[Bulwyf]

Serbia was not the aggressor. There are far larger things at play, but I can tell you won’t be and to have your worldview challenged to that extent.

[Rockingham]

I heard the whole megillah from a female Serbian grad student of my acquaintance when the fighting started. My conclusion was that it was a complex Balkan mess of competing ethnic, national, and religious antagonisms that were driven by the goal of Slobodan Milošević and his allies for a Greater Serbia to arise out of the wreckage of Yugoslavia. That still seems correct.

As it was, Slovenia and Croatia made it out as new nations after a brief struggle, as did Macedonia later, but the primarily Muslim sub-states of Bosnia and Kosovo came into prolonged conflict with Serbian military and paramilitary forces. Everyone engaged in ethic cleansing and atrocities to some degree, but the Serbs got the blame for being the aggressor and doing more of it than their adversaries.

Other powers and forces were involved, of course, but I am not sure what you mean by "far larger things at play." I am willing to hear your views.