4 ms·

The NATO air campaign Did. Not. Force. The. Serbs. To. Retreat. It completely failed in the objective. However, the second NATO put boots on the ground the Se

The NATO air campaign Did. Not. Force. The. Serbs. To. Retreat. It completely failed in the objective. However, the second NATO put boots on the ground the Serbs pulled out. The air campaign was a total failure. Complete, abject, failure.

jcrawfordor 7y ago
As someone with little knowledge of the history of this conflict, could you explain your position a little further?
- Marazan 7y ago
  1. the Serbian military was engaged in ethnic cleansing in Kosovo 2. NATO attempted to use solely air power to stop them 3. Whilst the NATO air campaign was underway incidents of ethnic cleansing increased, not decreased 4. When NATO changed strategy and deployed land forces Serbia withdrew immediately, ending the Ethnic cleansing. 5. Not only did the air campaign fail at its stated goal of stopping ethnic cleansing it also had a miniscule rate of enemy assets destroyed making it a double failure.
  - redis_mlc 7y ago
    You missed some of the most interesting and sordid parts of the war as reported in the press. European countries contributing soldiers to NATO were extremely averse to even one or two casualties. The result was that "pacts" were made with the enemy dividing up zones, allowing unimpeded ethnic cleansing. Also, European NATO commanders would sideline their own country's troops to protect them. Albania so mistrusted NATO that they imported anti-aircraft guns at the time to shoot NATO helicopters down.
onetimemanytime 7y ago
NATO did not put boots on the ground. They discussed it a lot and armed Kosovans but did not move into the ground. This Wash Post article is titled " Kosovo Land Threat May Have Won War " for a reason https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/sept99/airwar19.htm https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/sept99/... NATO, er USA, has a lot of options to inflict pain and lots of it. A few Tomahwaks can cripple the best factory, power supply etc (they can link it to aiding the military so no war crime). They can escalate until the other side surrenders
- Marazan 7y ago
  Someone needs to tell James Blunt he wasn't a soldier in Kosovo then. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050 KFOR was a thing, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Force https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Force
  - onetimemanytime 7y ago
    after Serbs surrendered, get it?
    - nl 7y ago
      This isn't accurate. To quote the KFOR Wikipedia page: > KFOR entered Kosovo on 11 June 1999 two days after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. At the time, Kosovo was facing a grave humanitarian crisis, with military forces from Yugoslavia in action against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in daily engagements. Note that daily engagements were ongoing at this point.

jcrawfordor 7y ago

As someone with little knowledge of the history of this conflict, could you explain your position a little further?

Marazan 7y ago
1. the Serbian military was engaged in ethnic cleansing in Kosovo 2. NATO attempted to use solely air power to stop them 3. Whilst the NATO air campaign was underway incidents of ethnic cleansing increased, not decreased 4. When NATO changed strategy and deployed land forces Serbia withdrew immediately, ending the Ethnic cleansing. 5. Not only did the air campaign fail at its stated goal of stopping ethnic cleansing it also had a miniscule rate of enemy assets destroyed making it a double failure.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  You missed some of the most interesting and sordid parts of the war as reported in the press. European countries contributing soldiers to NATO were extremely averse to even one or two casualties. The result was that "pacts" were made with the enemy dividing up zones, allowing unimpeded ethnic cleansing. Also, European NATO commanders would sideline their own country's troops to protect them. Albania so mistrusted NATO that they imported anti-aircraft guns at the time to shoot NATO helicopters down.

onetimemanytime 7y ago

NATO did not put boots on the ground. They discussed it a lot and armed Kosovans but did not move into the ground. This Wash Post article is titled " Kosovo Land Threat May Have Won War " for a reason https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/sept99/airwar19.htm https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/sept99/... NATO, er USA, has a lot of options to inflict pain and lots of it. A few Tomahwaks can cripple the best factory, power supply etc (they can link it to aiding the military so no war crime). They can escalate until the other side surrenders

Marazan 7y ago
Someone needs to tell James Blunt he wasn't a soldier in Kosovo then. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050 KFOR was a thing, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Force https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Force
- onetimemanytime 7y ago
  after Serbs surrendered, get it?
  - nl 7y ago
    This isn't accurate. To quote the KFOR Wikipedia page: > KFOR entered Kosovo on 11 June 1999 two days after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. At the time, Kosovo was facing a grave humanitarian crisis, with military forces from Yugoslavia in action against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in daily engagements. Note that daily engagements were ongoing at this point.