Incompetent imperialism, another capitalist view (LA Times)

Greg Nowell GN842 at CNSVAX.Albany.Edu
Mon Mar 29 16:51:34 PST 1999



>From the LA Times: Last half of a long article

Charles A. Kupchan, a National Security Council aide during

President Clinton's first term, wrote in a column published Sunday

that while air attacks might damage the Yugoslav forces, only

ground troops could expel them from Kosovo and then patrol the

province's borders to make sure they did not return.

Writing in The Times, Kupchan said Clinton made a

"fundamental miscalculation" in failing to deploy a sizable ground

force before beginning the military campaign. "There is good reason

to believe air power alone will not do the trick," he wrote.

Gauging Public Opinion in U.S.

The introduction of ground troops could quickly change the

domestic politics of the military campaign.

Though polls suggest that the operation has the support of a

majority of Americans, public opinion analysts say that feelings on

the subject aren't strong and that even a relatively small number of

casualties could quickly shift views of whether U.S. forces should

be in a place that, as Clinton has said, most citizens might have

trouble finding on a map.

The U.S. intervention in Somalia won general support when

President Bush began it in 1992 to counter the effects of a famine.

But the public turned against the move when 18 Army Rangers

were killed in a shootout in the capital, Mogadishu, in 1993.

Poland, one of NATO's three new members, has already

offered to contribute ground troops to the Kosovo effort, U.S.

officials said.

But NATO officials said they have no plans to follow their aerial

bombardment with ground forces. Javier Solana, the alliance's

secretary-general, said, "This is the position that all 19 [NATO

members] maintain until this moment." Appearing on "This Week,"

he acknowledged, "I don't know how things are going to evolve."

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has been saying that

NATO has neither any "plan" nor any "intention" to bring in ground

forces. On Friday, however, he said on ABC-TV's "Nightline":

"Whether there is any recalculation another time, that remains to be

seen."

Though they appear to be hedging, Pentagon officials argue that

NATO wouldn't necessarily save time by trying to sweep through

Kosovo with ground troops to rescue ethnic Albanians.

There are only about a dozen roads leading into the province

and, like Kosovo's bridges, they are heavily mined and strongly

defended. The Yugoslav army is now well positioned at high points

on the terrain.

For an invasion, NATO would need time to build up forces,

more time for a long bombardment of Yugoslav army positions and

more time still to advance across the terrain.

Some Say Ground Forces Overdue

Many analysts believe that it is simply too early to give up on an

air campaign. Some assert that Milosevic might be more reluctant to

lose troops and equipment than is readily apparent because of his

need to protect himself from neighboring countries that claim pieces

of Yugoslav territory.

With Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania all coveting Yugoslav

real estate, "he can't risk losing control of his borders," said Loren

Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a conservative

research organization.

Other analysts take the view that NATO should have mobilized

ground forces weeks ago--and that it is now too late.

In its effort to avoid casualties, NATO has "hobbled itself with a

single-dimension" air campaign, said Richard Dunn, a military

analyst and retired Army colonel. "You leave yourself open to

disaster."

-- Gregory P. Nowell Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Milne 100 State University of New York 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222

Fax 518-442-5298



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