Word: kosovo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That cost is measured in dollars alone. There is no acceptable cost in U.S. lives in Kosovo, where the Pentagon is emphasizing "force protection." While the last American war in Europe might have been characterized by infantry charges in which human lives were willingly spent for tactical ends, this mission will be characterized by a desire to establish peace with the same zero-casualty figure the Pentagon managed during the air war. So, Marines in Kosovo are on hair-trigger alert. "There's a big difference between combat and peacekeeping, and it can switch quickly from one to the other...
...Marines are facing a variety of threats in Kosovo. To begin with, they must confront the extensive land-mine emplacements in Kosovo. Company commanders have been warning their 200-man units that the Serbs have long specialized in making mines out of plastic so they can't be located with standard mine-detection gear. The allies are using mine plows and remote-controlled vehicles to detonate such mines before sending troops in. The Serbs, however, are clever about planting underground bombs. There's concern that they've done what they did in Bosnia, trip wiring antitank mines to antipersonnel mines...
...Marines must also confront the increasingly aggressive Kosovo Liberation Army. A standoff last week with 116 K.L.A. fighters over their right to be armed ended only when Cobra helicopter gunships and other Marine firepower moved in. The rebels gave up more than 100 rifles, 37 blocks of TNT and other materiel...
...this blighted province. No one knows how long that will take. In spite of the Clinton Administration's pledge nearly four years ago that U.S. troops would stay in Bosnia for only 12 months, more than 6,000 remain there today. So there will be no timetable for Kosovo. The Administration has acknowledged all along that it was going into Kosovo without an "exit strategy." It will be up to these Marines to help make...
...face, this has the look of a victory for President Clinton," sniffed the Wall Street Journal editorial page the day after the Kosovo peace deal. The editors were unable to hide their irritation that the U.S. would not be humiliated after all, that NATO would survive, and that America had done good in the world at little cost to itself...