For three years now, croatia has been biding its time—stockpiling weapons, training young men and waiting for the right moment to attack the Serbian nationalists who control more than a quarter of the country. Now the moment is almost at hand. With winter nearly over, the stand-down that has kept Croatia and other Balkan battlegrounds relatively quiet is about to end. Croatia has threatened to throw United Nations peacekeepers out of the country, starting at the end of this month. If they go, all hell is likely to break loose in Croatia and in neighboring Bosnia, where U.N. troops could also be forced out. And if fighting erupts, someone will have to cover the withdrawal of the peacekeepers. That need could put U.S. combat troops precisely where successive American presidents have said they shouldn't go: on the blood-soaked ground of the Balkans.
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