Maskirovka

[Saorsa]

Khad:
There is far more to learn from the Serbian Army with its partisan legacy than from the imperialists who tried to suppress them. The Serbian Army almost completely negated NATO's air advantage through disciplined maskirovka and forced it to commit terror against civilian targets.

I'm interested in this. Can you speak a bit more on it?

[khad]

While I don't like this forum to turn into a military wankspot, I will say this. The bombing campaign over Kosovo was a complete fiasco for NATO. Of the over 700 military targets "confirmed" to have been destroyed, only 50 were actually proven. The Serbian army remained well hidden and camouflaged, and the SAM network could not be brought down.

NATO had to increasingly resort to bombing civilian targets in order to achieve any results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia#NATO_operations (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia#NATO_operations)


NATO military operations increasingly attacked Serbian units on the ground; as well as continuing the strategic bombardment. Montenegro (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro) was bombed several times, and NATO refused to prop up the precarious position of its anti-Milošević leader, Milo Đukanović (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_%C4%90ukanovi%C4%87). "Dual-use (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-use)" targets, used by civilians and military, were attacked; the targets included bridges across the Danube (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube), factories, power stations, telecommunications facilities, headquarters of Yugoslavian Leftists (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavian_Leftists), a political party led by Milošević's wife, and the Avala TV Tower (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avala_TV_Tower). Some protested that these actions were violations of international law (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law) and the Geneva Conventions (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions). NATO argued these facilities were potentially useful to the Serbian military and that their bombing was justified.

At the beginning of May, a NATO aircraft hit an Albanian refugee convoy, killing 50 people. NATO admitted the mistake five days later, and the Serbs accused NATO of deliberately attacking the refugees. On May 7, NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Bombing_of_the_Chinese_embassy_in_Belgrade), killing three Chinese journalists. NATO claimed they were firing at Yugoslav positions. The United States and NATO apologized for the bombing, saying it occurred because of an outdated map provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency). The bombing strained relations between the People's Republic of China (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China) and NATO, provoking angry demonstrations outside Western embassies in Beijing (http://anonym.to/?http://anonym.to/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing).