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June 1993, Page 8 Words To Remember
The Making of Decisions on Bosnia: April 13-May 19, 1993"The case for international intervention to protect Bosnian Muslim civilians from further ethnic cleansing is emotionally and morally strong. In a little more than a year of warfare, tens of thousands of innocents have been subject to wholesale uprooting, systematic rape and grotesque forms of murder. Thanks to a U.N. arms embargo that mainly constrains the Bosnian government, those that have survived remain all but defenseless. " —Washington Post editorial, April 13, 1993 "You cannot just let this go on. This is not right for the
West ... America was right in the first place to expect Europe to
deal with this. It's within Europe's sphere of influence and it
should be within Europe's sphere of conscience ... Either you allow
the present slaughter, massacre, maiming, ethnic cleansing to go
on, or you attempt not to appease the aggressor but to fight him.
And you fight him not by us fighting but by the Bosnians being armed
to fight and also by using our air cover ... The aggressor's taken
the view that, yes, we have the weapons but we haven't the resolve
to use them. " "Most senior United Nations commanders believe that nothing
short of a Western ultimatum, backed with the threat of military
force, can stop Serbian commanders from seizing Srebrenica and going
on to complete their war aims by overrunning other Muslim enclaves
in eastern Bosnia, including Gorazde and Zepa. The Serbian aim from
the outset of the war a year ago has been to take contiguous stretches
of Bosnian territory, killing or expelling Muslim populations that
have lived there for centuries, then forging the captured lands
into a coherent whole that can eventually be annexed to Serbia in
what Serbian nationalists call Greater Serbia. " "I wish to express my indignation at the inexcusable assault
on civilians in [Srebrenical. I urgently call upon the Bosnian Serb
forces in the area to halt their unjustifiable attacks, which have
occurred despite explicit assurances to the contrary from their
military and political leaders. " "Throughout the [U.N. Security] Council's debates on Bosnia,
the Third World members have taken a consistently hard line against
the Serbs, influenced by the plight of the Muslims and the anger
this has aroused throughout the Islamic world. Third World members
said today that they favored the immediate imposition of the new
sanctions on the Serbs as well as air strikes against supply routes
to their forces in Bosnia. " "If the Serbian government in Belgrade will not cut off those
supplies, then we should interdict from the air and cut them off
ourselves. "The time has come for the United States to look honestly
at where we are and what our options are ... I think we have to
consider things which, at least previously, have been unacceptable.
" "The summary of the [State Department team of experts] report
released today recommended that the administration consider establishing
safe havens for the besieged Muslims, which would be protected by
international military action to insure the delivery of aid. It
also suggested that the administration consider the use of force
to 'silence heavy weapons systems' like the Serbian artillery that
has been shelling Muslim civilians in Sarajevo and Srebrenica. The
team had resisted pressure by some senior officials to weaken their
conclusions." "Srebrenica was a symbol. If a tragedy had happened there,
everybody knew that the entire peace process would have been jeopardized.
Now that peace has been established in Srebrenica, we can all hope
that the peace process can go forward very rapidly and we will not
face any new crises. " "The process of consensus-building needs a shove. As the most
powerful political leader of the NATO alliance, it's Mr. Clinton's
job to supply it ... Only Mr. Clinton has the clout to move the
British, French and Germans toward a policy that balances humanitarian,
political and military factions. " "All we're doing is standing by while the Serbs mop up Bosnia,
divide it into ... different pieces, and slaughter the women and
children. "For years, since the revelation of Hitler's Holocaust, we
have had an energetic international discussion of how much various
individuals and governments knew and thus of what responsibility
they might have for failing to prevent the slaughter that went on
unimpeded. We have had merciless expos6s of American travelers to
the Soviet Union who, one way and another, either pooh-poohed or
outright lied about Stalin's devastation of whole classes and kinds
of people. The assumption has always been that if we had known,
we would have behaved differently. In the much smaller case of ex-Yugoslavia
the question arises: How?" "The administration would love to wash its hands of the whole
mess, but this is the one thing it can't do. The Yugoslav war is
too serious. If Serbia widens the war to Kosovo and Macedonia, Greece,
Turkey and Albania could well be drawn into a war that would wreck
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, destabilize the Middle East
and rip up the delicate system of international cooperation that
the West has painfully pieced together since World War II. These
are risks no president can ignore. " "It is no good that Western leaders wring their hands and
shed crocodile tears as the butchery continues. They know that the
Serbians began this conflict with a vast arsenal of modem weapons
and a supply of ammunition sufficient for two years' fighting—more
than 10 times as much as the Muslims have. They also know that the
consequence of imposing an arms embargo equally upon the victims
of aggression, the Bosnian Muslims, and on the Serbian aggressors—unprecedented
in U. N. history—is that the genocide will continue. " "If 'never again' only means the mechanical replaying of history
it does not mean much: history always reappears in disguises. 'Never
again' will not bring back the dead. And will not even honor them.
