Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: U.S. stuck in Kosovo

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 9:41 a.m.

CYNICS LOVE to tell us that no good deed goes unpunished. When it comes to the United States' interference in the Balkans, cynics have a case to back up their beliefs.

Despite the arguments that both Bosnia and Kosovo were European problems and should be handled by the nations on that continent, we, along with Great Britain, pushed the issue. Pictures and stories coming from Yugoslavia made our leaders in Congress and the Clinton administration eager to right the wrongs viewed by Americans. No matter how many times they were reminded that almost 800 years of hate and conflict in the Balkans couldn't be settled with force, our nation and the Brits led NATO into bombing Yugoslavia.

So we bombed the hell out of Kosovo and specific targets in and around Belgrade. The Albanians and their Kosovo Liberation Army cheered us on and did some of their own killing of the Serbs they were trying to run out of that province of Yugoslavia. The KLA, with the air power of NATO, were successful in their efforts. Today in the Kosovo city of Pristina only 300 Serbs remain. There were 40,000 of them living, working and raising families in Pristina prior to NATO's 78-day air war. Less than half of the Serb citizens in Kosovo are still living in that entire province today. Those remaining have been subjected to the brutality now being dealt out by ethnic Albanians.

The NATO troops in Kosovo are learning the difficulties of protecting one group of haters from the actions of the other group of haters. These acts of violence are no longer confined to Kosovo. The ethnic Albanians are reaching into areas left under the control of Belgrade. They have tasted success from the NATO bombing and they want to keep punishing the Serbs by extending guerrilla activity even farther northwest.

Even a New York Times editorial now sees the light and recognizes that "the most acute problem these days comes from the ethnic Albanian guerrillas. American entreaties to stop the violence seem to have had little effect. It is disheartening that the United States, which went to war in Kosovo to protect Albanians, now must use its military forces to confront the Kosovo Liberation Army and its armed offshoots."

So what does this mean for the 5,000 American soldiers serving with NATO in Kosovo? Don't plan on coming home early or without replacements for another four or five years. When the last NATO soldier leaves this area, historians can look back and write that they were used in replacing one gang of brutes with a new gang of killers. This evaluation can be accurately written as a prediction today.

A recent Los Angeles Times editorial whines, "NATO went to war against Yugoslavia to halt the slaughter and dispersion of the Kosovar Albanians. Now it finds itself trying to halt increasing Albanian thuggery against a Serb population fighting to hold on to its remaining enclaves. Peacekeeping once again is proving a complex and thankless assignment, and Kosovo more and more looks like a quagmire.

"The United States has endured more than its share of bitter experience with quagmires. Kosovo is a European problem, affecting no vital American interests, and the European powers clearly have the military capabilities to deal with it. It's time to prepare for an early American exit."

So what did we expect? A short lesson in Balkan history would have told our leaders what to expect. After all of the bombing and killing, NATO has a tar baby it can't release, and our European "friends" have become our critics. They had a problem their leaders knew couldn't be solved by outside forces, but if the good ol' USA and Great Britain insisted on leading the way they would help out a little bit.

An April poll of 1,000 registered French voters has been published by the New York Times. When asked "When you think about the role of the United States in Kosovo crisis, do you feel ...?"

So what's new? Nothing. We have again, at a huge expense, been led into a mess by leaders who haven't learned their history prior to making decisions.

Now if we can just get our hands off that Balkan tar baby.