NATO's Balkan Interventions by Allin Dana H.;

Author:Allin, Dana H.; [Dana H. Allin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1774343
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

This statement is reasonable but somewhat problematic. Its larger truth is that the NATO consensus to bomb had been forged by a Serb scorched-earth campaign that started in early 1998, and was resuming in the week before 24 March 1999. Its problem is that NATO had committed itself to launch air strikes if Milosevic did not accept something very close to the Rambouillet agreement. The KLA had agreed to end its insurrection on the basis of this promise. Making good on this moral commitment was perhaps the last chance to reconcile the Albanians to a Western-backed solution. This was a strong reason, but it somewhat undercuts the idea that NATO responded only to massive ethnic cleansing.

It also may be true that the bombing caused Belgrade to accelerate its campaign, hoping to depopulate Kosovo of its Albanian majority before being forced to settle. Proponents of military intervention are at a disadvantage if they want to suggest that war will have a positive effect on political dynamics in the short term. War, as Adam Roberts has observed, means moral chaos, almost by definition;

All major cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the twentieth century have occurred during or immediately after major wars: the chaos and hatred unleashed in war, and the secrecy that wartime conditions engender, can provide the necessary conditions for mass cruelty.29

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