-Caveat Lector-
Via NewRepublic
> Kosovo no War, no
>
>
> Foreign Affairs News Keywords: KOSOVO,
> Source: Anchorage Daily News
> Published: July 2, 1999 Author: George C. Wilson
> Posted on 07/12/1999 18:19:25 PDT by rollin
>
>
>
> Anchorage Daily News
>
> July 2, 1999
>
>
>
> No War, No Lessons After Kosovo, Stevens Says By George C.
> Wilson, Legi-Slate News Service
>
> Washington -- There are no military lessons to be learned from
> NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslav President Slobodan
> Milosevic because it was not a war at all, Senate Appropriations
> Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Thursday.
>
> The World War II bomber pilot told defense reporters over
> breakfast that "we never had an engagement" with the Yugoslav
> military. "They never came to war with us," Stevens said. "We
> just bombed the hell out of them until they signed an agreement.
>
> "We had 780 million people (in the NATO alliance) attacking 20
> million people, and they finally came to their knees after (NAT0
> forces) bombed for four months. What's the precedent out of that?
> There's no precedent out of that. I don't see it having any
> relationship to the ability of the Army on the ground in a war.
>
> "We never fought anybody there" in the Balkans over Kosovo, "not
> even their planes," he said. "This was just a bombing campaign
> until we bombed them into submission. And I guess if you can find
> another country that was located like Serbia was -- where it was
> completely surrounded by people friendly to us -- where we had
> free access to it all the time, I guess we could bomb anyone into
> submission if you wanted to take on that task.
>
> "But defeating 20 million people the way we defeated them,"
> Stevens continued, "I don't think that's something we should go
> around holding our head high in the air (about) and saying we're
> superior" because "we ended the war by the air. The war never
> started.
>
> "I think it's an anomaly," Stevens said of the air war against
> Milosevic. "I don't think it's a lesson at all."
>
> Stevens' remarks came against a backdrop of postwar audits by Air
> Force generals who have emphasized in recent closed-door
> meetings, that their bombing campaign, while highly professional,
> was no cause for gloating, participants told LEGI-SLATE News
> Service. The bombing wore out air crews and aircraft and used up
> the inventory of smart weapons that will cost billions to
> replenish, the generals said.
>
> The strain of the Kosovo bombing campaign has compelled Air Force
> leaders to focus on what they call "reconstitution" -- curing the
> downsized service of ills inflicted by such sudden and intense
> deployments as those to the Balkans.
>
> One ill is the stress imposed on Air Force families whose
> unhappiness often prompts airmen to quit the service. The Air
> Force is now critically short of pilots and is looking for
> additional ways to stem the exodus.
>
> Stevens recalled that airmen based in Aviano, Italy, expressed
> much less enthusiasm to him about bombing Yugoslavia than
> attacking the Iraqi military during the Persian Gulf War of
> 1990-91.
>
> In giving his views on a wide range of other military matters,
> Stevens made these points:
>
> * The Army. It should be enlarged beyond its projected
> active-duty strength of 480,000 and a "portion" of it should be
> trained in peacekeeping since that mission predominates these
> days, he said.
>
> Stevens said the Army trains its volunteers "to be warriors, and
> we end up putting them at intersections at Haiti, the Balkans,
> Kuwait and now Kosovo. Let's train some people to be peacekeepers
> in the sense of being able to carry light arms and be able to
> defend themselves and be on the streets of Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti
> and wherever the hell they want to put peacekeepers."
>
> Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the newly sworn-in Army Chief of Staff,
> said at his first news conference on June 23 that 480,000 "may
> not be enough" people to carry out the Army's missions. He said
> he would withhold final judgment until a manpower study in
> completed. Other Army leaders have warned that enlarging the Army
> would put an extra burden on recruiters who already have trouble
> signing up enough volunteers to fill the ranks.
>
> * China. "I really don't look at China as a threat to the United
> States" in the sense of it stealing our most vital secrets
> through spying, Stevens said.
>
> "I served in China in World War II. I've been back there many
> times. I think the bulk of Chinese people look at us as friends.
> We've got to wait out another generational change" in China's top
> leadership to achieve better harmony," he said.
