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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (132687)	8/15/2005 3:37:54 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793840

This is a quote from a dissertation on the subject: In February 1992, an agreement to stop the fighting in Croatia was reached, and UN peacekeepers were sent to the area. However, not only did the fighting in Croatia continue, the fighting turned to Bosnia, and evidence uncovered during the summer of 1992 indicated that war crimes (in the form of death camps and rape camps) had taken place, and that they were committed mainly by the Serbian side. On 2 August 1992, the story about the camps broke in Newsday, and on 5 August, television images of some of the evidence were broadcast. (S. Woodward 1995) Meanwhile, in the fall of 1992 NATO became involved in the conflict for the first time, sending assistance to UNPROFOR’s operations in the area by staffing the UNPROFOR headquarters in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and providing air and naval enforcement of the arms embargo. The increase in involvement of international organizations and increased media coverage made silence on Bosnia difficult. Candidate Bill Clinton, sensing an issue of vulnerability in Bush’s foreign policy—which had been presumed to be a Bush strength—began to attack the Bush administration for its inaction and its lack of leadership on the issue. In late July of 1992, Clinton called for American participation in UN-backed air strikes against the Serb forces if they continued to block UN relief efforts in Bosnia. As one analyst pointed out at the time, the idea was that by hitting Bush on Bosnia, Clinton would paint Bush as unprepared to lead the post-Cold War World. Meanwhile, Bush was also facing criticism in Congress, and a bipartisan effort rose in the Senate to authorize the shipment of $50 million in arms to the Bosnian government, which would break the arms embargo that had been instituted against all parties in the Balkans. On 14 August, Clinton told an audience in Los Angeles that he would work to “make the United States the catalyst for a collective stand against aggression.” (Holbrooke 1998) In response to his critics, in August Bush called upon the UN to use force if necessary to deliver humanitarian aid to the region. Nevertheless, Bush remained adamant in his opposition to American intervention in the conflict. Conditions for the use of American force in Bosnia were not entirely favorable in 1992. Despite the dramatic victory of U.S. troops in the Gulf War, Bush faced a tough re-election fight, and the residual effects of the recession of the early 1990’s enabled Clinton successfully to argue that Bush was out of touch with the needs of the American people at home. However, the framing of the conflict also played a large role: the Balkans region was portrayed as an area where “ancient hatreds” had led to fighting in the region for centuries. Picking up on this theme, Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said in an October discussion that This tragedy is not something that can be settled from outside and its about damn well time that everybody understood that. Until the Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats decide to stop killing each other, there is nothing the outside world can do about it. Also speaking in early October, Bush issued a statement on Bosnia that focused on humanitarian relief efforts, asserting that There is no easy solution to the Bosnian conflict, let alone the larger Balkan crisis. So we will persist in our strategy of containing and reducing the violence, making the aggressors pay, and relieving the suffering of victims, all the while lending our full support for a settlement. isanet.org