The Balkan Bomb Bonanza

The trouble with our current foreign policy in the Balkans was summed up neatly by Wesley K. Clark, NATO's Supreme Commander. At the onset of the bombing, General Clark, beaming with American haughtiness, said that the Serbs had never seen a force comparable to the combined military strength of NATO and implied that American might and moral superiority would be sufficient to cause the Serbs to bow to NATO's whims. Yet NATO's bombing campaign against the Serbian people is an ill-conceived incursion that is ultimately doomed to result in an ignominious and embarrassing failure.

Clark, who was first in his class at West Point and a Rhodes Scholar, neglected to mention the five years of Nazi aggression that the Serbs successfully resisted. Unlike the current bombing campaign with its neat little surgical strikes that try to minimize "collateral damage," the Nazis tried to eradicate the Serbs and saw no difference between civilian and military targets, men women or children. Yet they lost. NATO, on the other hand, pales in comparison to the Nazi war machine, because it can never operate in such an inhumane way and stomach the causalities the Nazis did. Clark's arrogant and uninformed manner, no doubt bolstered by the Gulf War, in which the US was lulled into a false sense of supremacy, can only result in arrogant and uninformed acts. Rest assured, the Serbs will resist us like they did the Nazis, and like the Nazis, NATO is doomed to lose.

Three days after the bombing began it became evident that far from capitulating to NATO's demands, the Serbs had escalated their ethnic cleansing of the Kosovar Albanians. General Clark reluctantly admitted that it was "entirely predictable" that the this would happen. It is apparent that the Clinton Administration knew the bombing would escalate the violence and would cause the Serbian people to unite in solidarity behind their leader Slobodan Milosevic. They knew that bombing this sovereign nation would only harden it like a boiled egg and remind the Serbs of the Nazi aggression which they successfully fought off.

The US has completely ruined its credibility as an impartial mediator in this internal conflict and instead has chosen to demonize the Serbs. The US, which hypocritically picks and chooses its "humanitarian" missions according to its national interests, arms the Turks in their war against the Kurdish minority and chooses to neglect human rights problems all over Africa, in Columbia, Afghanistan, and many other locales across the globe. Did the US dare intervene in Chechnya when the Russians were bloodily attempting to prevent their succession? Instead, the US has now chosen to stick its nose into a conflict which has its roots in the fourteenth century; a internal conflict in a sovereign country.

America, which has had numerous botched experiences in international intervention, has neglected General Colin Powell's fundamental guidelines of intervening: 1. Don't. 2. If you do decide to intervene, make absolutely sure you are going to win with massive overwhelmingly brutal force. The US has also failed to heed his classic dictum: "We do deserts, we don't do mountains." You know what they say about those who don't study history....

As Jews, I think it is important to remember that we should never support atrocities of any kind. However, in this conflict we have forsaken our former allies (read: saviors) in favor of the Albanians, who support Osama bin Laden, Iran, and my personal favorite, Hezbollah.

Additionally, by supporting the bombings on Belgrade we are de facto supporting a bombing run on Jerusalem. A historical claim to a land is being contested by those who want to succeed by force and not diplomacy. Change Kosovo to Jerusalem, and instead of Islamic Jihad insert the KLA (who are also deemed a terrorist group by the UN). The incumbent power reacts with military action, prompting an intervention by the powers that be. Imagine that the Palestinian Authority unilaterally declares a Palestinian State. The IDF moves in to annex the West Bank. An intifada-type battle ensues in which the IDF takes the upper hand through the use of excessive force. NATO moves in and begins to bomb Israel in order to avert this "humanitarian" tragedy. In light of international support for the Palestinians and the disdain in which Israel is held, this scenario is both plausible and scary.

Prediction time. Slobodan Milosevic has promised NATO at least one hundred thousand casualties. I don't believe it will go that far. An insertion of ground troops will be disastrous and NATO will hightail it out of there before you can say "body bag." We will once again be witness to US choppers taking off from embassy roofs in shame and defeat. Belgrade will be left in ruins, the Kosovar Albanians will never return to their homes, and all that will remain is the legacy of another botched "humanitarian" mission. We have created a monstrosity to avert an atrocity.

What should be done? The US must use its leverage with the Russians to jointly broker a peace treaty in the Balkans. Russia desperately needs IMF funds, and is trying to regain its sphere of influence. They can be cajoled into stepping in and convincing their Serbian Slavic allies to make a deal. On the other hand, NATO's continued bombing and eventual insertion of ground troops will herald its funeral, just in time for its fiftieth anniversary. It is imperative that the current administration reverse its course and relieve us of this "entirely predictable" mess.