Operation Deny Flight

The Bosnian War, a horrible conflict in which almost 2 million lives were lost, was a terrible tragedy, yet could have gone on far longer than it did if not for intervention from NATO forces. The Republika Sprska, the Serbian forces in Bosnia,, were running rampant and committing horrid atrocities, some of which we read about in Sarajevo. UN forces intervened, but they could not end the conflict without support, leading NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the famous coalition of North American and Western European nations founded in the Cold War, to take action. Aside from the humanitarian issues, the former nations of Yugoslavia encompassed most of the Balkan region, an area once Communist yet fiercely independent. NATO saw the conflict as destabilizing the post-Cold War peace and running the risk of dragging down some of the neighboring fledgling democracies. Operation Deny Flight was created in 1994 and locked down the airspace above former Yugoslavia, yet it was clear after some time that this was not enough. NATO soon began to use their crushing air superiority to tactically bomb Republika Sprska targets, seeking to undermine their combat effectiveness. The bombings met heavy resistance from Serbian Surface-to-Air Missiles, or SAMs. Several planes were shot out of the sky by Serbian anti-air. The sorties were numerous and successful, but they weren't enough and the Serbians carried out the massacre of Srebrenica, where 8,000 were brutally murdered. In response the atrocity, NATO ramped up their bombings with a new operation, Operation Deliberate Force. More sorties and closer support of the UN peacekeepers was the goal of the operation, and it succeeded in fine style. Milosevic was forced, in part, by NATO 's air campaign to sign the Daytona Peace Accords. Operation Deny Flight was an example of a resoundingly successful intervention by NATO. If only Afghanistan were so successful!