NBC news for Sunday, April 10, 1999 included a segment reporting the US military has taken over the main airport in Kosovo for humanitarian relief and also to prepare for military air strikes on Serbian targets. Crews are setting up the support for the arrival of American attack helos. This should reveal the arrangement that goes with humanitarian aid: first food then attack airplanes.
This situation is in addition to the just announced 90 British commando troops clandestinely inserted into Kosovo to hunt down Serb targets for the air strikes to come.
It has to be assumed that if the US has air base personnel in Kosovo (Serbian terrority yet) there are likely a couple companies of Marines guarding the field, as in Da Nang, Vietnam 1965. This is also in addition to about 30,000 US troops pre-positioned in and around Serbia - Albania, Macedonia, and Croatia. They have been there for months to several years, different in different places.
This all has serious implications if the Russians interpret this as the land war with troops they have said they will not permit. It may be they will not act until these troops cross over into Serbia proper, but Kosovo is still a part of Serbia even under UN guidelines. This could be the trip wire placement of troops the US/Nato force is setting up for sure attack to justify even more troops, again rerun your PBS Vietnam documentary tapes.
Russian humanitarian relief supplies headed to Belgrade were halted at the border by our new Nato member, Hungry. This will likely increase pressure for Russia to turn to air support and cause conflicts with the Nato air attacks. More casualties could be possible as when we bombed a Soviet ship in Hiaphong Harbor. But then the Soviets did not send large numbers of troops, only missiles and supplies. Times may be different, or not so.
bob