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Just like U.S. forces in Fallujah and everywhere in Iraq, Serb forces in Kosovo knew very well that insurgents deliberately mix with the civilian population, often wearing civilian clothes themselves and often sheltering in mosques, snipe at the army and then cry foul (making excellent propaganda points) when troops get scared and angry for the deaths of their colleagues and start shooting indiscriminately against anything that moves.

Both the Serbian and the U.S. military in Kosovo and Iraq respectively have had explicit orders to avoid civilian casualties. The notion that their political or military leadership gave orders or implicit encouragement for the shooting of civilians makes no sense (and therefore reeks of hypocrisy), because, if for no other reason, such orders would be politically and militarily extremely stupid. More than 200 Yugoslav army troops were court martialed for war crimes in Kosovo. In Iraq, despite the higher number of civilian casualties, fewer troops are publicly known to have been disciplined.

So, Pythagorean, the Serbs in Kosovo are the moral equivalent to the Americans in Iraq. Sounds like somebody’s been busy reading their Chomsky again! Well, let's break it down. In Kosovo, when the Serbs went in [a]pproximately 863,000 civilians sought or were forced into refuge outside Kosovo and an additional 590,000 were internally displaced" making 1,453,000 or close to 90% of the Kosovar-Albanian population driven from their homes out of a pre-war population of about 1.7 million. In Iraq, with a population of 25,000,000; when the Americans went in, the refugees going out never materialized and instead, most of the 200,000 Iraqi refugees Hussein previously drove into Iran have now returned. So its real easy for you, here's the comparison: Serbs in Kosovo= refugees out, Americans in Iraq = refugees return.

Since YOU brought this up, lets take a look at some other comparisons, like what was left of the schools in Kosovo after the Serbs were done: UNICEF survey finds half of Kosovo's primary schools destroyed or severely damaged. versus Iraq where we find "the U.S. military reconstructing 2,000 schools". Another simple comparison: Serbs in Kosovo = destroyed schools, Americans in Iraq = new schools.

Then there are the 700,000 Kosovar Albanians whose homes were damaged or destroyed, to include 50,000 beyond repair in the Serbs ethnic cleansing campaign. And as Colonel Crosland testified earlier: “…the very small hamlet of Prilep on the Decani-Djakovica road was probably 40 to 50 centimetres high; all the houses been bulldozed flat. That is the level of destruction we're talking about, and that was throughout.” Let’s compare that to Fallujah, the worst damaged town in Iraq, a place where an actual battle was fought: ”Residents who fled the city will be allowed to re-enter their neighborhoods after security is complete, rubble and sewage are cleared and humanitarian aid is available, Maj. M. Naomi Hawkins of the U.S. 4th Civil Affairs Group said. Restoration will take place in a section-by-section process, with the first areas re-opening within two weeks, she said. Civilians will be paid $2,500 per home for damage repair, she said, and Marines have allotted $40 million for death claims and reconstruction. The U.S. government has set aside $89.12 million for 99 specific U.S.-sponsored projects scheduled to begin in Falluja…” So, Serbs in Kosovo = deliberately destroyed villages. Americans in Iraq = Millions to rebuild battle-damaged towns.

As for civilian casualties, I’ll go with 6,000 in Kosovo, but I’m open if you want to adjust that up or down some. Given the respective populations of Kosovo and Iraq, that’s the equivalent of about 83,000 Iraqis. But first, Pythagorean, why don’t you tell me how many civilians the United States has killed in Iraq so we can make a comparison?

Pythag - why is it that when I read your posts I'm always underwhelmed by the effort you put into verifying your information?

You claimed that over 200 Yugoslav army troops were court martialed for war crimes in Kosovo when as of October 2002, there had been only 4 soldiers brought up on war crime charges, and I haven't seen any reporting of further prosecutions by the military.

Perhaps you were just confusing the VJ's prosecution of deserters and those who failed to report for duty with prosecutions for war crimes:

Reports of the arrest, prosecution, sentencing and imprisonment of conscientious objectors, draft evaders and deserters continue to be received by Amnesty International -even though the "state of war" in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has officially been ended. Estimates of the number of such cases currently before military courts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia begin at 4,000 and extend as high as 30,000. A former head of the Legal Department of the Yugoslav Army Supreme Command put the number of cases at 23,000, according to information received by Amnesty International in July. The Montenegrin Helsinki Committee has estimated that proceedings have been brought against 14,000 individuals in that republic alone. According to a press report from July, Colonel Ratko Korlat, President of the Belgrade Military Court, has stated that his court is dealing with 2,400 cases - with an additional 1,900 cases under investigation. source

Considering that not a single prosecution has been mounted in response to any of the mass graves uncovered in Serbia since 2001, your attempt to equate Serbian efforts at policing themselves with ours can only be described as a rather lame attempt at humor on your part.

Quit wasting your time defending the indefensible.