Do those who advocate such a course understand that it may take months to properly build up such an invasion force? How much more misery and devastation will have occurred by then? In this particular conflict. does ratcheting up the violence serve our national interests or. for that matter. the interests of refugees and innocent civilians? Those who say we should pursue victory by any means necessary and at all costs fail to answer the question. what would victory be if in the process it brought us a bitterly hostile Russia. made even more dangerous than the old Soviet Union by the volatile combination of loose nukes and a restive military? Do we strengthen our national security by potentially undoing all the good work that we have done since the fall of the Berlin Wall in getting Russia to be a responsible power? The issue of the refugees is. of course. a terribly. terribly important issue and cannot be dodged by anyone in the debate on Kosovo. I am deeply moved by their plight. The United States has a moral obligation to get Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. help return the refugees in an orderly manner and generally assist in reconstruction. Just as surely. we need to help Albania and Macedonia get up on their feet economically. but we must ask ourselves whether military escalation is the best way to achieve those goals in light of our moral reasoning. which teaches us to preserve human life and limit material destruction as best we can. The problem is now bigger than Kosovo. and America should actively encourage the mediation of a settlement before this crisis flashes over into a wider conflict.
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refugees