Does anybody know how many US troops are still on the Balkans? Isn't slowly becoming a rule or tradition that the brave US "bombs some stuff" and the "fucking retarded" Europeans then babysit for the next few decades? Atlantic Review - A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni
Depending on your meaning of Europe, in what way was the Balkan mess "its own"? (Example: you interpret Europe to mean the EU, and so the mess would not be in the EU but in its "back yard", a problematic concept in itself) There are subtle ways in which Powell's Pottery Barn rule applies to the EU-12 and the Balkan Wars, but is that what you're thinking about?
See also this thread for a look a who is actually busy cleaning up messes not of their own making (the US deployment in Iraq doesn't count: the pottery barn rule applies).
In any case, in the 10 years since the war in Bosnia the EU has developed its Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Defence Agency precisely to address its failures in the Balkan wars. Some attempt has been made to learn from past mistakes, especially so that US bombing or troops is not necessary.
Who's cleaning up Israel's mess in Lebanon? Nothing is 'mere'. — Richard P. Feynman
