From: "Dave Coull" <d.y.coull-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 17:59:43 GMT
Subject: Re: NATO is boxed in...



>I still don't think this sounds much like a war. 
>Well that is unless you consider a game of mercy 
>a war. 

What an idiotic thing to say. Of course it's a war.
Just because ground troops haven't gone in yet,
that doesn't mean it isn't a war. What if the cold war
between the USA and the old Soviet Union had gone
hot ? What if there had been a full and frank exchange 
of nuclear missiles resulting in the destruction
of Moscow, Washington, New York, Kiev, 
etc., etc., and the deaths of millions of people ? 
Would you have said that such a nuclear 
Third World War did not count as a war 
on the grounds that ground troops had 
not gone in ? Because that   _IS_   the crazy 
logic of your remarks.

>Right now NATO seams as though it is just trying 
>to bend Milosevic's fingers far enough that he'll 
>give in. 

Rubbish. NATO's military men know that Milosevic 
won't give in. Why should he ? If he gives in he is finished. 
Either he would be lynched as a traitor by Serbs who 
didn't want to give in, or he would be executed as 
a war criminal by NATO. Either way, he personally
ends up dead, and one thing that Milosevic does
appear to believe in whole-heartedly is the survival 
of Milosevic. There are some people in NATO 
who are not totally stupid, so of course they know 
this. Just as they knew that bombing would not 
stop ethnic cleansing, but just make things worse.
They went ahead  _despite_  knowing these things.


Dave