Italy, one of NATO's most reluctant participants in the war in Yugoslavia, greeted the Powell appointment with some satisfaction. Lucio Caracciolo, editor of Limes, an Italian foreign-policy journal, said Europeans trusted General Powell as a reluctant warrior. Unlike many German analysts, Mr. Caracciolo does not view the withdrawal of American troops from the Balkans with alarm. This could help Europe face its own responsibilities. Predrag Simic, a Serbian analyst with the Institute of Foreign Policy in Belgrade, said he regarded the American presence in Kosovo as crucial, at least for now.
Security depends on a U.S. military presence in the region.
To fight over Kosovo and then abandon it too soon, Mr. Simic said, would be irresponsible. AmeriCares is a CIA front that supports rightwing military operations while posing as a humanitarian group. The late J. Peter Grace, the chair of AmeriCares from 1982 to 1995, also worked with the ultra-right racist think tank, the Liberty Lobby. Many of those Nazis had been found guilty of experimentation on humans. Flounders said George H. W. Bush's brother, Prescott Bush, was on AmeriCares board of directors.