But intentionally targeting them with equally lethal, though slower-acting, means of destruction is entirely permissible, according to NATO's reasoning. After years of being victimized by Slobodan Milosevic, the people of Yugoslavia now find themselves being pummeled by his enemies. Bombing this week has cut off electricity to 80 percent of the country. Most residents of Belgrade no longer have running water. Bread is scarce, and food is rotting in refrigerators.
Medicines are hard to come by.
There is no evidence that blasting the power grid has impeded the Serbian war on Kosovo. This guerrilla-style operation can manage just fine without it. About the only military benefit is that the loss of electricity disrupts communications and radar, neither of which is crucial to Milosevic in riding out the air assault. Early in the war, NATO tried to give the impression that any hardship to innocents or damage to the country's civilian economy was purely a byproduct of our effort to destroy the Serbs' ability to wage war. Lately, though, allied officials have admitted that one big purpose is to inflict pain and suffering on the people of Yugoslavia.