We can only honor the dead if their lonely deaths have shocked us
all into a binding code of moral responsibility toward the living
who are facing mass murder. " "It has become a cliché to say that American options
are bad and worsening. But the costs of indulging Serb aggression
are also bad and worsening. Those two truths define the problem
the president is grappling with now. " "The idea of moving people around and abusing them and often
killing them, solely because of their ethnicity, is an abhorrent
thing, and it is especially troublesome in that area where people
of different ethnic groups lived side by side for so long together.
And I think you have to stand up against it. I think it is wrong.'
"Western reluctance to intervene earlier has given the [Bosnian
Serb] rebels reason to believe they are invincible, even if confronted
with the military might of the United States or the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. " "The [U.N.] secretary-general has said, 'Don't use force because
the negotiations still might succeed. 'I say this man must be on
some other planet. Force is already being used 24 hours a day. It's
counterforce that's missing." "Leave aside all the arguments that this isn't our war, or
that no vital U. S. [or Western] interests are directly involved.
The issue is not self-interest but fundamental decency. What the
Serbs are doing to the Bosnian Muslims is, if not genocide, too
close to it for moral comfort. The very phrase 'ethnic cleansing'
is enough to make you shudder. " "In the 1940s it was possible to argue that no American interest
would have been served by an attempt to rescue the Jews from Hitler.
But if it can now be argued in retrospect that morality absolutely
required an attempt to rescue the Jews, even if some narrow definition
of the American interest did not, then the analogous argument can
be made that rescuing Bosnia's Muslims or arming them to defend
themselves is a U.S. duty today. " ... Europe whole and free.' Western leaders uttered that pledge,
or ambition, when the Iron Curtain was tom down. Three years later
the word 'Europe' is again a place-name instead of the expression
o a destiny. Europe after communism is neither whole nor totally
free ... The European family of nations has abandoned one of its
own in a forest full of wolves. Americans have been obliged to look
on in horror. There were good reasons, of course. There always are
when others do the suffering. But do not imagine that their suffering
will not change all of us slowly, from within. " "George Bush's failure to insist on a decisive victory in
the Gulf war, Bush and Clinton mistakes in the Yugoslav affair and
the excessive pace of reductions in the American military budget
have encouraged governments all over the world to suspect and fear
that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Truman policy of American
leadership in halting aggression ... President Clinton is a big
advocate of multilateralism. But his focus on the U.N. Security
Council is a dangerous one. He should remember that, under Article
51 of the U.N. Charter, the U.S. and NATO can exercise their 'inherent'
right of collective self-defense against Serbian aggression without
obtaining Security Council approval. Rather than worrying about
negotiations in the Security Council, President Clinton should proceed.
" "President Clinton, after being presented options that included
aerial bombing, decided yesterday to use military force against
the Serbs in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina ... Clinton also began
calling foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister John Major
and French President Franccois Mitterrand, to notify them of his
decision, and administration official said." "Those irresponsible leaders who say that it is all right
if six million Serbs die because there will still be another six
million left alive belong in a hospital, or should at least be prevented
from holding public office." "A dramatic turnabout by Serbia in publicly supporting the
Vance-Owen plan appeared to be the key reason for Karadzic's change
of heart. With the battered economy of the new two-republic Yugoslavia
further squeezed by tougher U.N. sanctions that went into effect
last week, and with President Clinton having decided in principle
to use military force against the Bosnian Serbs, Milosevic seems
to have engineered a striking shift in Serbian opinion on the peace
plan in the past week. " "The sudden change of mind by Yugoslavia, now composed of
Serbia and Montenegro, in seeking to persuade its Bosnian Serb allies
to approve the plan appeared to derive from the tighter U.N. sanctions
and the mounting threat of outside military intervention, including
American air strikes ... Serbia's state-controlled media have also
shifted direction, praising the Vance-Owen plan and holding their
stubborn Bosnian brothers responsible for new hardships as a result
of the new sanctions. "The agreement Dr. Karadzic signed today is identical to the
one he rejected just over a week ago and contains no changes in
the boundaries of the 10 new provinces that will be carved out of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. " " With this, the so-called Serbian Republic has proclaimed
itself out of existence. " "The news from Athens today is good news, so far as it goes.
