The bombing of Serbia is the largest offensive operation ever undertaken by NATO and the most massive use of armed force by the U.S. since the Gulf War of 1991. The air war against Serbia may continue for weeks, or even months. Hundreds of thousands have been evicted from their homes and are fleeing to the borders. The rape of Bosnia is being repeated, on a vaster and more chilling scale. Clinton says the bombing against Milosevic will bring him to heel, without the use of ground troops.
History reveals a different truth.
As the massacres in Rwanda in 1994 showed, genocide does not require the use of heavy weapons. Light arms and machetes will suffice against a largely unarmed people, and the Serbs have that in droves. Whether or not the U.S. or NATO eventually get pulled into a commitment of ground troops, the fact that the peril to Kosova has only vastly increased since March 24 refutes the notion that these state powers are the agent of its liberation. It needs to be reiterated that the Clinton administration long opposed independence for Kosova and, like the Bush administration before it, has often colluded with Milosevic to allow him to maintain his hold on Kosova and parts of Bosnia. The U.S. is demanding that Milosevic agree to the plan arranged in Rambouillet, France last month, which promises Kosova limited autonomy-but denies it independence.