Europe must now stand up to Russia over Kosova
By By Philip Stephens
Published: May 25, 2007

When I hear foreign policy realists extol the virtues of inaction I think of the Balkans. As Yugoslavia began to unravel during the early 1990s, an over-excited European foreign minister said that posterity would recall that this had been “the hour of Europe”. In the event, Europe sat on its hands as the region fell to carnage. History records only an eternal shame.

It took the intervention of the US – yes, those interfering, imperialist Americans again – to put an end to a slaughter that mocked Europe’s self-perception even as it trampled upon its values. Let no one forget, peace was restored to that south-eastern corner of the continent because Washington agreed, albeit with some reluctance, to deploy its military power to that aim.

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