Balkan Ghosts

IN 1999, President Clinton took the United States into war confident that Slobodan Milosevic would yield in a matter of days. The Serb forces were more like gangs of roaming thugs than a real army. And as for Milosevic’s regime, it was essentially a criminal enterprise, lacking real legitimacy. Who would be willing to die for such a cause?

But Clinton and his lieutenants misgauged both their adversary and the character of the war on which they had embarked. The Serbs, by husbanding their air defenses, breaking up into small units, and concealing their heavy weapons in villages, proved to be an elusive quarry. Rather than seeing the start of Operation Allied Force as a sure sign of their coming defeat, they used it as a pretext accelerate a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing, creating a flood of refugees that caught the U.S. and its allies flatfooted. Worse, whatever their views on Milosevic, the Serbian people turned out to feel even less kindly toward the foreigners bombing their country. Massive anti-American and anti-NATO demonstrations filled the streets of Belgrade.

AJ

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Andrew J. Bacevich

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IN 1999, President Clinton took the United States into war confident that Slobodan Milosevic would yield in a matter of days. The Serb forces were more like gangs of roaming thugs than a real army. And as for Milosevic’s regime, it was essentially a criminal enterprise, lacking real legitimacy. Who would be willing to die for such a cause?

But Clinton and his lieutenants misgauged both their adversary and the character of the war on which they had embarked. The Serbs, by husbanding their air defenses, breaking up into small units, and concealing their heavy weapons in villages, proved to be an elusive quarry. Rather than seeing the start of Operation Allied Force as a sure sign of their coming defeat, they used it as a pretext accelerate a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing, creating a flood of refugees that caught the U.S. and its allies flatfooted. Worse, whatever their views on Milosevic, the Serbian people turned out to feel even less kindly toward the foreigners bombing their country. Massive anti-American and anti-NATO demonstrations filled the streets of Belgrade.