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

To: Yaacov who wrote (10041)	5/27/1999 7:13:00 AM
From: JBL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

And you have no moral problem with the carpet-bombing of Serbia in order to win ?

To: Yaacov who wrote (10041)	5/27/1999 8:56:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

What is your solution? What do you want to do with 1.5 miillion Kosovars. Maybe NATO should pack-up and go home, giive Milosovic a sweet victory, and then divide the Kosovars between US and Europe, 50-50?? Actually, if you've been reading my posts you would know that we're not all that far apart on Kosovo issues; I'm not advocating letting Milosevic have it, and I'm certainly not a bleeding-heart liberal, though I think the bleeding-guts kill-em-all attitude is every bit as ridiculous. I have repeatedly argued that letting Milosevic get away with his moves in Kosovo will only encourage him toward his apparent goal of putting Serbs in charge of all of what was once Yugoslavia. I just think the method being used is dumb, and I am not impressed with your suggestions that carpet-bombing Belgrade and killing as many Serbs as we can target is an answer. Any suggestion that there is a simple answer at this point is pretty unrealistic, IMO. I don't see any solution at this point because NATO has backed itself into a corner without solutions. I will point out what I think are some of the major errors that have brought us to this point: First, it was insane of us not to insist that European powers take the lead role in this intervention. They should be providing the bulk of the forces and the bulk of the leadership. A European nation and European security are involved, it is their backyard, and for far too long they have been maneuvering us into doing their dirty work. I do not buy the argument that only the US has sufficient force at its disposal: are we saying that the British, the French, and the Germans together can't put together an adequate air/ground strike capacity? Absurd. If they wouldn't, we should have sat back and watched. That would have been shitty for the Kosovars and it would have invited yet another round from Milo, but at some point we have got to force the European powers to live up to their egos. A second huge mistake: the air campaign should not have begun unless a consensus had been reached to assemble a credible ground force and dispatch it to a strike position. This process should have begun publicly on the same day the bombing did. The official line would of course have been that the force would have been used "only if necessary". Milosevic would be far more likely to come to the bargaining table if he saw a few armored divisions en route. An actual ground campaign is not a necessary corollary to the air strikes. A credible and immediate threat of a ground campaign absolutely is. What is your solution? Invade Kosovo - with a ground force that won't be ready for a month or more if it starts assembling today, which it won't? Then what? Install a government and leave? Good luck. How do we stop the returning refugees from killing every Serb in sight, or wouldn't you mind if they did that? Are we supposed to become the guarantor of proper behaviour and good western morals throughout the Balkans? If we commit ourselves from preventing the Serbs from killing their neighbors, shouldn't we also commit ourselves to preventing their neighbors from killing them, which will immediately happen if we dismantle the Serb armed forces? Please don't say that the Serbs started it. They might have started this round, though that is arguable. but nobody knows who started it. Genocide has been part of the Balkan scene since before the region had a recorded history. I don't know where do you live, but I suppose somewhere in the US. Look at my profile. I've live outside the US for the last 20 years, and paid reasonably close attention to foreign policy issues. I'm not an expert on the Balkans and don't claim to be, but if this thread were only open to Balkan experts it would be pretty empty. I should perhaps remind you of your own sweeping comments regarding Iran, which were plainly made in absolute disregard of the facts of that country's history. When this was pointed out, did you back down from your conclusion that the Shah should have shot down anyone who rebelled against his rule? Since you've based a comment or two on ignorance yourself, you ought to be a bit more tolerant of others. On the Kosovo issues I disagree less with your views than with your attitude, which is not one that is conducive to intelligent discussion. It's always wise to consider the possibility that the people who disagree with you have valid points, and any point of view can be refined. Truculence and immaturity go hand in hand. I'd rather talk to an intelligent, calm, and flexible person that disagrees with me than a truculent buffoon who agrees with me.