Turn on Fox News, and you'd think America's technology-driven military sprung from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's head, fully formed.
But many of the high-tech hallmarks of the American campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq -- Predator drones and JDAM satellite-guided bombs, to name two -- first saw major combat in Kosovo, under former NATO commander, and new presidential candidate, General Wesley Clark.
The 78-day air war in Kosovo had more than its share of controversies, of course. The decision not to use ground forces to oust the Serbs seemed cowardly, to some. The drip-drap approach to bombing in the war's early days couldn't have been further from "shock and awe." Air Force officials at the time called it a "disgrace." Matters only got worse when a mis-targeted American smart bomb flattened the Chinese embassy in Sarajevo, touching off an international incident.
But, in the end, 1999's "Operation Allied Force" forced Serb troops out of Kosovo -- without a single combat casualty. And in that fight, the Pentagon began implementing a number of advances that have become central to its more recent military triumphs.
My Tech Central Station article has more.
THERE'S MORE: Jeff Quinton has a round-up of the mostly nasty things people are writing about Gen. Clark.
AND MORE: Oh, boy. This is no good.
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