I heard on NPR, people in the know, speculating about it possibly lasting five to ten years in a comparison with Vietnam discussion. Someone also said there should be more efforts to capture and try Milosevic before we put in ground troops, while still others said we've stalled long enough, send in ground troops and get it over with.

Read a really interesting editorial today (originally printed in the April 4th edition of the L.A. Times), by Bill Press, of CNN's Crossfire, about how, in 1992, George Bush failed to back Milan Panic, a Serb/American who with Bush's permission, accepted the position of Prime Minister in Yugoslavia (offered by Milisevic)on the condition that Milo step down. Milo did thinking Panic would be putty in his hands. Once Panic was in Belgrade, Milo reneged.

Panic ran in the election against Milosevic and lost mostly because of really blatant campaign fraud, state-controlled media which refused to air his campaign ads, and because the majority of people who were going to vote for Panic were university students who were told go home to vote and lose all education bennies or stay at school and keep your grants and housing. In addition tens of thousands were turned away from the polls and many mre found their names were removed from voting lists.

According to the editorial, Panic lost out on two important lines of support: when he appealed to the Bush administration for support and willingness to work with him, after the election, to lift sanctions and support a democratic economy, Bush remained silent for fear of alienating Milosevic. And, the Albanians in Kosovo boycotted the election, instead of backing someone who would have tried to bring democracy to the country, even after Milo had stripped them of their autonomy in 1989.

Anyway, the day after the election, an international team reported massive fraud and asked for a rematch, which Milo absolutely ignored. Press believes if the US had pitched in to help elect a democratic alternative, we might not be where we are over there now. BTW, Press worked for abrief time, over there, on Panic's election team.

Word from my niece in Aviano, Italy is it is tense, but they are all watching out for each other's safety. They had a birthday party for "bet's" 3 yr old grandson there, yesterday. Almost made it to his grandma's birthday!

A Plea for World Peace, indeed.

katlaughing