Should NATO Have Bombed Serbia

Should NATO Have Bombed Serbia

In this debate, my proposal is that NATO should not have bombed Serbia. The Serbian National Assembly had on 23^rd March made a counter-proposal just a day before the NATO started bombing. The NATO rejected out of hand the counter-proposal and even in pro-war narratives, it is either given a passing mention or ignored. Herring (2000) explains that NATO rejected the exploration of compromise potential between the Serbian National Assembly and Rambouillet plan that involved Kosovo’s autonomy and human rights guarantees rather than independence. The U.S was not only uninterested in the counterproposal of the Serbian but it expected and wanted Serbia to reject Rambouillet. The fact that NATO said that they had no alternative to bombing was humiliating to Serbia because they should have taken no action as it was more harmful to human rights. NATO should have at least sought compromise and even if MILOSEVIC refused the compromise, bombing should not have been the solution especially considering the escalation it triggered.

References

Herring, E. (2000). From Rambouillet to the Kosovo accords: NATO’S war against Serbia and its aftermath. The International Journal Of Human Rights, 224-245(4:3-4). Retrieved from https://ericherring.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/eh-nato-war-on-serbia-00.pdf