Les Robinson correctly says an important dimension to the Balkan bombing may be an effort to shore up our standing with the Arab world, which has been so resentful of our pro-Israel stance. This is even more true of Turkey. Pro-Serb Russia has been using the dispute to back pro-Serb Greece, supplying Cyprus with weapons which threaten Turkey.

NATO actions have been anti-Serb. It is not just that Milosevic has been impossible to deal with. A powerful Serbia, backed by Russia, could be a treat to Western Europe. Former U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Alan Galbraith, interviewed on C-Span, responded tartly to a suggestion that the Dayton agreement should have divided the old Yugoslavia up on ethnic lines, allowing the Bosnian Serbs to join the other Serbs. He implied that this would have made Serbia too powerful; in other words, the Dayton agreement aimed at dividing the Serbs.

Ronald Hilton - 04/01/99