Kyle Hendrix: Week One

Did NATO have the right to intervene in Kosovo? This question appeared frequently throughout this week's required reading. The concept of outside intervention in a conflict has occurred frequently throughout history and this moral dilemma is one that many world superpowers face.  Taking a look at the conflict in Kosovo, the article that I felt addressed this issue the best was the discussion between Robert Skidelsky and Michael Ignatieff. Robert argues that NATO’s involvement in the Kosovo conflict was unjust and the aerial bombing of Serbia was an inappropriate action. Michael justifies NATO’s intrusion stating that Serbia was in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I am inclined to agree with the idea that NATO should not have intervened, mainly because I don’t believe NATO had a firm grasp on the situation. NATO perceived the aggression of the Serbian forces against the KLA and the removal of the Albanians as a violation of human rights. According to the interview with the Serbian fighters, the belief was that they were fighting KLA "terrorist" groups. These terrorist groups couldn’t be identified until they started shooting. KLA soldiers that would repeatedly change in and out of civilian clothes and utilize guerrilla tactics to try to gain advantage over the Serbian forces. Imagine the difficultly with trying to confront a force that you can’t accurately identify. I draw direct similarities to the issues that the United States had during the Vietnam War, and the War in Afghanistan. In this case I can, in a way, see the removal of the Albanian people to try and identify exactly whom the Serbians were fighting. On the other hand, the KLA fighters explain that oppression and “ethnic cleansing” have been occurring for a long time before the KLA was formed. There are historical references in Rwanda and Syria that would lead me to consider intervention as the right course of action. I have reservation in saying that one side was, without a doubt, the victim and the other the aggressor. Altogether, this leads me to believe that NATO shouldn’t have been involved militarily.