> On this we agree. NATO is moving towards deploying ground troops, even if
> the US may not participate. The whole sanitized bombing approach is not a
> good approach (although the best that could be politically pushed in this
> initial stage); a more forthright commitment to troop deployment would be
> better - as I noted in earlier posts.
(Sigh). As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with you there. Only peacekeepers on the ground could stop this whole bloody mess, and that's precisely what Serbia simply refused to allow. They had their reasons, to be sure, but defending the human rights of Kosovars was not among them. The bombing may have accelerated the bloodshed slightly, but the previous Yugoslaughters showed that you don't need F-117s to do evil under the sun.
I'm not sure it makes any sense to burn Uncle Sam in effigy on this one. Make no mistake, the EU is calling the shots here; we're just the hired mercs, called in to do the dirty work. In 1993 the nascent EU did nothing, and Bosnia was turned into a charnel house. 1999 is the Year of the Euro, and the EU apparently doesn't want to make the same mistake twice.
-- Dennis