Dear Dave, if your own people in the State Department have concluded that Gotovina is not guilty of the crimes for which he is charged, and then you go before the Senate and claim that he is guilty, then you have a problem. To my knowledge, no one in the State Department claims that Saddam is not guilty, so your comparison is off point.
Did they happen in Operation Storm? No, because the population had -- almost all of it had already left before the Croatian military entered the towns and, therefore, there were basically no people there for them to terrorise.
against the counts in Gotovina's indictment, you'd find that Gotovina is charged for crimes against those Serbs who stayed behind long enough to fall under the control of his troops.
Ergo, Galbraith's comments don't get Gotovina off the hook for his date with the ICTY, as the fact that x Serbs escaped doesn't allow Croats to ignore what happened to those who stayed behind and were victimized by Croatian forces.
If the Croats are so hell bent on getting Gotovina off the hook, all they need to do is submit proof to the fact that somebody else was in charge of Croatian troops during the pertinent time frame, and the ICTY can then indict the proper party for the crimes enumerated in Gotovina's indictment.
So all Croatia needs to do is find a willing scapegoat to take the fall for their hero.
However, as this hasn't happened yet, it would appear that patriotic volunteers for that particular duty are in short supply. Go figure.
Was there anyone in the Croatian/Serbian/Kosovo war that wasnt guilty of some war crime?