Post Scripts: What’s the use?

Well … cut my legs off and call me "Shorty."

Remember our involvement in Yugoslavia and the wasted money we spent there trying to stop ethnic battles that have gone on for centuries? Remember Slobodan Milosevic, who was branded a war criminal by several nations, including the U.S., and whom almost everybody expected to stand trial at The Hague for war crimes?

Guess what? The St. Joseph News-Press on Monday carried a story that top officials in Belgrade, Yugoslovia, formally declared "President Slobodan Milosevic" a candidate for reelection Sunday. This decision was based upon a petition drive intended to emphasize his level of support in the country. How many of those signatures were obtained illegally or at gun point, we’ll probably never know.

Meanwhile, NATO military leaders are concerned over rising tensions in Kosovo and increasing military activity by Milosevic’s army, just across the border in Serbia. These forces are the same ones responsible for much of the ethnic cleansing that sparked our air war against Yugoslavia. All this proves that we accomplished little in the conduct of our little war there. The U.S. is still searching for ways to recast its strategy in the Balkans, even if it means finding compromise with a leader it only recently reviled.

I am not a military expert by any means, but I do know that at the Command and General Staff School over at Fort Leavenworth, some of the best young minds in our Armed Forces were suggesting that the best way to root out the evil in Yugoslavia was to invade that nation with ground troops and take over the land. We did little with our air power there – only irritated the Chinese by bombing their embassy and ruining the nation’s infrastructure. We could not claim victory there, even after spending many billions of dollars in a conflict that has endured for many centuries and defies solution.

What did our noble effort in that Godforsaken land accomplish? All we accomplished was to add another uncivilized nation to our baby-sitting list. What was it that we won in Kosovo? We won the right to referee the barroom brawl between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians – plus we get to rebuild the bar. What did our efforts there have to do with national security? Not much. It was just another adventure which is draining away our national resources that we may need one day to defend ourselves.

By the time we ended our "mission" there, we had completely used up our stock of cruise missiles. The useable life of many of our aircraft was shortened. We even used B-2 bombers from Whiteman Air Force base in Knob Noster, Mo., in the longest bombing missions ever attempted.

Still today, some U.S. "peacekeepers" are "over there." There is no doubt our presence in Yugoslavia, with assistance of other nations, helped out. But where is the victory? Have our sacrifices there been of benefit to the American people? What good will come from our efforts?

Where, one wonders, does foreign policy come into play?

And why is it we have become the world’s policemen, and has it been worth the cost? Who are the Americans who demand these continuing sacrifices? What good will come of it all?