What really matters is what happens on the ground: whether the killing
stops, whether the aid is permitted to get to those who need it,
whether the heavy weapons are silent, whether the parties carry
out their agreements. " "We have yet to determine whether the Serbs are serious about
peace. We will judge intentions by actions" "We can hope that this is a breakthrough, but again all we've
seen is a signature. We have not seen changes on the ground ...
If those actions should be forthcoming, then I think we would see
a fundamentally different situation in Bosnia, but that has not
happened yet. " "In the United States, within the administration and on Capitol
Hill, the preferred option seems to be lifting the embargo to give
the Muslims weapons to defend themselves against the better-equipped
Serbs. That proposal is attractive because it would not place American
troops in harm's way. There is somewhat less support in the United
States for air strikes that would be carried out by U.S. and allied
warplanes. But Christopher was greeted on his arrival in London
by a front-page story in the influential Sunday Times newspaper
quoting senior British officials as saying that although Major's
government might reluctantly go along with allied air strikes, it
was so opposed to lifting the arms embargo that it would cast an
unprecedented veto in the Security Council if Washington forced
the matter to a vote. " "We are developing a common position with our partners and
allies on stronger measures to be taken if the Serbs fail to implement
the peace settlement ... Several options are under consideration,
including military steps. " "We have to keep the drumbeats of possible American and allied
intervention sounding because that's the one sure way ... to get
the Serbs to not only sign this agreement but literally to carry
it out. " "Administration officials conceded that Christopher faces
a difficult task in trying to forge a consensus on lifting the arms
embargo, a step Britain and several other NATO allies fear may only
intensify and widen the Bosnian conflict. They added that the Europeans
seemed more likely to support the use of air power and said that
preparations for air strikes against selected Serbian military positions
would go forward in spite of the Athens agreement." "President Clinton yesterday pushed on with his campaign
to build international and congressional support for using military
force in Bosnia, saying that the Bosnian Serbs must go beyond signing
a peace agreement as their leader did yesterday, and actually implement
it before U.S. military planning is halted. " " [Athens] conference sources said the United States and moderate
Arab states strongly urged [Bosnian President] Izetbegovic not to
do anything that would give the Bosnian Serbs a pretext to balk
at signing the peace plan. The governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia,
in particular, expressed strong concern that if Bosnia's war continued,
it would be exploited by anti-Western Muslim fundamentalists in
the Arab world. " " If the saber rattling in Washington over the last 10 days
helped to convince ... the Bosnian Serb leader, then it seemed good
sense to keep up the rattling in the hope that it would bring around
the recalcitrant Bosnian Serb parliament, the self-appointed group
that rejected the agreement just last Monday." "Although some in Washington warn that Serbs could respond
to the destruction of their heavy artillery by switching to smaller
weapons to finish off targeted Muslim communities, the rebels have
shown little taste for combat on a level playing field. The Bosnian
Serbs have succeeded in taking 70 percent of the republic solely
on their artillery advantage, encircling civilian targets and pounding
them until the inhabitants flee. There has been little hand-to-hand
combat, and where that occurred the Serbs often lost ground."
"If the delaying trick is tried, the best way to prove Western
determination would be to turn out the lights in Belgrade-to use
air power to smash the utility infrastructure within Serbia in a
way that would turn the people against the regime ... If the credible
threat of U.S. military punishment at last stops the carnage, we
should insist that the ancient device of a balance of power undergird
the peace ... That means that the Muslim Bosnians must be armed
to the level of the Serbs within Bosnia, or that the Serbs be disarmed
down to the level of the Muslims. " "In the Balkans, I think we have just seen the failure of
the liberal approach to peace through weakness. The Muslims have
paid a terrible price because there has been a one-sided war for
two years in which the world has cut off the Muslims while the Serbians
acquired the arms that were there with the old Yugoslavian army.
