European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Like Somalia Bosnia desperately needs . Aid Anthony Lewis when Secretary of def use Dick Cheney recently briefed the press on the Somalia operation he was asked whether it was a precedent for . Intervention in Boshia and Herzegovina. No he said the situation there was a dramatically different a the history the terrain the armies involved. A if we had 200,000 troops on the ground in Bosnia Quot he said Quot pm not sure what i would Tell them to  but that was a rejection of a nonexistent proposal. No one has seriously urged that the . Send 200,000 or 20,000 or any ground forces into Bosnia. Critics of the Bush administrations inaction argue for a different kind of intervention. They believe the Case for it would be overwhelming if our government weighed the need the . Interest and the practicalities exactly As president Bush did in Somalia. The need is beyond argument. Serbian aggression continues with heavy new attacks on Sarajevo. The . Human rights commission concluded last week that the serbs were primarily responsible for atrocities in Bosnia and it called on the world to judge whether they amounted to  the american interest is far greater in Bosnia than in Somalia for there Are strategic As Well As humanitarian concerns. If serbian aggression is allowed to continue unchecked in Bosnia it will surely explode elsewhere with consequences for the Balkans and All of Eastern Europe. And Muslim fighters from the Mideast Are already coming in to protect the bosnian muslims. As for the practicalities of intervention there Are Many Steps that can be taken with minimum risk. As in Somalia they would require . Leadership cooperation by other countries and . Authority. Here Are some a enforce the . Security Council ban on military aircraft flights Over Bosnia. The serbs Are breaking their Promise to obey this order As they have broken All other promises using planes to move troops and supplies. A establish air supremacy Over Bosnia with american and other nato aircraft. A Issue an ultimatum to the serbian forces to Stop shelling Sarajevo and other bosnian cities. If the ultimatum is ignored bomb the easily identifiable serbian artillery in the Hills around those cities. A if serbian military operations continue on the ground order them to cease at once. If they do not order air attacks on serbian military Headquarters Supply dumps and troop concentrations in Bosnia a and in Serbia. A exempt Bosnia from the . Embargo on arms supplies to Yugoslavia. It is absurd that the victim of aggression should be kept helpless while serbian forces can draw on the ample supplies of the former yugoslav army one of the largest in Europe. Former president Ronald Reagan summed it up Well in a speech at Oxford last Friday. We need a weapons behind our words a he said to end serbian a ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. If the world had said no when the serbs shelled Dubrovnik a year ago i believe they would have stopped and the ensuing tragedy would have been avoided. Even now credible toughness could persuade them to Stop. In addition to military actions there is a Legal step that should be taken at once. That is to set up an International tribunal to begin War crimes proceedings against the principal authors of the Slaughter in Bosnia Slobodan Milosevic president of Serbia and Radovan Karadzic who Calls himself president of the serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Much evidence of deliberate killing of civilians and of the intention to destroy bosnian muslims As a people has already been gathered by . Bodies and others. A War crimes process might Well do to the serbian leaders what or. Johnson said the knowledge that one is to be hanged in a fortnight does concentrate their minds wonderfully. This past weekend american religious bodies a protestant Catholic jewish and Muslim a acted with rare Solidarity in calling on Bush to do More for Bosnia. Their Appeal was to All the worlds leaders. But we know that Bush was right when he said in his speech on the Somalia intervention Quot some crises in the world cannot be resolved without american involvement. American action is often necessary As a catalyst for. The Community of nation a c the new York times the . Is tradition bound to help Somalia cynical ruse to gain favor with a potential client. It is w or internal a nov. And the there is no whiff of any geopolitical dividend in he . Decision to use massive Force to deliver food to hundreds of thousands of starving people in Somalia. President Bush told the nation that there was one Eason Only for dispatching the troops in operation restore Hope to head off the death of 1.5 million Aen we see somali children starving All of Ameri a hurts a Bush  he said a Only the United states has the local reach to place a Large Security Force on the round in such a place quickly and efficiently and thus ave thousands of innocents from death. Still the United states runs the risk of being accused f african colonialism in a new form of flexing its mus Les once again to show the world it is a Supe her but in the Days leading up to the . Quot ounce ill a approval of the .-led operation which Ould involve 28,000 american troops no one made a credible Case that the Bush administration was Moti ated by anything other than generosity. During the cold War Somalia was viewed both n Washington and in Moscow As having strategic value fhe East african country was under the influence of first the soviet Union and then later the United Somalia still sits along the red sea across from the a Ich arabian Oil Fields. But it no longer to the target of �?Tuhtreiiefnope7ation now getting under Way is not a simply the result of Somalia a internal agony and the inability of the United nations to provide assistance in the Cross fire of feuding factions. Mostly american troops Are taking on that dangerous task and the operation smacks More of Vietnam and its dark shadows than the Triumph Over Iraq in the persian Gulf War. The enemy is everywhere in Somalia. Transportation lines will be vulnerable. There is no clearly identifiable enemy nor can any of the local warlords be cast in the terms of a Saddam Hussein. But like Indochina and the Ulf the president is acting with ittle regard to Congress and its prerogatives. Congress is being consulted a after the fact. The Cost to the . Tax Ayer meanwhile is incalculable. When the United states agreed in october to transport 3,000 peacekeepers from other nations to Somalia the idea was to charge the operation against the 30.4 percent the United states pays of . Peacekeeping operations. Sending in 28,000 american troops will Cost Many times More and unlike the Gulf War James a. Baker Iii is not going to the Gulf and Europe to solicit heavy i Barry Schweid checks from saudi Arabia the Gulf emirates Germany and other fat cats. Voluntary contributions will be cheerfully accepted of course. President Bush expects to wind up the operation before turning the White House Over to Bill Clinton on Jan. 20. He does not want to leave his successor with a difficult foreign policy venture if he can help it. But walking out of the Thicket of Somalia May not be As easy As entering it. Bush May have More to say on that subject in briefing the american people. American troops have been used in the past for humanitarian purposes but never to this extent and critics question whether they Are being used properly in Somalia. A american soldiers should not be put at risk if . National interests Are not endangered a Andrew j. Cowin wrote in october in a project study for the heritage foundation a conservative research group. A americans should discourage the trend toward the . Using armed Force to solve violent conflicts. If this trend continues it could undermine . Security interests sacrifice american troops for obscure causes unrelated to defending the . And Cost american taxpayers increasing amounts of  the other View is that in the face of massive starvation the United states considering its traditions had no alternative in Somalia. C the associated Prau