European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 15, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday. February 15, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Bosnia policy shows Good heart bad judgment Stephen s. Rosenfeld what the announcement on Bosnia and Herzegovina now confirms about Bill Clinton s foreign policy is that the new president is prepared to engage Amer ican prestige Ana diplomacy but is going to be very cautious about engaging american military Power. This approach offers him the comforts of operating within an International As Well As a National consensus. But it May offer Bosnia the agonies of final dismemberment. Not that Clinton is being cynical. George Bush left him a foul hand. Clinton and his Secretary of state Warren m. Christopher might have said that Yugoslavia is a special cultural Case and does t matter All that much. They might have sought an easier Way out for instance by joining hands with the europeans arid embracing uncritically the deeply flawed United nations plan. It testifies to their conscience if not to their judgment that they decided to pay in some new chips in an Effort to improve the Ameri can bargaining position with the parties in Bosnia and in the Cir Cle of concerned countries. So yes let us have a Diplo Matic go. But it is a painfully constricted position that the Clinton team takes to the table. Serbia and its partner in War crimes Croatia Are Carv ing up Bosnia. No its mostly Muslim government is not innocent but it is the victim party and atrocity Wise the least of the offenders. It is to me inconceivable that an acceptable result can come about without a credible threat of Force. Yet the military options Clinton now ambiguously flashes seem an unlikely Check on further serb Defiance. Christopher s reiterated pledge not to impose a settlement but to leave it to agreement of the parties while american Power remains in the background appears to invite the aggressors to hold on. Nor is there evidence that the administration has thought out what changes it Hopes to see made in the . Plan or what effect its permissiveness we will not arrive with a map May have on its negotiating aspirations. The United nations and european negotiators Cyrus Vance and David Owen evidently had made some room for amendments permitting Ameri can participation in a . Design. That design endorsing much of Serbia s and Croatia s ethnic cleans ing and creating unto likeable ethnic Leopard spots across Bosnia remains and remains defective. Fairly partisans of the . Plan Challenge critics to come up with something better. What would be better is a plan that did not reflect serb croat aggression and dominance. But reply the partisans will it not take More fighting meaning More atrocities and deaths to bring about that result that Uncertain re suit yes it will and this is a powerful consideration in a country that knows of War and terror. But outsiders who Are doing much less than they might to reverse serb and croat aggression Are poorly placed to Tell the Muslim victims they should learn to live with their mis  now offers to contribute american peace re w or wet the serbs Java whith Pawai andh5t hav Faux keepers to help police an agreed settlement. But to arrive at a settlement that undertakes to remedy major defects in the . Plan requires a degree of military credibility beyond that conveyed by an offer of future peacekeepers. In fact the Clinton team May have gone the other Way by citing threats of reprisals against . Peacekeepers already on the scene to explain Why the president is backing off from appeals and from his own earlier hints to Arm Bosnia and to lift the siege of Sarajevo. Christopher in his presentation of the policy on wednesday got the stakes right in a Post cold War world riven on ethnic lines what is to be the International Standard for ensuring fair treatment of Minori ties the harsh Cloud the hovers Over the new policy however is that at this late Date the United states May be unable to put together the demanding stance needed to serve those very Large stakes. The ends and Means of his policy arc at Odds. For finally Bosnia is More than a foreign policy problem. There is anguish in America for the bosnian but not great support for the sorts of intervention that might make a real difference. To get Tough to bring along the allies and to hang in for the year it will take before the locals can Deal fairly with each other would require Clinton to spend scarce political capital that evidently he prefers to save for his priority of economic renewal. This is the Best face that can be put on his lame Bosnia policy. C the Washl Niton pos Reno s integrity masks questions of competence it was obvious that the chair of the attorney general of the United states was reserved for a woman perhaps As a Campaign Promise. It cannot be coincidental that three women in this land Are the most qualified for the  Clinton on his third try has chosen the state attorney for Dade county fla., Janet Reno. The reasoning most Likely because she is a woman because she is honest and being single with no children did not hire an illegal alien As a  have known Reno for Many years and worked with her late Mother when the latter was a reporter for the Miami news. I consider her a Good Friend we agree politically and she has a lincolns que  it is disturbing to think that the Cri Teria for attorney general of the unite states Are limited to gender honesty and the documentation of baby Sitters. Some where along the line i thought performance As an officer of the court was part of the  the Miami area Reno is held  regard As an individual but her support As a prosecutor is not Over whelming. What has gotten her elected countless times was her ability to Campaign to address any group no matter How Small to sound firm when it comes to Deal ing with criminals and to Call up from Reserve her unflinching Hon esty. A 1984 Miami news editorial recommending her for re elec Tion while Point ing out what i considered to be her faults also noted that she is so excruciatingly honest that As the court House joke puts it she almost gives integ Rity a bad  there Are detractors who contend that she is too political that she allows Community pressure to dictate whether or not she will prosecute High visibility cases. Often particularly with Public corruption cases she has passed the Ball to Federal prosecutors. Critics see that As a Lack of Howard Kleinberg Backbone but others including Reno contend the moves Are Correct and that the Case is Best served by turning it Over to the feds. Reno is seen by Many As being aloof. That is the image she conveys As state attorney. Outside her office she is a warm sometimes funny certainly witty and positively intellectual Muse who grew up in a Rural Section of Miami that since has been surrounded by condos and shopping malls. Despite the urbanization and largely due to her unconventional Mother Jatho died several months ago the Keno family has held onto its wooded property and Home site and to the peacocks raccoons and possums that roam the grounds much to the Delight of guests who enjoy the break from traffic cellular phones and fast food joints. Reno is one of the few state attorney whose Home Telephone number is listed in the White pages of the Telephone Book. She is unpretentious a dubious Dresser As sagacious As Hillary Rodham Clinton Harvard educated but As Homespun As honest Abe himself who it might be recalled also was not a sensation in the courtroom. There is another similarity both arc awkwardly tall. But docs that qualify her for attorney general she carries some baggage As her confirmation hearings no doubt will show. Among her vulnerabilities is that she lost the infamous Mcduffie Case in which five White Miami policemen were acquitted of beating to death Arthur Mcduffie a Black. The acquittal ignited the horrendous Miami riot of 1980. Much of the criticism of Reno at that time was what was perceived us her inability to at tract top level assistants. She continues to be criticized As timid when it comes to chasing Down pub Lic corruption indictments yet the people of dad county have continued to re elect her to the Job she was first appointed to in 1978. It must be the integrity. And that s what the Clinton people Are seeing in her that and the fact that the attorney general s Job in this administration seemingly was reserved for a woman men need not have applied despite qualifications. The shoe is on the other foot. C Cox now service