Peace through strength worked for America. Peace through strength
can work for the Muslims if we're prepared to commit to ensure that
they are both armed and trained, and I think that's the direction
we ought to go in." "I think that the White House and the president and his advisers
know that, at least initially, the only military option for them
is the option of air strikes. They will tighten more and more the
embargos against the Serbs, and those are embargos that actually
do have an effect. I suspect that there will be more and more effort
to drop the arms embargo against the Muslims with an effort to get
some of the Arab world to supply arms to them." "If you assume ... cooperation with the allies, U.N. authority,
a clear program which has an ending ... clearly focused on just
maintaining the opportunity for the Muslims to be armed, I think
Congress would approve that ... And the country needs to be brought
along. People need to understand what is the U.S. interest in providing
some assistance to the Muslim forces in Bosnia ... Part of the answer
... is that we have an interest in avoiding the kinds of ethnic
cleansing and cross-border activities that have been going on. We
have ... a very great interest in preventing this from spreading
into Macedonia and Kosovo and other places where there could be
the beginning of all kinds of involvement ... by Greece, by Turkey,
by Bulgaria and Albania and Russia itself." "Twice in this century we tried to stay out of conflict in
Europe ... only to be drawn in later at a much higher price. The
Soviet Empire has crumbled. Ethnic, national, religious disputes
are breaking out all over. The question here is whether they will
be settled with force and ... whether we will allow Serbian aggression
to move from Bosnia into Kosovo and Macedonia where .it has a high
probability of creating a greater Balkan war that would almost inevitably
draw us in. " "The Bosnian Serbs have tasted blood and see total victory
within their grasp. Diplomacy that was based on their seeing reason
has failed. It is too late to persuade the Bosnian Serbs. Containing
them by lifting the arms embargo for the Muslims and providing air
cover while the Muslims build up their forces is Clinton's best
last option." "In part because of the reluctance of U.S. allies in Europe
to back the Clinton administration's policy, the White House has
modified its immediate goals in the Bosnian conflict from halting
the fighting to helping Bosnian Muslims there hold their own against
superior Serb forces through limited allied intervention. The focus
would be on air strikes against Serb military targets while allowing
arms and training for Muslims so they can better resist Serb attacks."
"The Clinton administration has much broader goals than the
Europeans have, and the gap that results has yet to be bridged.
Although Mr. Clinton has concluded that there is no real prospect
of rolling back Serbian gains with outside military force, he still
hopes to influence the underlying political situation. Unwilling
to send American troops to tilt the balance on the battlefield,
he wants to allow arms to reach the Muslims and use air power mainly
to hold off the Bosnian Serbs until deliveries of heavy weapons
to their enemies can be completed." "It is clear from the secretary's consultations last week
that the allies agreed with us that should the Bosnian Serbs reject
the peaceful course, that stronger measures would be necessary and
indeed would be taken. We have not yet agreed on precisely what
measures these should be. " "We cannot accept a division of labor where the United States
can drop its bombs and look on as a spectator high in the sky while
we and others do the dirty work on the ground down below."
"The world stands aside as Christians defeat Muslims. We have
'even-handedly' embargoed weapons to Bosnia and Serb, providing
de facto military superiority to the latter. We listened to stories
of starving Armenians, only to see them overrun the Azeris in a
highly successful offensive ... The cost of this is to undermine
the moderate Muslims—Turks, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indonesians—who
provide extant models for political evolution." "In recent days, the British and French governments have moved
to fill the American policy vacuum by urging Washington to join
their plan to deploy United Nations peacekeeping troops as protectors
of a handful of 'safe havens' for Muslim civilians. " "I think that you'll see that over the next few days we will
be able to take some more steps that will make peace more likely
and will make the confining of the conflict more likely." "We are convinced that there is just cause to use force to
defend largely helpless people in Bosnia against aggression and
barbarism that are destroying the very foundations of society and
threaten large numbers of people. " "Those of us who opposed the Gulf war believe that war was
not the answer. But today we find ourselves confronted with an evil
war, the sure elimination of which may be possible only by means
of armed intervention. " "We shared the skepticism of many when the initial reports
came in. But as they became more graphic ... it had an enormous
impact on the Jewish community. It is bad enough, and close enough
and comparable enough [to the Holocaust] that the Jewish community
felt a profound obligation to respond morally, whatever the strategic
issues. " "Despite the pledge by Serb President Slobodan Milosevic to
cut off his fellow Serbs in Bosnia from everything but food and
medicine ... oil tankers, timber trucks and cattle vans all pass
with only cursory checks from a swarm of Serbian policemen."
"The United States and NATO all but committed themselves to
armed confrontation with the Bosnian Serbs last Thursday ... Britain's
patience and even France's is wearing out at last, and our president,
to whom no problem ever seems simple, now sees this one reduced
to an answer terrible in its simplicity and not without risks."
"What you do with allies is what Bush did with them on the
Gulf. You say, 'I'm going to do this. "' "He's all over the place on this. He's got to decide. He's
not going to get the backing of the American people unless he stakes
out a position and explains it." "I still think the Balkans are going to be a major chapter
in this president's tenure. " |