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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (106144)	7/17/2003 9:01:52 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

What word would you use to describe whatever it is we had with Serbia? Oh yeah. We did not ... kill tens of thousands of Serbian soldiers, kill thousands of Serbian civilians, ... Don't be so sure: <<<< NATO’s super-technical military campaign was far more "Kafkaesque" than "Clauzewitzian," not only in character, but also in the extent of destruction caused. According to the sources in the British government and a BBC special study (very similar results were announced by the German government), NATO war planes flew 35,000 missions, including just under 10,000 bombing missions, dropping over 23,000 bombs and missiles (a third of which were guided weapons), on a territory far smaller than that of New England. The number of casualties is not publicly known and is susceptible to political manipulation of all kinds. According to various Western sources (ranging from NATO official figures to UN forensic teams), the estimated number of deaths in Kosovo alone, including the victims of the Serb forces, the Serb-KLA fighting, and the NATO bombing, ranges from 100,000 to less than 2,000. The estimated number of casulties in Serbia and Montenegro, as a direct result of the NATO bombing is, according to the Yugoslav government, around 2,000 dead and 10,000 wounded. Whatever the exact numbers, and however "smart" the bombs NATO used, it was the civilian population that was, once again, the main victim of war. The extent of material and economic damage is far less controversial, although even more devastating and surreal. The bombing destroyed almost half of Yugoslav industrial production and caused $2.8 billion damage to the Yugoslav economy. The targets included military camps and airports, government buildings and refineries, electric plants and factories, bridges and roads, hospitals and schools, TV transmitters and hotels, market places and civilian houses. If left to rely on its own resources, without international help, Yugoslavia will need 25 to 30 years to bring its economy back to where it was before the bombing started. Immediate aid for Kosovo and the Balkan region requires $4 billion, and reconstruction of the region in the next five years will cost an estimated $32 billion. The peacekeeping operation in the next five years will require a minimum of $9.6 billion. Altogether, the amount of economic damage together with the peacekeeping operation and reconstruction efforts will amount to (approximately) $50 billion. Let me remark that these figures do not include the expenses of the military machines of the nineteen NATO countries (the first day of bombing alone cost over $40 million), nor do they take into account the enormous environmental damage to Yugoslavia, the neighboring countries, and the Adriatic sea, which at this point cannot be even estimated; it will take years, perhaps decades, before we see the full effects of the 23,000 bombs dropped during the Kosovo crisis. >>>>> holycross.edu

To: GST who wrote (106144)	7/17/2003 9:03:56 PM
From: Chas.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

any country posing a perceived threat to American national security thru acts of Terrorism or WMD to include nuclear, has to be very, very concerned regards their future well being, this is fact, reality. Our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq capably demonstrate our willingness to pre-emptively eliminate said threat. the question becomes "what is a perceived threat"