Anatomy of Failure by Harlan Ullman

Author:Harlan Ullman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682472262
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2017-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

War in Slovenia (1991)

Croatian war of independence (1991–95)

Bosnian-Herzegovina war (1992–95)

Kosovo war (1998–99), including the NATO bombing

Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999–2001)

Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001).

Both the UN and NATO were deeply engaged in these conflicts. Of particular relevance was the 1999 NATO intervention to halt the killing of ethnic Kosovars by the Serbs. However, the earlier wars set the precedent. Massacres and murders had become commonplace. Ultimately, a combination of NATO no-fly zones and air strikes throughout the early to mid-1990s produced the Dayton Accords of November 1995. Peace was obtained, more or less and temporarily, and an external peacekeeping force of 60,000 was ordered into the former Yugoslavia.

The year 1999 was not a good one for the Clintons. The House had passed articles of impeachment on December 19, 1998, citing perjury in Clinton’s sworn testimony in the Monica Lewinski and Paula Jones scandals as “high crimes and misdemeanors.” On February 12, the Senate voted not to convict Clinton on the two articles of impeachment. Meanwhile, a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of NATO in 1949 and the signing of the Washington Treaty was being planned for a summit to be hosted by Clinton in Washington, D.C., on April 23–24.

But between the Senate vote and the NATO summit, action would have to be taken in Kosovo. “Ethnic cleansing,” a euphemism for genocide, had grown out of hand and had to be stopped. The antecedents were as noted above, and a complete account of this episode must be left to the many pieces written on the war. But in brief, the prior year, on June 9, 1998, because of the brutal treatment Yugoslavia and Serbia were inflicting on Kosovars, Clinton had announced a “national emergency.” On September 23, 1998, UNSCR 1199 had been approved in reaction to horrendous reports that over 230,000 Kosovars had been forced to flee by the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav army. The resolution demanded an end to hostilities and an immediate cease-fire. The next day, NATO’s North Atlantic Council (NAC), which consisted of senior representatives from each member state, issued an “activation warning” as a preparation for air operations to halt the forced dislocation and killing of the Kosovars.

Meanwhile, shuttle diplomacy was aimed at arranging a cease-fire. To empower that effort, on October 13 the NAC issued activation orders for a limited, phased air campaign in Yugoslavia aimed at stopping the genocide, to begin within four days. The threat worked, and Serbian withdrawal began at the end of October. But the ceasefire broke down in December; fighting resumed and increased over the new year. In the meantime, on February 6, 1999, talks for another cease-fire began in Rambouillet, outside Paris, France. Killings continued, including the Račk massacre, when forty-five Kosovar Albanian farmers were summarily executed by the Serbs.

On March 18, 1999, Albanian, American, and British delegations signed the Rambouillet Accords. However, the Yugoslav and Russian delegations refused. Events disintegrated rapidly. On March 22, the international monitors

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