Word: airing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What Washington was not altering either was its basic faith in air power. Even though all the weapons at NATO's disposal seem impotent to halt the Serbs' practically unimpeded rampage in Kosovo, the White House refused to address publicly the question everyone else is asking: Will it now take NATO ground forces to defeat Milosevic? Plenty of American pundits and former U.S. officials urged Clinton to rethink NATO's reliance on air power alone, suggesting that only "boots on the ground" can rescue the faltering campaign. "We're in a war, and we need to allow our military...
...White House aides realized that even stepped-up air assaults might not slow the Serb offensive quickly enough, a few began debating among themselves whether a ground attack should be considered. In public the Administration carefully stops short of categorically ruling it out. But the talk among policymakers has never progressed beyond the instant conclusion that "we don't think the American people would support that." Neither, they reckoned, would Congress. They didn't order up contingency plans for such an operation or even broach the subject with Clinton, who remains opposed to the idea...
...military headquarters will do anything to curb violence against the Kosovars. "The Serbs in the field are just thugs on a rampage," says a Navy planner. "They don't need guidance on how to knock down doors and kill people." The Pentagon is no longer talking about an "air campaign" of a few brisk weeks but a war of attrition. White House officials now say the air attacks could last another 20--20!--weeks. "We'll continue to degrade his forces, and he'll continue his ethnic cleansing," explains an Air Force officer. "And we'll get back...
...certainly possible that air power may yet subdue Milosevic--or that he will sue for peace once he has emptied Kosovo of ethnic Albanians. By Friday the White House was cheered that NATO strikes were cutting critical fuel supplies. But perhaps it was always unlikely that one could bomb Milosevic into negotiating an acceptable political solution for Kosovo. Now it looks out of the question. The down-the-middle construct of Rambouillet that retained Serbian sovereignty over the province but gave self-rule to the ethnic Albanians for three years seems dead. No one believes the Kosovars can live with...
...Slobodan Milosevic harder? Last week that was the key tactical question for NATO and U.S. war planners. The only measure that matters in air war is how many bombs are delivered on target, and last week's score paled alongside the explosive power that rained down on Saddam Hussein's forces during the Gulf War. NATO's 400 warplanes are launching roughly 100 strikes against Yugoslav targets every day. But foul weather has kept about half those warplanes from releasing their weapons. The resulting 50 effective daily strikes fall dramatically short of the 1,000 launched each day during...