>At 10:11 PM 5/31/99 +0100, you wrote:
>>Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in Britain has been
>>successful in persuading Tony Blair to intervene in Kosovo, and then to
>>promote the idea of ground troops.
>>
>>On Saturday he argued that Bosnia and Kosovo were mere preludes to the
>>tasks of NATO with the forthcoming implosion of the former Soviet Union.
>>
>>I cannot really see this. I can see Europe expecting to assimilate the
>>Yugoslavia. Yesterday Slovakia just voted in a president sympathetic to the
>>country aligning with the European Union and seeking NATO entry.
>>
>>Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine, are surely too large to be assimilated
>>and interfered with in this way. Chechnya showed that. Besides Kosovo has
>>been no pushover for NATO. I would have thought the worst of the financial
>>crisis was now over in Russia, and the IMF will compromise on the room for
>>economic expansion.
>>
>>Does anyone agree with Paddy Ashdown on this point?
>>
>>
>>Chris Burford
>>
>>
>>
>>