A little history for those who have forgotten the past. The bloody Kosovo conflict ended only when Nato began airstrikes. Many attempt were made to negotiate peace but Milosevic refused to comply. After mass killings and many atrocities committed (both sides) Nato went on with the strike. The Kosovo conflict erupted in the 1990s between two groups within the former Yugoslavia -- Kosovars, who are primarily ethnic Albanians, and Serbs, who are of Slavic descent. The two groups have long disputed the territory known as Kosovo, and after greater Yugoslavia fractured in the early 1990s, the dispute over Kosovo became violent, pitting the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army against the Serb-dominated government of what remained of Yugoslavia. Seeking to prevent casualties like those that had proliferated in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, NATO -- the military alliance of the United States and western Europe -- edged in 1998 and 1999 toward action against the Serbs, who it viewed as the aggressors. NATO initiated airstrikes on March 24, 1999, a campaign that would continue for the better part of three months, until agreements were reached for Serb forces to withdraw, for the Kosovo Liberation Army to disarm and for refugees to return home. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence; During his second term as president, Clinton pressed Congress to authorize NATO military action in Kosovo. On March 23, 1999, the Senate, by a 58-41 vote, passed a non-binding authorization of force. The Senate resolution backed "military air operations and missile strikes in cooperation with our NATO allies against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)." The day after the Senate passed this resolution, NATO bombing commenced. But the House of Representatives did not vote on the Senate-passed resolution until more than a month later.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 05:28:36 +0000
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