Dyer fooling no one but himself

I refer to Gwynne Dyer's From Bravo Minus to East Timor on page 5 of the Sept. 20 The Jakarta Post.

Mr. Dyer is fooling himself and amusing the rest of us by claiming that NATO planned "a massive ground assault in Kosovo" and that "they would have done it". Proof? They planned "to start building the 145-mile road... to the Kosovo border that would be needed to get heavy armor up there". Also "the size of KFor was doubled to 45,000-50,000 troops".

This is even more amusing coming from, I understand, an ex- army man. Maybe Mr. Dyer would care to explain to the rest of us who lack this military training two things:

First: How would NATO move all these troops and armor down a single 145-mile road over the mountains and through a single gorge without exposing them to Serb fire (we all know by now, except maybe Mr. Dyer, that NATO's "150 destroyed Yugoslav tanks", after all the bombs and hell raised, were in fact 12, and that "10,000 killed Yugoslav soldiers" were in fact 2,000 killed Yugoslav civilians, including ethnic Albanians.

Second: How would NATO win a ground war against Serbia with 50,000 troops when they are not able to simply maintain law and order in the province with no opposition whatsoever with the same number of troops?

But, as usual when it comes to Serbs, Mr. Dyer shoots first and then still does not ask questions.

BRANIMIR SALEVIC

Tangerang, West Java