From: gtao@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Greg )
Subject: Re: Somalia Question
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:16:42 GMT

egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy) writes:

>However, the potential for a general Balkan war is, well, disturbing.
>Serbia turning south to Kosovo and Macedonia will draw Albania, Turkey
>and perhaps Greece into the conflict.  The latter are NATO countries.
>The refugee stream to Western Europe will be far worse, perhaps
>destabilizing Germany.  And so on.  A real mess, as they say.  This
>does not mean that we should intervene, but we should bear in mind
>that there are important strategic considerations in Bosnia.

Very true.  Just remember:  it ain't exactly Iraq.

All I was trying to say is that much of the MEDIA-influenced debate over
US troops in Somalia seems to be mis-directed.  If one world-crisis-at-
full-boil should trouble the American public, it should be the ethnic
war going on in the Balkans.  You brought up a very good point about 
a spill-over in the region affecting more than just the presently warring
parties.  

I would only add that there seems to be very little we can do,
without sacrifice not seen since Korea, that could help in the situation.
The thing that scares me about what you hear these slick politicians
saying on t.v. is that limited air strikes are now appearing to seem like
a possible means of intervention.  What they didn't mention is that that
sorta involement would surely get us drawn into the conflict.  Remember,
our invlovement in Vietnam started with only a handful of "Advisors".

Admittedly, I don't envision US troops in the Balkans, but stranger things
have happened.  If our troops should ever get inolved in the situation over
there, I would only hope that we would bypass all the political bulls#!t
that was so characteristic of Vietnam, subject the enemy to the full force
of our WarMachine, let our MILITARY commanders make the MILITARY decisions, 
in deal from a position of STRENGTH when all is said and done.

This is turning into quite an epic:)

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* Gregory Tao                      | E-mail to:  gt38091@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu     * 
* Univ. of IL at Urbana-Champaign  |        OR      gtao@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu     *
* Department of Computer Science   |        OR      gtao@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu     *
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*                                                                             *
*  	``Change, suddenly, is everywhere we look, sweeping empires and       *
*    ideologies before it, shaping a new era even as we watch. Such moments   *
*    are rare. Today we stand at such a moment.''                             * 
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* DISCLAIMER:  My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of CCSO or the    *
*              University of Illinois.					      *
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Newsgroups: alt.current-events.somalia