US President Donald Trump sent a note to Congress on Tuesday that he was extending for another year the national emergency with respect to the “Western Balkans,” declared in Executive Order 13219 of June 26, 2001.
Soporific and formulaic language invoked in every emergency declaration since 1976 will no doubt cause many eyes to glaze over, in particular those who can’t tell the difference between the Balkans and the Baltics. The ironic thing here, however, is that the US itself is the main agent of instability in the Balkans, and stands behind every action this emergency declaration is intended to oppose!
As for violations of UNSCR 1244, the most blatant of them has been the 2008 declaration of Kosovo’s independence – which was backed by the US and its allies – since the actual resolution affirms the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and Serbia.
Last, but not least, the US and the EU are the biggest threats to the Dayton peace accords, having sought to redefine and replace the 1995 treaty by insisting on centralization of Bosnia – even though that’s what led to the civil war in the first place – at the expense of autonomy that made peace possible.
Not one member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, has pointed any of these things out in the context of this national emergency, nor challenged it on any grounds whatsoever. Ditto for the 2015 emergency with respect to the “situation in Burundi,” for example. The silence has been deafening.
By contrast, the only time the House and the Senate have passed a joint resolution of disapproval was for the national emergency invoked by Trump this February, citing the crisis on the US-Mexico border. To Democrats, that is a “bogus” and “manufactured” crisis and Trump is literally Hitler for trying to deal with hundreds of thousands of people crossing the border illegally.
by Nebojsa Malic