"What Milsoevic was doing was patenly clear... it was evident to us in October that Milosevic was intent on wiping out population and that wasr was necessary," Leanning said.
"There was no way to stop Milosevic from committing atrocities with out without a force better than the 45 thousand troops at his disposal," she added.
Leaning was extremely critical of NATO for pulling an international observation force out of Kosovo a full four days before bombing began, even though they required only seven hours to leave
"It was like pulling the control rods out of a nuclear power plant...the delay in bombing allowed [the Serbs] to establish a foothold to obliterate the population Kosovo," she said.
All of the panelists said the Rambouillet agreement, a proposal signed by Abanians and rejected by Serbs, which called for an autonomous Kosovo still under Serb rule, would have to be abandoned.
"our whole apporach has usually been to put the pieces back together . It's the Rodney King solution--can differences be reconciled," Van Evera said. "In Yugoslavia, we have a marriage that cannot be saved...too much blood has been thrown on the floor."
Van Evera suggested that a ground war was less risky than some people assumed.
"It doesn't present the aspects of war that Americans fear," he atrgued.
He said American forces would not face a guerrilla army, Serbia did not house a sea of hostile population and the Serbian army had little combat experience.
"They're good at breaking arms and shooting people in the head," Van Evera said.
While there was a general consensus among panelists that ground troops were required in Kosovo, there was little agreeement on what could be done after that.
"[Kosovo's] mot like Kuwait," said Anna Husarska, a correspondent for the New Republic. "There isn't a government to turn it over to once we liberate it."
Van Evera said he suppoted the establishment of protectorate under American control until an Albanian government could be put together.
Lubbers added thet he though the most positive thing to come out of this crisis was what he perceived as a shift in U.S. foreign policy to be more sensitive to humanitarian concerns.
The use of force in Kosovo, he argued, was supported by the American people despite the fact that it was "seen not as a security issue, not as national interest ,but as an issue of human rights."
--Alysson R. Ford contributed to the reporting of this story.