BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- "Wake up, folks! It's NATO time again," a radio talk show host in Yugoslavia said Saturday while soliciting audience calls in a country bracing for threatened NATO airstrikes.
Not unexpectedly, listeners to the private Belgrade FM station had a lot to say."Americans are monsters, they are hypocrites," an agitated caller who identified himself as a pensioner said breathlessly. "They talk about peace and we are going to die!"
A younger caller, who identified himself as a student, said he was afraid but blamed the autocratic president, Slobodan Milosevic, for "gambling with our lives."
Another caller chimed in that he wouldn't pay his taxes until he sees who wins -- NATO or the Yugoslav government.
The 10 million Yugoslavs have been through it all before. The latest round began Thursday when Kosovo peace talks collapsed in Paris, and marked the third time in six months that Western powers have threatened airstrikes unless Milosevic accepts a U.S.-backed peace agreement.
Similar bombing scares in October and again last month passed without threatened attacks.
At a Washington news conference Friday, President Clinton declined to say whether NATO would set a deadline for acting.
"I think it's going to happen this time," said Milica Jakovljevic, a 34-year-old accountant, dropping off her two children at kindergarten. However, she wasn't too worried because she believed NATO would choose only military targets.
There has been no panic-shopping, and shops remain well-stocked except for a shortage of diesel fuel, which many people suspect is being funneled to the army.
Every night for weeks, state television has featured rallies and public meetings in support of Milosevic -- especially his firm stand against allowing 28,000 NATO troops to the Serbian province.