About That Triumphant Air War...

I found this interesting tidbit buried in an AP story about the new Israeli drones on Sunday:

During NATO's aerial onslaught against Serbia in 1999, for example, Serbian quickly forces [sic - should be "forces quickly"] shot down 42 U.S. drones, drastically reducing the effectiveness of the bombing campaign.

This is the first such admission in the West to date.

Back in 1999, the Serbian media (and a handful of proto-bloggers and internet ur-journalists) claimed that Yugoslav AA defenses had shot down a number of NATO aircraft. NATO spokescritters routinely dismissed these claims as propaganda. In some instances, though, such as when the footage of the wrecked F-117 traveled around the world, denial was impossible.

Still, those who knew a thing or two about military operations thought it odd that NATO aircraft kept on flying at very high altitudes. Or that the Apache helicopters never saw combat, but rather mysteriously "crashed" into nonexistent power lines in northern Albania.

Now we have admission that Serbian air defenses did hurt the Alliance after all. And it comes from the same media that shamelessly repeated NATO lies at the time, over ten years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.