March 16, 2007: Until the war on terror came along, the most dangerous assignment for American troops was the Balkans. You knew it was dangerous, because the mass media said it was, and the army was giving you combat pay while you were there. Turned out that the place wasn't that dangerous. But none of the troops were complaining. There were very few combat injuries, and no combat deaths after over a decade of Balkans peacekeeping. Rather nice bases were built for the troops, and much attention was paid to base security. In addition to the combat and hazardous duty pay, there were the tax breaks (you did not have to pay taxes on what you made in a combat zone.) OK, there was no booze, and not much opportunity to party with the locals.

After September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq, the troops in Kosovo got razzed by their buddies going off to Iraq and Afghanistan. Collecting combat pay, when there was no combat, seemed too good to be true. Now the Department of Defense of defense thinks so to, and plans to cut the combat pay for U.S. troops in the Balkans. There are only 1,500 left, all in Kosovo. U.S. forces pulled out of Bosnia, after nine years of relatively quiet peacekeeping, in 2004.

However, Kosovo is becoming a more dangerous place. The local Albanians, the majority of the population, want Kosovo to be independent. Technically, Kosovo is still a province of Serbia, but under UN administration. The UN is leaning towards independence for Kosovo. Serbia says there will be violence if that happens. The Kosovo Albanians say there will be violence if it doesn't happen. Either way, U.S. troops, with or without combat pay, will be in the middle of it all.