"It's very hard if you've been in Bosnia not to think Milosevic is a pretty horrible guy," he said.

Bass said the public feels the NATO waited too long during the ethnic cleansing by Bosnian Serbs before intervening. Now, he said, the U.S. wants to avoid making the same mistake in this new Balkan conflict.

"We made the '95 bombings of the Bosnian Serbs seem so easy," Bass said. "[It] gave Clinton the idea that 'I don't have to put a bunch of divisions in Albania and Macedonia before going ahead."

Alvis, following Bass's lead noted that the situation in Kosovo will teach the public and the media that war cannot always be limited to a brief and decisive air campaign.

"I really think this Kosovo situation is going to be a reality check for a lot of the bad habits we've developed," Alvis said.

He said these bad habits included the assumptions that wars can always be won quickly and "no one ever dies on our side."

The audience also raised the concern that while much coverage has been given to Milosevic, very little has been given to the attitudes of Serbs in Kosovo or other Serb leaders. Bass said Milosevic has used Serb nationalism but it will not disappear were he removed from command.

"Israel for a while has tried to personalize nationalism, getting rid of some Palestinian leaders. It didn't work," he said.

Alvis agreed that Milosevic is not the sole problem.

"I think it's a common misconception that everything would be all right if he left the scene," he said.