Bad news for NATO!
Sunday May 16 8:03 PM ET
Report: Pentagon Says NATO Ground Troops Needed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon chiefs have warned the Clinton administration that it cannot achieve its aims in
Yugoslavia without the use of ground troops, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a letter to Defense Secretary William Cohen a few weeks ago saying ''that only ground troops
would guarantee fulfillment of the administration's political objectives,'' said the report in the current issue, which goes on sale
Monday.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the report.
NATO, which launched an air campaign against Yugoslavia on March 24, is seeking to oust Serb troops from Kosovo and
secure the return of ethnic Albanians to the Serbian province.
Newsweek reported that ''there are some in the Pentagon who see the letter as just a classic case of the brass covering its
collective backside.''
''But there is a growing sense in the military that time is running out,'' the report added.
Pentagon sources estimate that there are 600,000 people living out in the open in Kosovo, and 200,000 under shelter but
displaced from their homes, according to Newsweek.
''A ground war would have to commence by the beginning of August, and the forces required must start assembling by the
beginning of June,'' the magazine said, apparently citing the same Pentagon sources.
In London, British officials said Sunday there was no truth to reports of a split between Britain and the United States over the
conduct of NATO's campaign against Yugoslavia.
''It is a work of fiction,'' a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said of a Sunday Times newspaper report
that Blair felt ''a deep sense of frustration'' with President Clinton after failing to persuade him to commit ground troops to
Kosovo.
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