from the london times:
just one more lie by your(cic)-criminal in charge
Clinton to order
90,000 troops to
Kosovo
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
PRESIDENT CLINTON is now ready to
consider a full-scale land war against Serb forces
in Kosovo, sending up to 90,000 combat troops
from America, if no peace settlement emerges
within the next three weeks.
Although Nato is only officially planning for a
peace implementation force of 50,000-60,000
troops, there is a growing feeling in Washington
and London that the alliance must prepare itself
for a much bigger operation, involving
150,000-160,000 troops.
Mr Clinton's dramatic conversion, after weeks
of apparent reluctance to send in ground troops,
has emerged in the light of detailed briefings
from General Wesley Clark, the Supreme Allied
Commander, last week.
A new sense of urgency has been injected into
Nato's contingency planning because of a
warning from the military that a decision will
have to be made "by mid-June" if the alliance is
to contemplate a ground offensive.
The tight timetable is being dictated by the
alliance's determination to start returning ethnic
Albanian refugees to their homes in Kosovo
before the winter.
The huge number of troops required for such an
operation will be a daunting challenge for Nato.
However, alliance sources said that with Mr
Clinton committed to defeating Mr Milosevic
one way or another, the US would be expected
to contribute more than half of the force.
They estimated the US contribution could be
about 90,000 troops who would be deployed
from America, not from Germany. They might
include the 12,500-man US 82nd Airborne
Division, based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina,
which was deployed in the Gulf War in 1991.
Britain and France would also be expected to
play a major part. Yesterday, George
Robertson, the Defence Secretary, took the first
step by announcing an extra 12,000 troops and
support personnel for the peace implementation
force, called Kfor. This will bring the total
British military strength committed to the
Kosovo crisis in Albania, Macedonia, Italy and
the Adriatic to more than 19,000.
Although Mr Robertson insisted that it was not
an invasion force, Tony Blair indicated in the
Commons that the troops could be used for a
combat role.
The alliance sources said that the size of an
invasion force would depend on the amount of
damage achieved by the airstrikes against the
Serb troops in Kosovo over the next few weeks.
Last week, it was estimated that the Serb
strength in the province remained at about
40,000 in spite of two months of bombing.
However, Nato still hopes that the intensified
bombing campaign combined with Russian
diplomatic efforts will persuade President
Milosevic to agree to the alliance's five
conditions for stopping the airstrikes.
It is also recognised that if Nato were seen to be
preparing for a land offensive, while backing
Moscow's peace diplomacy, it could seriously
undermine the already strained relations
between Russia and the alliance.
Another key factor is that the alliance itself has
to be held together, and any formal request
made to the 19 member states for authority to
plan for a ground war could damage the unity
that has been maintained so far. Germany
indicated yesterday that it would not veto a
move towards a ground war, although its troops
would not take part.
One resolve shared by the whole of Nato is that
Mr Milosevic must not win, and the alliance
sources said that if the air campaign and
diplomatic efforts failed to get the Yugoslav
leader to back down within the next three
weeks, there would be no alternative but to
prepare a ground offensive.
The alliance sources admitted that the operation
would be difficult, "but not impossible", and that
a number of ways into the province were being
studied.
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