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C. Milosevic: Intentions and Capabilities Milosevic had made Kosovo a Serb holy land. He used the 1389 Turk victory there as a symbol to arouse Orthodox Serbian nationalism. In June 1989 on the 600th Anniversary of the Serbs defeat, Milosevic spoke at the historic battlefield Kosove Polje, the Field of Blackbirds. A curse inscribed on a battle monument captured his rhetoric: "Whoever is Serb and born of Serbs that dare not shed blood for Kosovo", it reads, "let nothing be born from his hand, let him be without son or daughter, without white wine or bread, and may his descendants be cursed |
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| As a child living in Belgrade Albright had learned Serbo-Croatian. "By her own account, the Czech born secretary has a bit of a Munich complex, a belief that appeasing dictators only encourages their worst impulses."14 During three years of nonintervention after 1990, the Serbs’ first attacked Slovenia and then proceeded to aggression and mass murder in Croatia and Bosnia. Unless Clinton responded, Milosevic would conclude that despite past threats "a village a day keeps NATO away."15 NATO leaders wanted to restore their credibility before April when they would celebrate the alliance’s 50th anniversary in Washington. | |||||||||
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The President's advisers reasoned that air strikes had persuaded Milosevic to admit peacekeepers in Bosnia, and would work as well in Kosovo. Even after Milosevic had called him a "war criminal" for threatening strikes, General Clark believed that an air campaign might succeed. Holbrooke noted that Milosevic kept promises made at Dayton, and Serbs stopped fighting in Bosnia. What if Milosevic reacted by launching a major ground offensive to expel Muslims in Kosovo? Intelligence and military estimates were inconsistent--some predicted a concession, while others forecast a humanitarian disaster. Would bombing rally public support strengthening Milosevic against moderate opposition groups? Would combat troops be needed, either to expel Serbian forces or to remove Milosevic from power? Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate had urged Clinton to remove Milosevic: "Such a transition in the very near future is not only essential to the Serbian people, but is a necessary prerequisite to a stable peace in the Balkans. . . . Until Milosevic leaves power, he will be able, and willing, to ignite the Bosnian war (with possibly serious consequences for the U.S. personnel deployed there), unleash renewed repression in Kosovo, or generate a new crisis as his needs require." 16 Prosecution of Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia would require an invasion force. An air campaign might kill him. Presidents Reagan and Bush directed strikes at sites in Libya and Iraq where Mohamar Quadaffi and Saddam Hussein might be killed. A Vietnam era law prohibits the President from singling out an enemy for assassination, but current public opinion would not be an obstacle to "immaculate coercion," high tech, low-risk war waged by U.S. pilots who returned alive from their missions Test Your Understanding: Before reading further, answer the study questions for this section and then review the correct responses to assess your factual knowledge. |
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