The United States is co-sponsor of a bill in the United Nations that could lead to Kosovo’s independent State status. Currently they are wards of the ‘state.’

Kosovo, a province of Serbia, is administered by the United Nations under U.N. Resolution 1244, passed in June 1999 when a NATO campaign drove Yugoslav Serbs out of Kosovo, halting years of violence and human rights abuses.

One would think that a country’s chance to move from a provisional government to an independent state would be great news. Right. Amazingly, this bill is the first sign of something happening with actual bi-partisan support. Is it bi-partisan or bi-polar? Tom Lantos seems to say yes it’s a great idea, ‘shaped with wisdom and patience.’ Then he says that he would have preferred something different. Something different? Does oppression sound better? Or is he referring to the tried and true ‘can’t we all just get along’ foreign policy of appeasement and submission and genocide?

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Ca) said the Kosovo proposal appears to have been “shaped with wisdom and patience” by Ahtisaari.

“Clearly, this is not a perfect solution,” Lantos said. “I would have preferred something different. But there is no better settlement in sight. There is no more time to wait.”

What did Tom Lantos, House Foreign Affairs Chairman, have in mind for ‘something different’ than a chance for independence for Kosovo?