"J. van Baardwijk" wrote: > Given that Dutchbat had everything against them, I think it > is extremely unlikely they could have stopped the Serbs.
No, but they certainly could have made the Serbs think twice, or at the very least, they could have taken some of those genocidal bastards with them. > They were outnumbered, insufficiently trained, had the > strategically bad position of being in a valley, and had > hopelessly insufficient weapons -- the Serbs had more and > heavier weapons than Dutchbat. Quite frankly, if they had > engaged the Serbs, I think very few Dutch troops would > have gotten out alive. Back in the debate about the land mine treaty, I seem to remember you arguing that the US should not be allowed to have exceptions to the treaty, even if those exceptions could save the lives of many American and South Korean soldiers. IIRC, you said soldiers should expect to have casualties -- it's part of the job. The soldiers in Srebrenica also signed on for a job -- UN peacekeeping -- where they could expect some casualties if they were doing the right thing. If paying for doing the right thing with higher casualties is okay in a possible invasion of South Korea, why wasn't it okay in Srebrenica? > > They could have done what UN troops are supposed to do: > > form a line that cannot be crossed without consequences. > To form such a line, you need something to form that line > with. When you have ample troops and tanks at your disposal, > a line that consists of a handful of soldiers and a .50 > calibre machine gun does not at all look impressive. At > best, it could delay the enemy's advance by a few hours. Wouldn't that have been enough to at least help? Maybe it would have given reinforcements time to get there, or given the refugees enough time to escape. If nothing else, it would have made those soldiers great heroes in the eyes of the world, and helped the cause of peacekeeping troops in the future. ______________________________________________________________________ Steve Sloan ......... Huntsville, Alabama =========> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brin-L list pages ....................... http://www.sloan3d.com/brinl Chmeee's 3D Objects .................... http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee 3D and Drawing Galleries .................. http://www.sloansteady.com Software ................ Science Fiction, Science, and Computer Links Science fiction scans ......................... http://www.sloan3d.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
