Remember when most of the West was on a self-anointed mission to solve the Kosovo conflict? Several months after the U.S.-led NATO air action, no evidence has been produced that demonstrates the "ethnic cleansing on a scale unequaled since Hitler"-the justification for bombing Serbia.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has reported that NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia caused approximately 500 civilian deaths. The Pentagon suggests a much lower figure, claiming that only 20 to 30 incidents resulted in civilian casualties. Of course, the Yugoslav government claims still a different figure, putting the civilian death toll at around 5,000.

Whatever the actual number, this type of report is an embarrassment to NATO and the United States. Instead of a genuine peace, outbursts of fighting are common. Serbian and ethnic Albanian citizens of Yugoslavia still clash violently-in spite of KFOR's presence, and even threatening the safety of the KFOR troops.

To be sure, the Milosevic-directed action against the KLA and innocent citizens was stopped. It remains debatable whether the Milosevic forces achieved their initial objectives or not. The KLA were stopped from bullying and instigating Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population into breaking away from Yugoslavia as an independent republic.

On the other hand, some argue that the KLA is now more firmly ensconced than ever, largely legitimized by its recognition in the fighting. Further, many former KLA members are established as police officers in Kosovo.

Violent acts by KLA sympathizers and Milosevic thugs are regularly in the news. It should come as no surprise that nothing has been resolved. Peace does not come by or through force.

Fearful of a repeat of the accusations that it did nothing when hundreds of thousands were massacred in Rwanda's civil war (or in the slaughter of as many as two million in Sudan), the U.S. administration felt it had to intervene-yet again-in the Balkans.

Now, however, circumstances have rotated 180 degrees, and Stratfor reports that the U.S. administration is looking for a way out of Kosovo. Its motivation is similar to that which initially spurred the NATO action-it wants to avoid a public relations nightmare.

Things are coming unraveled in the Balkans again. There are warnings that yet another struggle may explode in violence in Montenegro, whose democratic reforms are moving it politically away from an unwilling Belgrade. Strife continues inside Serbia, where the Defense Minister during the NATO air strikes was murdered. The leader of an opposition group seeking to oust Milosevic declares, "There is anarchy and chaos" in Yugoslavia ("Yugoslav Vows to Fight Terror After Murder" by Fredrik Dahl, Reuters, February 8, 2000).

Also, threats of turmoil and rumors of armed protest against the Albanian government are coming out of that country. "In the end, Albania, with its inability to resolve long-standing regional, ethnic, and personal feuds, now threatens the security of the force that was inserted to protect the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. In short, the Albanians may accomplish what the Serbs could not-undermine NATO operations in the region" ("Albania/NATO," 2000 WNI).

What started as a potential public relations dream for the United States may yet turn into a nightmare in this historically complex and perennially conflicted part of the world.

Additional sources: "Montenegrins Warn of More Conflict in the Balkans," PRNewswire, February 1, 2000; "Report: NATO Bombing Killed 500 Civilians" by Fredrik Dahl, Reuters, February 7, 2000.