World

Europe's Nasty Neighborhood

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 23, 1999 / 2:42 PM EST / CBS

There are no neat, self-contained little wars in the Balkans. Borders there mean less than religious and ethnic ties. The Balkans are a synonym for instability. They were the tinderbox of World War I.

Europeans fear the new fire in their Balkan backyard could spread. ItÂ's a nightmare scenario: Albanian refugees from Kosovo destabilize neighboring Macedonia, which already has a sizeable Albanian minority. Albania itself becomes involved. Then Greece and Turkey, NATO countries with a history of mutual distrust, are sucked into a widening conflict. No wonder the Europeans are worried.

CBS News Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton

What Americans find harder to understand is the European reaction. Call in Uncle Sam, in the guise of NATO, to put out the fire. Asking for American help is a habit that dies hard in Europe, despite its new European Union and American-size economy.

Europe is Balkanized itself. Fifteen sovereign nations cannot conduct a foreign policy, negotiate a peace, or carry out a major military assault without American help. ItÂ's as simple as that. Europe doesnÂ't have the military hardware to carry out a large scale air campaign on its own. And it doesnÂ't have the political guts to send in soldiers as peacekeepers without American troops to accompany them.

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To add to the anguish, Europeans watch have been watching endless pictures of burning homes and fleeing civilians on their television news, the same pictures Americans watch, only here it is happening next door.

Even so, the spectacle of American bombs and missiles raining down on a sovereign European country deeply disturbs many ordinary Europeans. All the arguments you hear in America are echoed here in governments and the media. Some say an attempt to bomb the Serbs into signing on the dotted line is international blackmail. Others fear it will only inflame the conflict in Kosovo.

But a majority now seem to believe that it is the only thing left to do, if worse massacres are to be avoided. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, summed up the mood in Parliament: "We have no alternative but to act, and act swiftly".

Written by CBS News Senior European Correpsondent Tom Fenton
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