S. was faced with a: "critical test..." (1999) when the Serbs began their assault on the Kosovar Albanians in March 1999" and in fact Starr believes this test was of more consequence than the one posed by Iraq in 1991 because in the Gulf War the United States "faced a clear act of international aggression that threatened to put vast wealth in the hands of a murderous and hostile regime." (Starr, 1999) in Kosovo, the situation was quite different because there was "no obvious strategic or economic interest" which compelled intervention and Milosevic, "unlike Saddam...did not threaten any nation outside his region." (Starr, 1999) the Kosovar Albanians are predominantly Muslims and therefore it was not likely that the U.S. would have assisted in addition to the fact that we had not real ties with Kosovo. Starr writes that it is highly unlikely that the United States would have become involved "if the majority in the Republic House had controlled foreign policy" and notes the statement of John Kasich who said that since the "people of the Balkans have been fighting each other for centuries, we are unlikely to settle their differences." (Starr, 1999) Those who protested involvement in Kosovo cited the possibility of a "quagmire...another Vietnam." (Starr, 1999) Starr writes that seven weeks into the involvement of the United States and NATO, that the operation was being executed from the air and that the U.S. And NATO were: "...wary of any ground involvement and desperate to avoid failure," it appeared that the U.S. And NATO were attempting a "merciless war" from the air as suggested by Tom Friedman of the New York Times who stated "Every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted...the stakes have to be very clear [to the Serbs]: every week you ravage Kosovo is another decade we will set your country back by pulverizing it. You want 1950? We can do 1950. You want 1389? We can do 1389." (Starr, 1999) However, as noted by Starr, this war had been entered with a purpose that was of the nature of "humanitarian" and therefore to bomb the enemy "back to the Middle Ages would undermine the original rationale." (1999) Starr states that there was a better, although more risky alternative which was mobilization of "overwhelming force on the ground" which was more likely to result in surrender of the Serbs, less civilian deaths and "full autonomy for the Kosovars within what would necessarily be, for some time, an international protectorate." (Starr, 1999)

III. STARTLING SERBS to the REALITY of VIOLENCE WITH BOMBS

Nevertheless, bombing did take place as evidenced from the work of Laura Rozen (1999) entitled: "Outlaw Nation?" published by the Salon website states that a Serbian translator who has assisted Western journalists in covering the Kosovo crisis stated "You have the most disgusting president in the world. He's a pig and he's a bastard." (Rozen, 1999) the Serbian translator, named Sasha was speaking from Belgrade on the second night of the airstrikes by NATO against her country." (Rozen, 1999) Rozen reports that Sasha went to college at an American university and has many friendships with Americans and has "even flirted with the idea of immigrating to the United States. Unlike most of her fellow Serbian citizens, she has seen firsthand the devastation and violence Serbian security forces have unleashed on the ethnic Albanian citizens of Serbia's southern province of Kosovo, in her role helping journalists cover the crisis. But despite her many ties with the United States and direct knowledge of the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo that triggered NATO involvement, Sasha's hatred of the U.S. And NATO is raw. And understandable, after a sleepless night punctuated by air raid sirens, arrests of foreign journalists in her charge and the explosion of 2,000-pound precision-guided bombs not far from her family's home in a suburb of the Serbian capital, Belgrade." (Rozen, 1999) According to Rozen, "For the first time since World War II, Serbs are experiencing war in their own territory." (1999) While the Serbian government has assisted in perpetrating war through support of Bosnia and Croatia - wars that have altogether killed almost 300,000 people. War has now come to Belgrade..." (1999) the war mafia in Belgrade was stated by Rozen to have been "reactivating, with Zeljko Raznatovic 'Arkan' showing up at Belgrade's Hyatt Hotel tea room to intimidate remaining foreign journalists and calling for volunteers to staff his paramilitary thus armies in Kosovo." (1999) However, NATO, with the airstrikes which "shattered and...

The trappings of civilized European life have blinded many Serbian citizens to the atrocities that have been committed in the name of Serbian security forces in Kosovo." (Rozen, 1999) Rozen goes on to relate that while the Serbians are outraged, the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are quite used to "the proximity, terror and uncertainty of conflict. Over the course of the past year, some 400,000 Kosovo Albanians - almost a quarter of the population - have been forced to flee Serbian security forces, who have gratuitously torched villages after shelling the people out. Some 2,000 people have been killed, many in cold blood." (1999)
The work of Lituchy (2000) entitled: "KFOR and the Crime of Genocide" reporting the issue brought before the International Tribunal in June 2000 states that: "The United Nations Convention on genocide specifically mentions five actions, which, when carried out against a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in a deliberate attempt to destroy that group in full or in part, fall under the definition of crimes of genocide." (Lituchy, 2000) Those actions are stated by Lituchy (2000) to be: (1) killing members of that group; (2) causing grievous bodily or spiritual; (3) enforcing living conditions designed to exterminate that group; (4) preventing births from that group; and (5) removing the children of that groups and transferring them to another group." (Lituchy, 2000) According to Lituchy (2000) there is evidence that all of the five listed previously "pertain to NATO/KFOR's occupation and aggression in Kosovo..." (2000) Lituchy states that the American and British NATO forces "attacked the so-called KFOR occupation army in Kosovo- Carried out, either by themselves or in collaboration with the KLA, numerous acts that fall under the United Nations' definition of crimes of genocide against members of the Serbian, national minorities in Kosovo." (2000) it appears that the Serbs did not mind so much the killing, destruction, abuse and violence, that is, as long as it was not committed to them, in their homes and in their neighborhoods. It is unfortunate that more violence had to ensue to gain the attention of the Serbs and to bring the Serbs in Kosovo to the point of negotiation instead of a continual genocide against other ethnicities in the region.

The work of Woehrel and Kim (2006) entitled: "Kosovo and U.S. Policy" reports that in 2002 an exit strategy was stated which included a "series of benchmarks for Kosovo's institutions and society that should be achieved before addressing Kosovo's final status." Those benchmarks included:

The existence of effective, representative and functioning institutions;

Rule of law;

Freedom of movement;

Sustainable returns and reintegration;

Development of a sound basis for a market economy;

Clarity of property rights;

Normalized dialogue with Belgrade;

Reduction and transformation of the Kosovo Protection Corps in line with its mandate. (Woehrel and Kim, 2006)

IV. KOSOVO TALKS ENTER FINAL PHASE (FEBRUARY 2007)

In February 2007 the work entitled: "Kosovo Talks Enter Final Phase; March Deadline Set" relates that the future of Kosovo has, entered in to the phase of final talks in Vienna Austria..." And reported is a settlement "developed by the United Nations" which is the best solution known that has the capacity to finalize the years of ethnic conflict that have ensued in the Kosovo region. (Crawley, 2007) U.S. representative Kyle Scott is stated to have informed U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari that: "after years of uncertainty, it is now time for us to resolve the last major unsettled issues related to the breakup of Yugoslavia." (Crawley, 2007) on February 2, Ahtisaari, former president of Finland is stated to have "proposed that Kosovo govern itself democratically and be allowed to make international agreements while remaining, at least temporarily, under international supervision." (Crawley, 2007) the United Nations has administered Kosovo, which is in the province of Serbia since 1999. While there is assistance of international parties with the negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, it will depend on Kosovo and Serbia to form a lasting agreement. Scott stated that:…