Most ordinary Americans probably didn't care about one side or the other since neither had much of a presence in America. Few of us knew the historical conflicts in the region other than Sarajevo that sparked WWI.
I can't remember where the pope was on this one. Certainly nothing like with Iraq.
I don't know where it will end. I see our troops getting out of Iraq before troops leave that region. You simply cannot force people to get along together who have ethnic conflicts with guns and bombs. You just kill a bunch of people and make their life harder than it already was. The resentments are worse than ever AFAIAC.
"I think we made a grievous mistake in hindsight and was never comfortable with what we were doing at the time. People in-the-know seemed to think it was the right thing to do. Now I believe they were wrong."
****** I'm afraid that it wasn't a "mistake". It was planned this way. It was a mistake to plan it, yes..and a mistake to bring in the Islamic fundies, but, I think they took that risk to further the strategy of breaking up the Balkans.....The Serbs were being manipulated and responded with excess force in some cases, but not to the level that it was reported.