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The conflict in the former Yugoslavia offers some lessons for policymakers considering how to intervene in Syria. Reuters columnist David Rohde has covered both struggles and sees some parallels.
A Free Syrian Army fighter aims an anti-aircraft gun as he stands on the back of a truck in Deir al-Zor September 4, 2013. Picture taken September 4, 2013. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi (SYRIA – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) – RTX137WO
The war in Syria is not the first conflict to generate calls for outside intervention.
You might recall the NATO airstrikes in the Balkans back in the mid-’90s.
Syria of course is a very different case.
But journalist David Rhode–who’s covered both conflicts–sees some parallels.
Rohde was the first reporter to uncover evidence of the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia where Serbian troops summarily executed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
It was a month after that massacre, that NATO forces launched their bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb targets.
Rohde says the NATO air war is often incorrectly credited with ending the Balkan conflict.