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Amazingly, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke left Yugoslavia today without making a Richard Chamberlain-like surrender deal with the Serbs. This just about assures that military action will be starting in that neck of the woods shortly. I believe that Holbrooke is now winging his way to Brussels, Belgium; opening the door to immediate airstrikes.
Senator John McCain ( R ) on Holbrooke's fruitless return from Yugoslavia, " I am not surprised ". Being an ex-miltary fighter pilot himself, he is " concerned about the lack of options ( if airstrikes don't do the trick ) ", but " I think we have to act ". " I don't think the President has explained it well. What are you ( Clinton ) going to do if the bombing campaign doesn't work ", he clarified. He ended with, " What the Serbs are doing right now is tough to stand by and watch ".
The President then went on television from an event in Washington D.C., saying we should " think about foreign policy and domestic policy as two sides of the same coin ". This is quite understandable from the President who thinks the U.S. taxpayers should bail out and rebuild the damage in Central and South America done by hurricane Mitch? Clinton continued, " If our country is to be prosperous, we need a Europe that is free, safe and united. This is what this Kosovo thing is all about ". He finished with, " We are living in a global society ". Is this some meelie-mouthed version of a way to rationalize the lowering of our national standard of living to the level of other countries ( third world )?
Henry Kissinger agreed that airstrikes in Yugoslavia seemed inevitable and necessary, but on NATO ( American ) ground troops being stationed there, he said, " I don't want to see a series of NATO protectorates from Bosnia to Macedonia ".
Usually the script for aerial bombardment begins with a cruise missile attack on surface to air missile and artillery sites, as well as command and control infrastructures associated with air defense, under the cover of darkness. This opens the way for jets to drop precision guided and unguided bombs and rockets on smaller more mobile targets in a slightly safer environment. Over wide open desert terrain like in Iraq, this means the jets have little or no opposition facing them as they attack. The difference in Kosovo ( or Yugoslavia in general ), is the terrain is hilly or mountainous and forested; thus allowing targets to be hidden. The weather there quite often is cloudy, so aircraft may have to abort many missions or go in at tree-top level to identify and attack specific targets. This leaves them open to small shoulder fired surface to air missiles; these don't use radar to find the target airplane but the heat signature of the jet engine. I just hate to think of how the public ( or myself ) may react if a F-117 Stealth fighter is lost to one of these cheap disposable SAM missiles!
It doesn't look good when Richard Holbrooke, in Brussels, goes on international television and hands the Kosovo problem over to N.A.T.O. Secretary General Javier Solana, washing his hands of any further participation. In Yugoslavia, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic defiantly said, " We are not accepting foreign military troops on our territory under any excuse and at any price, even at the price of bombing "! The Russian Prime Minister Primakov has turned his jet around mid-Atlantic and is now heading home, instead of to Washington D.C., as he does not support any N.A.T.O. miltary action, including airstrikes!
- Bongo ( Release some white doves? )
