Hello Vladimir,

Thanks for the reply. Far be it from me to try and defend the U.S. as
blameless in the Balkans or in any part of the globe but perhaps I can shed
some light on why things happen (or don't.)

The reason the U.S. didn't intervene earlier when as you strongly indicated
it should was confusion. I'm fairly politically aware - certainly more so
than the average and I couldn't have clearly pointed out who the U.S. should
have supported and why a year ago. This is possibly the fault of the
populace or our media but it does related to other "affairs" having
distracted our attention from where it should be focused. Don't think I
feel this is a good excuse, it's just my take on why things didn't happen.

I would like your opinion on what you think the U.S./NATO should do in the
region, currently.

My concerns as to your ability to respond came from the drying up of all
non-govermental news sources from Yugoslavia. I saw Radio B92 (www.b92.net)
get taken down in a fairly shocking manner. All non-goverment web sites
also stopped responding, having been in the military I'm familiar with what
a news lockdown can be like.

I would challenge the statement about the media discrediting govermental
opponents in this country. Until I went to graduate school this year I
worked for CNN. Although many of it's employees are air-headed and not the
crack investigative reporters you would hope for, they are under no pressure
and have no contact with our goverment. Do they take statements the U.S.
goverment says at face value, sure. But it's due to individual stupidity as
opposed to govermental influence.

There are other U.S. news sources that are much more reliable in these
matters. The times (NY) and Post are the best from a mainstream perspective
but the berst news sources seem to be the "garage" news services. The
Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com) is the most prominent example.

Thank you again for your comments. I really do appreciate them,

Jay Schneider
jay@cs.uoregon.edu
"In a war the first victim is the truth."