and North America. Due to the 1997 unrest in Albania and the Kosovo War in 1998–1999 ethnic Albanian traffickers enjoyed a competitive advantage, which has been eroding as the region stabilizes. However, according to a 2008 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, overall, ethnic Albanians, not only from Kosovo, supply 10 to 20% of the heroin in Western Europe, and the traffic has been declining”.

All of that is very concerning. Nevertheless, what came to my attention along with this (and is of considerable note) are articles that gave details on strategy used against NATO air strikes.

For example, the use of well-made decoys (an old but useful trick), using civilians as shields, burning tires, and many other examples scattered in various documents scattered across the Net. In short, Kadafi will employ successful tactics his criminal friends used previously.

NATO herself learned many lessons from the first humanitarian mission, the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Keep in mind, NATO is a just a booster. Calling on NATO is like calling your persnickety cautious aunty. You know if the reason is good she will help, but goodness she is going to inquire about everything, twice. Eventually, she will sunder away, ballyhoo and pour over details for years.

The quote I opened with was incomplete.

"One does not fight corruption by fighting corruption," he said. "One has to instead go to the tougher, more systemic weaknesses and implement the appropriate political and institutional reforms."
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- Russia brought a case against the Bank of New York concerning the scandal http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle1803772.ece
- http://www.acdemocracy.org/viewarticle.cfm?id=260
- http://info.worldbank.org/etools/doc...ida/index.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo#Rule_of_law
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo#Rule_of_law
- http://iinternational.org/showCnews....ence=page%3D45