You know I have heard that repeated at least 100 times, and no one ever says, "We should have let the people of the Balkans settle it themselves, and outsiders (America and the rest of Europe) should have stayed out of it." Why does no one ever say that?
There was a reason that this region was called "The Bloody Balkans". Most people think that it is because those who live there are "exceptional violent", but I think it is because Western Powers are always trying to "manage them" and get frustrated when Balkaners don't follow their "plans" to the letter. They fight back.
I am of the mindset that says, if I claim the right to live free, then who am I to deny that right to others? If I claim the right to self-determination, then how can I deny it to others? If I claim the right to self-management, then how can I deny it to others? If they are willing to fight and die for those ideals, who am I to stop them?
The people of the Balkans are not children and if I don't want to live under the thumb of some "Big Brother" then why should I feel the right to foist that on someone else?
Left to their own devices, without the US and Europeans involved, I believe that the break-up of Yugoslavia would have been far less bloody and would have been settled by now, permanently (or as "permanent" as any political settlement ever is). But instead, we have created phony countries (Bosnia, Kosovo) that will fall apart and descend into war the second we loosen our iron grip on the area. We didn't "stop a war", we just set up the conditions for a coming war. No one will thank us. They will just hate our guts and blame us for it.
We screwed the pooch on this and will be living with the consequences of that for a long time. Our involvement in the Balkans was not only not in America's interests, it was specifically AGAINST America's interests.
I know in some quarters (the secret Bourbon councils I attend) that's not considered all that long, but realistically it doesn't cut it to say Bosnia is a "phony" country.