XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1999 22:45:09 UTC XXXXX
NY TIMES: NATO MAY ADMIT THAT PLAN WAS FLAWED, ARMED INVASION IS RULED OUT
NATO may acknowledge that the basic premise behind its bombing strategy
in the Yugoslav conflict, that a sufficient show of air power would
batter Serb leader Milosevich into accepting Western prescriptions for
Kosovo, was fatally flawed, reports Wednesday's NEW YORK TIMES.
The TIMES' Craig Whitney writes in a Page One, above the fold stretch
story: "And that, in turn, would mean admitting that the world's most
powerful alliance, with the world's most powerful air force at its
disposal, was helpless to curb the authoritarian leader of a small Balkan
country from killing and victimizing his people."
An armed invasion has been effectively ruled out, NATO officials tell the
TIMES.
Whitney reports: "The existing strategy has only one more option left --
bombing the Yugoslav president's nerve centers in the heart of Belgrade,
with all the risks that carries of civilian casualties."
The WASHINGTON POST reports in Wednesday editions that the United States
and its NATO allies late Tuesday agreed on such an expansion.
"NATO ambassadors agreed in a marathon meeting in Brussels, Belgium
Tuesday night to broaden the list of targets in the air war by about 20
percent, including sites in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, and others
crucial to the power base of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,"
sources tell the paper in a story being prepared for its Wednesday lead |
