Word: nato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That left NATO free to concentrate on shaping a new fighting strategy. The moment he arrived, British Prime Minister Tony Blair slapped the central issue on the table. If Milosevic and ethnic cleansing are to be defeated, he said, then NATO had to muster all the military means that it may require. Including ground troops. "All options are always kept under review," Blair repeated over and over. "Milosevic does not have a veto on what...
Perhaps as a result, Washington is determined to squelch rising suspicion that ground troops might well be needed to defeat Milosevic. The Pentagon, the White House and NATO spokesmen spent much of the three-day summit insisting their sustained bombardment of Yugoslavia was paying off. Officials rolled out numbers to tick off progress: after 3,000 target strikes, 16 early-warning radars were gone, half of Serbia's MiG-29s destroyed, two oil refineries eliminated, 25% of stored fuel wiped out, all four vital rail and road links to Kosovo damaged. Never mind that 3 of every 4 bombs were...
Unfortunately, Milosevic hasn't given any sign of that. So NATO leaders quietly concluded a summit that was more symbolic than substantive. They made solemn proclamations: We will stick together. We will prevail. We will intensify the bombing until Milosevic capitulates to the terms we have already laid down...
...that easy for NATO to "intensify" the air-only war as it promises. Over considerable resistance, Clinton barely talked NATO into approving plans for a naval embargo to cut off oil supplies to Serbia, and no one wants to hurt Western-leaning Montenegro, where the main Yugoslav port is, in the process. The low-risk, high-altitude bombing cannot grow markedly more effective unless the allies are willing to accept more casualties--theirs and ours. The Apache gunships are dribbling into Albania to begin their closer-to-the-ground war against nearly 400 Serbian tanks and armored personnel carriers...
What overshadows everything is NATO's failure so far to stop the slaughter. Washington will call the summit a success simply because the 19 hung together. But the unity doesn't extend much beyond a consensus that the best thing these nations can do is hang together--for now. There are hints of cracks to come. Some of the allies are worried that NATO is dangerously remiss in failing to rev up planning for a ground campaign. Still others--recoiling from the live possibility of putting "our boys" on Balkan ground--are pressing for any negotiated...