WASHINGTON, – While U.S. forces have been defending freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq, another mission to protect local populations from brutality and oppression has been winding down in the Balkans. That mission holds important lessons for operations currently under way in Iraq, U.S. forces in Kosovo say. In 1999, 38,000 NATO forces were in Kosovo to establish and maintain a secure environment, enforce compliance with agreements that ended a campaign of ethnic cleansing by former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, and provide assistance to the U.N. Mission in Kosovo. Today, there are less than 18,000 multinational troops on the ground, of...