Five Reasons Why the U.S. Won't Intervene in Serbia

Okay, it's a ridiculous question to anyone paying attention. Still, that hasn't stopped news anchors asking all day whether the U.S. might send in the troops to help overthrow Milosevic. Here, in descending order of importance, are the reasons it won't:

5. The U.S. and its Western allies have no stomach for getting involved in a civil war.

4. Russia could not tolerate Western occupation of Serbia, but it could make the diplomatic interventions that would ease Milosevic out.

3. There's no easy target. The West prefers to fight from the air, which would be disastrous in this situation. And many police and army units are likely to join the anti-Milosevic camp, which would make attacking them counterproductive.

2. Thus far the Yugoslav army has not used violence against the population, and troops may rebel if Milosevic orders them to. Western intervention, though, would actually help Milosevic because it would force the army to defend the country.

1. The Serb opposition doesn't want NATO intervention. They don't even like NATO. The opposition has taken strongly anti-NATO positions in light of Serb anger following last year's bombing, and military intervention could even stampede Serbs back into Milosevic's arms.