[bob808]

... he was REAL quick to sell those same Serbs down the river if he got slapped too hard...

Agreed.

He was a petty thug...

Agreed, as I've said. How many times do I have to repeat myself on that?

However, the one aspect you are overlooking is that he was the petty thug fighting bin-Laden's buddies. The Northern Alliance may not be a shining model of the democratic process, but would it make sense for us to start bombing them too?

[Poohbah]

My main complaint with the diverse peoples of the Balkans is that they have an uncanny knack for dragging in the Great (or Not-So-Great) Powers into their mess. Better that we simply eliminate the ENTIRE problem (call it "removing an attractive nuisance" or "global hazard mitigation") as opposed to tolerating part of it until we find out that we have bought ourselves even more trouble.

Once you consider relative transportation infrastructures, Afghanistan is far enough away from anything we give a damn about--the Balkans are RIGHT NEXT to the Mediterranean and Europe, two areas that we DO care about.