>
> "There's a substrata coming together of younger people in the
> Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan. And if you want to look at
> the industrial base, a great portion of the industrial base for
> Taiwan is on the mainland. This means to me that if we stop
> worrying about these guys who are rattling cages and look at the
> bulk of the population and where it's going, we can have a great
> bond of friendship with the Chinese."
>
> * North Korea. On the basis of a 10-day trip there, "I came away
> with the feeling North Korea is not a country; it's a cult,"
> Stevens said. "As a cult, it has two options left: commit suicide
> or die on the vine." Stevens speculated that North Korea may be
> pursuing ballistic missiles with the idea of selling them to
> rogue nations to gain the money to survive.
>
> * Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. "The first thing" to do is
> remove the provision that resulted in the United States limiting
> its missile defense to a single site in Grand Forks, N.D., he
> said.
>
> Stevens doubted missile defense would "even be a blip" on the
> political radar screen in 2000 because both Republicans and
> Democrats have voted for legislation to erect at least a thin
> umbrella over the United States.
>
> * Smoke and mirrors. "I challenge anyone to find a period of our
> defense history where we have had such false budgeting" as that
> practiced by the Clinton administration, Stevens said.
>
> "The budget was replete with mechanisms OMB (the Office of
> Management and Budget) wrote in there" to make it look as if the
> Pentagon was getting more money when it was not, he added.
>
> "In fact the DOD (Department of Defense) people when they come
> into the office are embarrassed trying to explain how these
> figures got there. It's been a very difficult period to handle
> this budget," said the chairman of both the Senate Defense
> Appropriations Committee and its defense subcommittee.
>
> * B-2 bomber. Although it did a good job in its combat debut,
> there are more pressing aviation needs, notably a successor to
> the Navy's EA-6B electronic jamming plane, he said.
>From www.unitedstates.com
> Cohen downplays NATO role in Vojvodine BUDAPEST, Hungary, July 12
> (UPI) - As NATO tries to pacify Kosovo after a 79-day war,
> Hungary's prime minister hinted at a future battleground for NATO
> in the Balkans over Vojvodine, Yugoslavia's northernmost
> province.
>
> Prime Minister Viktor Orban today said the minority groups in
> Vojvodine deserve the same level of autonomy that will eventually
> be restored to Kosovo, and says NATO ought to guarantee it.
>
> "The issue of Vojvodine should be involved in negotiations about
> the future of Yugoslavia," Orban said. "This is a legitimate and
> reasonable request. The Hungarians in Vojvodine and other
> minorities would like to have autonomy."
>
> Defense Secretary William Cohen showed less enthusiasm for the
> idea for another conflict in Yugoslavia.
>
> Cohen said the situation should be solved politically, not
> militarily. He advocated a democratic process to resolve the
> status of Vojvodine.
>
> "That, perhaps, could serve as a model for ethnic minorities
> throughout the region as a way in which to resolve conflict and
> resolve issues affecting autonomy," Cohen said.
>
> The United States and NATO are not eager to see Vojvodine try to
> break away, especially with Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner
> republic, teetering on the brink of separatism. Peacekeeping is
> just getting under way in Kosovo, and Bosnia still requires a
> force of about 20,000 soldiers.
>
> "The last thing we need is another push for autonomy," a defense
> official close to the issue told United Press International. "Our
> message is: 'keep a lid on things."'
>
> Like Kosovo, Vojvodine had its local powers stripped away when
> Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic came to power in 1989. But
> unlike Kosovo, Vojvodine did not stage an armed rebellion.
>
> Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo. Vojvodine, on the
> other hand, is nearly 60 percent Serbian and is populated by 26
> different ethnic groups, 17 percent of which are Hungarian. They
> ended up in Vojvodine after World War I, when the
> Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled.
>
> Sizeable Hungarian minorities are in other countries as well,
> including Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. In some cases they have
> negotiated agreements not to press for land in exchange for
> allowing Hungarian to be taught in schools, among other
> concessions.
>
> Countries with Hungarian minorities are watching the situation
> closely in Serbia because of its regional implications, a defense
> official said.
>
> Orban has been advocating a military observer mission for
> Vojvodine since 1991, when Yugoslavia erupted into civil war.
A<>E<>R
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