A Chicago Tribune report on the 82nd Airborne Division’s atrocities against the Kosovar civilian population is accompanied by an unusually understated and restrained headline: “Pentagon reins in 82nd Airborne peacekeepers for Kosovo excesses” (News, Sept. 19).
“Reins in”?
No one was court-martialed; no senior Army official or member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was fired. No high-level NATO official was reprimanded.
It appears like a Kosovo My Lai; an investigation, a phonebook-size report (1,100 pages) and slaps on the wrist.
“Excesses”?
Rape, murder, torture, sexual fondling and arbitrary beatings are more than mere excesses. They reflect a terrorist nation, with unparalleled military supremacy, using its imperial might to subjugate and terrorize weaker civilian populations.
