Lol for one I never made the point that states don't act out of their self-interest. They usually (or almost always) do; that's indisputable. My point was that intervening in Kosovo accomplished humanitarian objectives and it wasn't a simple land grab based on lies like the annexation of Crimea was. I never said the USA didn't also maybe have other motives for intervening besides the humanitarian motive.
You and your friend have very selective reading comprehension :)
Your whole gold mine conspiracy theory is so stupid it hurts:
Why would it be bad that the possibility of financial investment in the industries within any future state of Kosovo could be one of the motives behind stopping an ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion of Albanians from their homes? Why is that so bad? Your entire criticism is that governments only act selfishly, so what is wrong with that selfishness being used as a lure to do good acts, like stop a potential genocide?
You think it's some smoking gun for your conspiracy theory that ownership of the mine changed hands after the conflict. Of course it did you moron. The land the complex is on is partly Kosovo and partly Serbia. So the UN took over control after it began administering to Kosovo. It never entered into private hands, certainly not American businessmen.
Third, the mine is decrepit and has barely been operational at all since the war. Nobody has even gotten the chance to profiteer off it yet anyway. You're acting like this is a vast plan orchestrated to rape Kosovo of its riches but that hasn't happened in the 14 years since the UN began overseeing the mine because it's not even operational.
But all that is irrelevant. I think if you asked most people "which is worse: NATO stopping a genocide and giving Albanians their own state so western businesses can start investing in Kosovo's mineral wealth.... or Russia annexing Crimea for itself based on the justification that ethnic Russians live there", the vast majority of people would say Russia's actions were far worse.