Balkan Bombs

On Friday the US Embassy in Sarajevo issued a Warden Message warning Americans about a series of bombings in Mostar. It reminded me of when I spoke to an NCO who served on the KFOR mission in Kosovo with Task Force Falcon last year. The Sargeant was disappointed that the hardships and risks the 2,000-odd troops of TFF have endured (not to mention the soldiers from other contributing NATO countries) over the years go almost wholly unnoticed by the media. He had a point: just this weekend, for example, Kosovo was wracked by violent - and deadly - protests. A search of Google News today turns up only 337 total news items about the protests. Meanwhile, Google News shows there are about 4,000 news stories concerning the late Anna Nicole Smith. Which is really more important in relative terms?

The photo here shows a trooper with a subunit of TF Falcon, Task Force Thunder, teaching an "unexploded ordnance awareness class" to elementary school kids in eastern Kosovo earlier this month (imagine having to have such a class at your own kids' school). US troops with KFOR are doing good works that most Americans are completely unaware of - so take a moment today and remember our men and women serving in the ever-volatile Balkans.