| The problem is that the Balkans are, essentially, a shitpot. The whole area is and, with the exception of the Tito years (less shitpot, more totalitarian dictatorship) pretty much always has been. There are a large number of ethnic groups crammed into a very small territory, they -all- hate each other, and they've -all- got seemingly understandable reasons for doing so. The Serbs hate/massacre the Croats, the Croats hate/massacre the Bosnians, the Bosnians hate/massacre the Serbs, the Albanians hate/massacre the Macedonians and Montenegrans...the list goes on and on and on, all the way back to the 14th Century. This little fratricidal round-robin has been going on since the Jannessaries had their own spot on the Military Channel.
Were the Serbs acting like monsters? Sure, them along with literally everybody else. We now have Kosovo, a prefab failed Islamic state overrun with neo-Islamic totalitarian radicals who run the joint through a truly vicious organized-crime gang also known as the KLA, whom we armed and financed (sound familiar?), sitting on the border of a nation that's still rather annoyed with us and NATO for salting their country with Depleted Uranium and carving their cultural heartland out into a "homeland" for people whom the Serbs consider to be late-arriving carpetbaggers. Kosovo is to Serbia what Dublin is to Ireland or Boston is the U.S.; the place where "it all started" for the Serb people as a self-aware culture. Imagine if the EU forced Alabama to cede Montgomery its' independance, based upon the fact that large numbers of New Yorkers retire there. Now you have some idea of how the Serbs see the issue. And of course, they will probably respond with lethal violence directed against non-combatants, just like in tribal wars all over the world and in all times. We had it here in the U.S. too; look up "Bloody Kansas" or Jackson's response to the "Red Stick" uprising.
Did our bombing stop the Serb rampage? Sure did. Gave handy air-cover to the Kosovar rampage that got up to speed about .0005 seconds later, too, because this is the Balkans and this is tribal warfare. Tribal wars never stop, minus the total eradication of the opposing tribe (which the Kosovars have managed nicely in their area, having ethnically cleansed over 90% of the Serbian population), posession just changes. The Serbs turned it over on Downs, and now the Kosovars get their chance. Pretty soon the Serbs will run out of patience, and then it'll be their turn again. We (The UN, US, and NATO) should be learning from this, and what we should be learning is as follows: Unless you're going to vaporize the totality of all the warring factions and pave over their lands to build a Home Depot, don't get involved in centuries-old ethnic/tribal wars. Nobody ever wins, nobody ever even does well, and they never, EVER stop hating and trying to kill one another. |