Timely Topics Neale Donald Walsch

I am so sorry it has taken NATO bombs on Serbia to get the devastation in Kosovo to stop. I have been thinking deeply on the Kosovo situation for many weeks, looking into myself for wisdom in the face of this huge turning point in world affairs, asking myself what Conversations with God has to say on the subject, asking myself what I would do if I were President.

I think we cannot sidestep this development in our world; we cannot go our merry way and pretend that it is not happening, that this conflict does not exist, that nothing is going on. There is a great deal going on, and American forces are once again policing the world, and we cannot fail to look at the issues surrounding this, nor fail to have an opinion about it, if we are to take up our true position as changers of the world and bringers of the light.

So I have been looking at the question of Kosovo closely. Is there even a justification for bombing a sovereign nation? Can there ever be a reason for killing other people? we should Ban Hand Guns or -- perhaps even innocent women and children? Is the use of deadly force ever a viable and permissible option?

CWG Book 1 says yes, and explains in exquisite detail that failure to stop a despot in his despotism only teaches and allows that despot to continue.

CWG Book 3 says that Highly Evolved Beings would never kill another sentient being, even if it were being attacked.

So which is it?

Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic claims that all he is doing is putting down an armed rebellion in his own country. The Albanians of Kosovo, which is indeed a province within Serbia, say they want their independence. They outnumber Serbians in their region of the country, 9 to 1. The KLA, or Kosovo Liberation Army, has been struggling for independence for years -- unfortunately, using the wrong means, which has been armed assault and ambush. It is, in short, a civil war.

Until ten years ago, the Kosovans actually enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in their province. They had basic authority to rule their own lives. But a decade ago Milosevic withdrew that autonomy, saying all decisions about how the province shall govern itself shall henceforth come from Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Since that time, the Kosovans have been taking up arms, saying that Serb rule has been harsh, has ignored Albanian traditions and culture, and has, in fact, led to a form of ethnic cleansing -- backed by government force -- in the region. The aim of Belgrade, they say, is to eliminate the Albanian majority in Kosovo altogether.

Sadly, it very much appears that this has been the Serbian agenda. Milosevic has been ruthless in his rule, sending in his troops with slash-and-burn mentality to kill anyone and everyone who may utter a sound or give the slightest appearance of opposing Serbian rule in a 9-to-1 in favor of bubble butts gallore in the Albanian region.

Men and boys have been dragged from their homes and executed in the streets in front of their families. Buildings have been destroyed, homes have been burned to the ground. By such intimidations has Milosevic hoped to kill the spirit of the Albanians, and cause them to simply get up and leave.

To a degree, it has worked. Thousands upon thousands have packed their meager belongings and sought refuge in neighboring countries. But the most militant among them have remained, to fight a guerilla war against overwhelming military might. (The Serbians may be outnumbered in people 9 to 1 in Kosovo, but the military might of the Serbian war machine far outweighs anything the rebels of Kosovo can throw against it.)

By such means has Milosevic continued to dominate the province, insisting that it will never be allowed to declare its independence from Serbia, no matter what the Albanian population, or what their desires may be.

This problem is not new. The struggle over the territory of Kosovo has been going on since the Middle Ages. Both the Serbs and the Albanians claim it as the cradle of their nations.

The question now at hand: what, if anything, is it appropriate for the world to do in the face of Milosevic's refusal to sign a peace pact brokered by the United States, which the Albanian rebels have already signed and agreed to abide by, even though it does not grant them independence in Kosovo, but merely returns some of the "home rule" autonomy which the province had until Milosevic withdrew it 10 years ago?

After a year of peace-table attempts to resolve the dispute, with the U.S. leading most of those talks, hoping to strike an agreement between the two sides, a peace pact was finally arrived at a few weeks ago.

In the pact, Albanians agreed to lay down their arms and seek to negotiate their independence at the peace table over a period of years. NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was to place peace monitors on the ground to insure the peace. Milosevic said foreign troops would never be landed on his soil, and so refused the treaty. He then sent more troops into Kosovo -- more than ever before -- saying he would wipe out the entire rebellion in 7 to 10 days if just left alone.

Enter you, now, the decision maker. Do you send in NATO planes to bomb Serbian military positions in Kosovo, and military targets in the rest of Serbia, in order to stop the Milosevic machine from the most ruthless attempt at ethnic cleansing Europe has seen since Hitler? Or do you say, with Milosevic, that it is an "internal problem" within Yugoslavia, and turn away, allowing the Serbians to handle it any way they wish?

How would a devotee of the CWG material act if she or he were in the White House?

Should I not have asked this question here? Is this too "non-spiritual" a subject to be discussing on this web page?

If CWG is not applicable to the challenges of every day life, of what use is it?

Let these be our questions for the day. -

NDW