>Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 13:36:34 -0800
>From: Sam Pawlett <epawlett at uniserve.com>
>Subject: Ground Troops in Kosovo?
>
>It certainly has. I would estimate the U.S. (NATO) would need at least
>500-750,000 troops to make Serbia cry uncle and give up Kosovo.In contrast
>to NATO, the JNA is battle hardened, experienced, mobile, knows the
>geography, knows the people, culture, language etc. and has fairly
>sophisticated Eastern bloc weapons. If the Generals are crazy enough and
>have enough lust for blood to introduce ground troops, a lot of people are
>going to die. It took 6 months to amass a similiar sized force in the
>Persian Gulf. There already are 10-20,000 American troops each, in Bosnia
>and Macedonia, so that is where the new troops will go. On a personal
>level, I do not envy the Americans who might have to fight the Serbs on the
>ground.
> What is becoming really scary, is that the NATO bombing seems to be going
>after economic infrastructure. A car factory, engine factory, bridges,
>pharmaceutical plants and other industrial concerns have all been blown. Its
>beginning to look like the exit strategy is to bomb Serbia into the stone
>age. There is talk of bombing downtown Belgrade. If the bombing continues
>for a few more weeks at the current rate, there will be little left to
>bomb.
>
>Sam Pawlett
I think the question is not wether a lot of people will die if ground troops are sent. I think the question is, that is more Albanian civilians going to die if ground troops are sent, than if they aren't sent.
The main argument against sending the ground troops is that such war would be impossible to stop. But this is the US militarist viewpoint, that no war can be lost. Most of the people have adopted the viewpoint that nothing can be done to stop the ethnic cleansing. If the Albanians had a choice wether to leave their homes forever in a week, wich they have to do now, or in a half of a year, wich would be the case if NATO-troops are protecting the evacuation, I can easily imagine wich one they would choice. If winning the war is impossible, the NATO would leave Kosova when it is evacuated.
A good argument is that sending ground troops would create more suffering to Albanians, wich will be stucked in between the lines. I base my counterargument against that to views of former NATO-commander George Joulwan, who claimed in tuesday's New York Times that even small army would be able to create a safe zone for refugees in Kosova.
Antti Rautiainen - antti.rautiainen at kolumbus.fi
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