Essay, Research Paper: Kosovo

Since the beginning of written history, man has witnessed persecution in many forms. The most infamous example of persecution is the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, a systematic killing of Jews killed 6 million in 10 years. It has been over 50 years since the Holocaust ended and yet again we see much of the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale, in Kosovo. Kosovo is located in a historically turbulent and violent part of the planet. The Balkans have caused many wars and skirmishes, the most notable being World War I after the assignation of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. This, coupled with the Balkans already fragile ethnic mixing, has left the Balkans a bomb ready to explode. Since February of 1998, President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia has conducted a military campaign against the people of Kosovo, which is a province of Serbia. It is here where the Balkans already strained ethnic mix boils over. The majority of Serbia is Greek Orthodox Christian while the majority of Kosovo is Muslim. This ethnic mix has always been strained and Milosevic has ordered his army to conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive out the Kosovo Muslims and kill those who don t leave. This campaign of terror is designed to destroy an entire culture and it has come very close to doing just that. In a little over a year, over 650,000 refugees have fled Kosovo telling stories of murder, rape, robbery, and torture. This is essentially what the Nazi s did to the Jews, Gypsies, and Homosexuals at the beginning of the Holocaust. After the Holocaust, the world community said never again, yet little more than 50 years later we have turned a deaf ear on the plight of the Kosovo Muslims. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization consists of 19 countries. All of these nations have condemned Milosevic s actions in Kosovo and have just in the last month, launched air strikes against Serbia. The airstrikes were initiated with the notion that Serbia would quickly collapse just like Iraq. This conclusion was reached without looking at some key facts. Serbia has a much more extensive network of radars, SAM s, AAA, and bunkers than Iraq could dream of. The principle difference however is terrain and weather. Iraq is flat and dry, Serbia is very mountainous and rainy. This means it is much more difficult to find and destroy targets. It also means that the odds of losing aircraft in combat is much higher. This has caused some hesitation among NATO as losing pilots is not an attractive option. Because of this, NATO has gradually increased the power of their airstrikes, the range of targets hit, and the number of aircraft involved. This has accomplished little yet the costs have sky rocketed to over 600 million dollars. This could have been prevented and NATO could have struck a decisive blow to the Serbian army. NATO is a coalition of many different nations with many different goals. This often brings problems to their attention that the did not anticipate. The gradual increase in airpower had allowed Milosevic to hide anything he doesn t want NATO to see and has given his military, police, and para-military forces more time to continue their campaign of terror. This crisis in Kosovo has showed how decisive military action that is desperately needed can be overshadowed by political bickering. Instead of massing its resources and then striking a crippling blow to Serbia, NATO has chosen to steadily increase airpower and devote only a small percentage of its available airpower for tactical use on Serbian troops who are murdering innocent civilians. This flawed strategy has allowed Milosevic a very pleasing situation. He will hang on until his forces have driven out or killed all of the Islamic Kosovars and he will then bow to NATO s will. It seems that either way, Milosevic wins and it becomes apparent that the world community has not kept its promise to prevent a concentrated ethnic cleansing effort.