"To be, or not to be: that is the question...".

On Wednesday, 31 March 1999, somewhere along the border between Yugoslavia and Macedonia, three soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division were captured by Yugoslav forces, and transported to Belgrade. In the first official statements related to the incident the following morning, neither President Clinton nor Secretary of Defense Cohen referred to the three soldiers as prisoners of war. Instead, both leaders referred to the three soldiers as having been “illegally abducted.” Later that same day, Department of Defense Spokesman Kevin Bacon stated in response to a question why the three had not been declared prisoners of war: “We consider them to be [prisoners of war]. We consider that–we believe that they are–we assert that they are covered by the Geneva Convention, which, of course, gives them a series of internationally recognized protections. At a minimum they are entitled to [prisoner of war] status.” On that same day, Department of State Spokesman James Rubin asserted both points in the same brief–the three U.S. soldiers were entitled to prisoner of war status, but they also had been illegally detained, and therefore must be immediately released. Contrary to U.S. demands, the three soldiers were not immediately released.