Like, no war has ever been won by air power alone. It looks like NATO did just that. But critics point to the fact that, in the end, the threat of allied ground troops was becoming real. The war also put human rights above a nation's sovereignty. It's what should have been done in the 1930s.
Critics say it means the U.S. has become policeman to the world.
Yeltsin abandoned Milosevic at a key moment, when a NATO decision on ground troops was impending. Imagine the political liability for Vice President Al Gore if U.S. troops had been fighting on the ground during next year's presidential campaign. Or if the standoff continued and Americans were seeing pictures of freezing refugees next winter. The Serbs broke, under Russian pressure, just as Clinton was about to face that difficult choice. Clinton owes Yeltsin, big time.