[PEN-L:7000] (Fwd) NATO GROUND TROOPS NEEDED - PENTAGON REPORT

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Date sent:              Tue, 18 May 1999 11:38:58 -0700
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Subject:                NATO GROUND TROOPS NEEDED - PENTAGON REPORT

Reuters                                                                 May 17, 1999

PENTAGON REPORT: NATO GROUND TROOPS NEEDED

        There is a growing sense in the 
        military that time is running out.

Washington — Pentagon chiefs have warned the Clinton 
administration that it cannot achieve its aims in Yugoslavia without 
the use of ground troops, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.
        The Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a letter to Defense Secretary 
William Cohen a few weeks ago saying "that only ground troops 
would guarantee fulfillment of the administration's political 
objectives," said the report in the current issue, which goes on sale 
Monday.
        The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the report.
        NATO, which launched an air campaign against Yugoslavia on 
March 24, is seeking to oust Serb troops from Kosovo and secure 
the return of ethnic Albanians to the Serbian province.
        Newsweek reported that "there are some in the Pentagon who 
see the letter as just a classic case of the brass covering its 
collective backside."
        "But there is a growing sense in the military that time is running 
out," the report added.
        Pentagon sources estimate that there are 600,000 people living 
out in the open in Kosovo, and 200,000 under shelter but displaced 
from their homes, according to Newsweek.
        "A ground war would have to commence by the beginning of 
August, and the forces required must start assembling by the 
beginning of June," the magazine said, apparently citing the same 
Pentagon sources.
        In London, British officials said Sunday there was no truth to 
reports of a split between Britain and the United States over the 
conduct of NATO's campaign against Yugoslavia.
        "It is a work of fiction," a spokesman for British Prime Minister 
Tony Blair's office said of a Sunday Times newspaper report that 
Blair felt "a deep sense of frustration" with President Clinton after 
failing to persuade him to commit ground troops to Kosovo.