The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #56975   Message #898290
Posted By: Forum Lurker
25-Feb-03 - 11:03 AM
Thread Name: BS: Saddam Has Got To Go
Subject: RE: BS: Saddam Has Got To Go
I didn't say that their actions were wrong, I said they were not quite as effective as they might have been. I certainly don't think that they should have stood by and waited for the UN to act. The airstrikes first targeted anti-air platforms, which makes perfect sense. Then, they were used to attack concentrations of troops, again standard military strategy when you have air superiority. My only objection is that once the Serbian army was in disarray, the NATO land forces which, as I recall, were already present in the region, were not moved in to assist the Kosovars still within the Serbian borders. Normal strategy when you have air superiority is to use it to back up ground troops, not try to do everything with nominally "smart" bombs. This is especially the case when your primary concern is not the military defeat of your opponent, but preventing him from massacring unarmed civilians. The killing kept on after NATO started. I think it would have ended faster had more forces been committed.