: 1) We really can't have thugs like Serbia disrupting Europe. Even if there's a 1% chance that their little scruffle will spread into a broader war, we can't risk having the European market disrupted like that.SDF: Is the bombing of Kosovo PREVENTING or SPREADING the warfare? Last I heard, Macedonia was suddenly setting ablaze...
: 2) Both sides (Serbia & Kosovo) are guilty of acting like monsters. Who cares if we bomb either!
SDF: "Who cares?" I'm sure the people being bombed care, don't you think? Oh, that's right, you don't.
: 3) Military action is good training, and serves to keep our all-volunteer military at a peak level.
SDF: I'm sure the good folks in DC feel it's worth 49 cents of every dollar I send the IRS.
: 4) Serbia's made the US (alright, made Bill Clinton) look like a pathetic pansy for too long. Finally we're showing some cajones!
SDF: I'm sure that's why the US sacrificed 50,000 boys in Vietnam defending a kleptocratic dictatorship for 25 years amidst 2,000,000 Vietnamese deaths, to "show some cajones," but a REAL reason for bombing Serbia is lacking. Since bombing doesn't force warring nations to come to the bargaining table (I'm sure you can remember the dozen or so times coercive bombing was tried on "North Vietnam"), it's not likely to do so now, so the bombs serve as a very poor behavioral mechanism for stopping Serbian aggression. I'm not saying I know what the US government should have done (perhaps some preventative measures might have done something BEFORE the current episode of "ethnic cleansing," along the lines of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"), but I AM saying that the bombing is not likely to produce its "intended" results. A more likely reason for the bombing is that Clinton threatened to do it earlier, and the Serbs didn't back down, and so now Clinton has to send NATO bombs or risk "losing face". Such a rationale, of course, makes the US and NATO into the captive of events, not their master. How sad...
By the way, RWB, would you mind sacrificing your life in some foxhole in the Balkans so the US can "show some cajones"? I'm getting tired of you, and since it seems this would be an "honorable" and convenient way for you to die...
