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

To: nuke44 who wrote (10951)	6/1/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Kosovo Civil War is territorial, pure and simple, nothing to do with religion

To: nuke44 who wrote (10951)	6/1/1999 9:39:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

From Australian. More on Serbian "Final Solution" Message 9896007

To: nuke44 who wrote (10951)	6/1/1999 9:42:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17770

The New Australian Scandals and Clinton's Balkan mess By James Henry No. 121, 31 May - 6 June 1999 Things are beginning to look sticky for ol' Bill. Wall Street is getting jumpy about interest rates, Milosevic just won't lie down, and now the 'T' word is actually being heard in some quarters — though not at NBC etc. Is there justice? Will the most depraved and corrupt president in the history of the Republic finally get his just deserts? I think he will, eventually. In the meantime, he is in a position to do still more considerable damage. Just as bombing Serbia seemed like a splendid idea, just as one scandal too many began to emerge, the use of troops is being flagged just as — by pure coincidence — the Cox Report hits the fan. Not that Ol' Slickory didn't know what was in it. After all, it's akin to his record in the White House, so in a sense he wrote it. But it's not the kind of legacy he wants to bequeath to a nation that seems to be showing signs of waking up to Bill Benedict Clinton. Now that his dream of a swift military victory has proved as illusory as an Albright battle plan he finds himself suspended between Americans understandable reluctance to see their offspring carted home in bodybags and his own desire to escape exposure. Well, knowing how far Bill is removed from traditional manly values like courage, duty and honor I would normally advise Arlington cemetery to start digging again, even though the boys and girls in uniform are not too keen to die for the glory of saving Bill's skin they will always do their duty. However, Clinton is a coward in every sense of the word, especially the moral sense. Having, thanks to the posturing and preposterous Albright, completely underestimated Milosevic's determination and Serbian resolve (probably because he has none of his own) he committed American forces to a half-baked half-witted military campaign. And this is after he gutted the services and then stretched them out like pieces of worn elastic. Milosevic knew that America would quickly run out of cruise missiles and smart bombs. Didn't CNN, NBC, ABC, etc, not only tell him that Clinton had shut down the cruise missile production line but how many missiles were actually left. The absurd situation has now been reached where the use of dumb bombs has been announced as an improvement on smart weapons. Why don't they just say we ran out? As I said before, all Milosevic had to do was sit tight and accelerate the dirty work. And that is precisely what he did. Even those geniuses at the CIA had that one figured. About two months later Milosevic is still in control and NATO is still looking for targets while it thinks up excuses in advance for the next bus load of pensioners it sends off to the promised land. Now Clinton mouthpieces are telling us that one-third of Serbia's military forces have been destroyed. The people who gave us this precise figure are the same folks who can't find the Chinese embassy on a Belgrade street map. In any case, one-third of what? How much armor, artillery, munitions, bunkers, mines, ground-to-air missiles, not to mention the shoulder-fired ones, does that leave? Forewarned is forearmed and few dictators ever got more warning than Milosevic. To top it off, they now want to put him on trial. Who's next? Castro? The butchers of Tibet? Not likely. Social democrats are in charge and that means no trials for socialist dictators. It also means that Milosevic has got nothing to lose. The deed is done and the example set. I and others have made the point that if ground troops are committed and even if a quick victory is achieved — so what? Milosevic will still be in Belgrade enjoying Russian and Chinese support as well as a great deal of local support due to nationalist feelings while Kosovo will be literally prostrate; Montenegro will be in a parlous position, Macedonia will need a great deal of aid and Orthodox Greece will be deeply disturbed. Where will all of this leave the Kosovar refugees? Still refugees, that's what. It would have been better, I believe, if Western countries had told Milosevic they were prepared, given enough time, to accommodate Kosovar Albanians while rebuilding Albania. This would have reassured the Serbian people that there were no designs on Serbian territory or sovereignty and thus have drawn Milosevic's nationalist teeth while strengthening opposition forces. But this would not have banished Clinton's growing scandals nor would it have done anything for the liberals self-image. The New Australian newaus.com.au