He might as well have been talking to himself, for all the notice most people took at the time. On day one, NATO airstrikes destroyed three of the Yugoslav military's best warplanes. Hopes soared high among NATO's 19 member nations that this would be a short-lived affair, as NATO pilots began to pick off the targets on their list one by one. No one in NATO ever really expected Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to stand up to the world's largest and most powerful military alliance. And although they do admit they were forewarned about a possible mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, few governments paid much heed until the refugee crisis threatened to significantly destabilize parts of the region.
Armchair generals the world over advocate sending ground troops to Kosovo.
Increasing public demands on NATO heads of government to come up with a fast formula to solve the crisis are coupled with media irritation at the lack of instant access to operational information. Media companies with correspondents in Belgrade pester the military with demands for target lists so they can tip off their people in an attempt to keep them safe. NATO itself is accused by some in the media of making up its Kosovo strategy as it goes along. The alliance is criticized by some in the media for not targeting Milosevic, then criticized again if there is the slightest suggestion the Yugoslav president is on an assassination list. Yet this is NATO's first war, the first time in its history the alliance has gone on the offensive.