No system is perfect. High tech aircraft, smart weapons and expensively trained pilots, in action night and day over Serbia and Kosovo, will make mistakes. Each pilot in Operation Allied Force knows what is riding on his split second decision making. He must avoid the guns and missiles trying to shoot him down. Flying at 500 mph, he must find his target and identify it positively, and then ensure that his weapon system will strike that target and no other. In the past 6 weeks, NATO has made some 5000 attacks in which perhaps a dozen have caused unintended damage. No previous war has seen so few errors. But in no previous war has getting it right been so important. NATO is fighting to promote a humanitarian aim: the stopping of ethnic cleansing and the return of the displaced people to their homes in Kosovo. It needs to keep its 19 member states agreed on the strategy, and it needs to gather wider international support. If the refugees are to be returned to Kosovo, and provided with food, shelter and security before winter comes, the conflict must be resolved in the next few weeks. Only NATO forces are ready in position to move rapidly into Kosovo and provide a safe environment for its inhabitants. Other nations will contribute in what should ideally be a United Nations combined effort.
Russia and China share with the US, France and Britain, the right to veto United Nations decisions. Their support of NATO's aims in this humanitarian effort is vital. Last week the diplomatic efforts with Russia began to bear fruit. For the first time Russia showed that it was prepared to endorse an armed force, along the lines of the one in Bosnia, to secure the future of Kosovo. Reports were also coming in of China adopting a more flexible line. By Saturday morning, this all changed with the reports of the direct hits on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Somewhere in NATO someone had blundered. The embassy building had been targeted in mistake for a warehouse which stored weapons for the Serbian military. It appears that at some earlier stage, the location of the Embassy had been entered into the target list by mistake. Such human errors will continue to be a feature of warfare - but one of such political significance could not have been anticipated.
The NATO nations will need to work hard to rebuild relations with China. Perhaps this is an opportunity to bring China into the diplomatic discussions in the way that Russia has been increasingly involved over recent weeks. If so, a tragic mistake might in the end help to broker a successful outcome for Kosovo through the United Nations. If the diplomatic process were to halt as a result of a single target plotting error, the hundreds of thousands of desperate Kosovo refugees would be the ultimate losers.