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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (4936)	4/21/1999 4:49:00 PM
From: Stormweaver	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

War by committee, what a bunch of cluster-f*cks. They bomb the snot out of a country but they can't agree on an oil embargo ? Milosevic is probably laughing right now as he knows that the decision on ground troops will probably be veto'd.

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (4936)	4/21/1999 4:50:00 PM
From: nuke44	Respond to of 17770

Greece's, and to some extent Italy's stances are nothing new. Greece has seriously eroded it's already tenuous position in NATO and the EEC. It will not be forgotten by the members of either entity. Italy, on the other hand, is doing what it has to, in light of it's economic resources and the mixed emotions of it's coalition government. In any case it is still serving as the central base for NATO's air attacks. If anything, a postponement in the capitulation of Yugoslavia only serves to prolong their exposure to an increasingly devastating air assault, pushing the prospect of their economic recovery and the rebuilding of their infrastructure from a period of months to years. In some quarters, the longer the bombardment can continue and the more Yugoslavia's military and economy is degraded, the better. Greece may have proven a better friend to the Serbs by shortening the conflict, rather than being a party to it's continuance. At any rate, the length and outcome of the conflict is not controlled by what Greece and Italy do, but rather by what Yugoslavia does. For now they have the final word in any cease fire or permanent peace. For now.

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (4936)	4/22/1999 3:58:00 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 17770

Now, the U.S. are facing the cultural challenge I was referring to in my reply to D. Long on April 3, 1999: Message 8682764 Remember what Karl von Clausewitz said in the early 1800s: War is the continuation of diplomacy by other means... And what's the political issue at stake in Kosovo? It simply is the removal of an outdated jingoist, nationalistic regime in Belgrade! Serbia needs the very same therapy as Japan in 1945: remember how the U.S. rebuilt a democratic political framework for Japan after WWII: a new Constitution was imposed, a demilitarization was enforced, a fostering of democratic, moderate parties,... Only the Emperor remained as a link with pre-war Japan but he was denied any capability other than a symbolic one. The benchmark of the Kosovo conflict is not how much more B-2 bombers will get shot down or how many Apaches will get successful in their ''ground cleansing'' mission. The goal is to topple Milosevic down. The whole mission is not military --it's a political conflict! Hence, the goal is to put Serbia BACK ON TRACK, a democratic track that is. The best way to achieve such an objective is to grab Kosovo out of the hands of Milosevic: this will cut off his ''political air supply''. As Milosevic will fail in keeping Kosovo under Serbian control, he'll lose his political legitimacy and he'll face heavy --maybe lethal-- pressure by his own military to step down. Then, under NATO supervision, Albanian refugees will be allowed to return to their villages and a new, peaceful regional framework could be worked out under a U.S./EU patronage.