European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 17, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse To commentary twi and Bosnia Waits in vain for an american Miracle Leslie h. Gelb hard anything i ruled out lot Bronin. Senior Clinton of fit mis told Mel to Cri we it Mill looking a most option they misled but the wit Cit was unmistakable not now not for months and probably never will . Bomber uck the serb can Nons that Are pounding Sarajevo or sen troops to protect the City or provide arms to the Over matched bosnian muslims. The europeans the russians the . Won t go along with these actions those officials explained. In any event the new Clinton team has reviewed its options and concluded that Little can be gained and much risked by using Force. Actually the europeans were More dug in against Force than Colin one senior official related referring to Gen. Colin l. Powell America s top. Military com Mander. It s All very complicated the official confided. Life is not very complicated in Resnik a refugee Camp for muslims about 30 minutes from downtown Zagreb the croatian capital. In Resnik it is a simple matter of survival. I was taken there last week by officials of the International Rescue committee one of the Noble humanitarian groups doing heroic work in the former Yugoslavia. The dutch have been the principal helpers of the Camp but Arab do Good ers have been moving in. The new Arab Muslim benefactors try to Bend their slavic co religionists to the True ways of islam but to Little Avail. Where is it written in the Koran that you can t drink Slipovitz one refugee remarked to me. I visited with let s Call them the Patrak family from the bosnian town of Price Dor 11 surviving members from four generations living in a 15-by-15 room in Long wooden Barracks. Until the killings and ratings began a year ago there were no differences Between us and the serbs said one woman of seemingly Iron will. We even raised chickens they took my son outside our House and shot him the grandmother blurted out almost embarrassed. Another son the serbs took away. If i Only knew he was alive we would stay Here five year just to their nightmares tumbled out in gales of emotion vivid specific palpably True and very simple unlike the complicated arguments about policy in Europe and Washington. Back in Washington on Friday administration officials told me that presi Dent Clinton had decided on Tough new measures to enforce the economic embargo against Serbia. He would also be employing America s full diplomatic might to bring the serb croat and mus Lim factions around to accepting a modified version of the Vance Owen plan for dividing Bosnia into ethnic enclaves. This plan is Well known to the Resi dents of Barlovac a Camp for former in mates of serbian concentration Camps in Bosnia. You reach Barlovac from Zagreb by motoring to the thruway Entrance Tak ing a ticket driving 45 minutes paying the toll winding your Way to one of the cease fire lines Between the croats and serbs in Croatia and pulling up to the Camp in the Center of the town. It s like taking the new Jersey Turnpike to a War. We could go Back and live in peace with Good croats and serbs As the Vance Owen plan wants said one Man an Engineer by training. But All who committed crimes must his words were echoed by a number of the other men. I asked a woman who sat silently on the floor what she thought. I would go Back to the Village Only if serbs were not there. We can t live with those who did i was with my serb neighbor one of my Best friends having Tea the moment the serb police took away my husband and son the woman continued. She knew what was going to happen. And she said nothing to me. She the woman asked me when the Ameri cans were coming. I said i had to Tell her i did not think they were coming. Tears filled her eyes. So i told her i was not sure. But 1 was sure even before i talked to administration officials a week later. In Resnik and Barlovac the victims pain and suffering were inescapably per Sonal Concrete simple. Their Only Hope was for an american Miracle. In Washington the policy debates were inevitably abstract and exceedingly complicated and the Powers that by had already eliminated the miracles. C the class war7 is just another myth of Vietnam As the Vietnam generation comes to Power in Washington one of the most pernicious myths of that War is being perpetuated. The Lack of Vietnam veterans among the friends of Bill now taking office reinforces the canard that the War was a class in the .1992 controversy Over Clinton s draft status for example a Boston Globe columnist stated that class race and economics determined which americans saw Vietnam service. This harmful a misperception demeans the sacrifices of the wealthy by implying that such sacrifices were nonexistent say the authors of a recent Mit study on America s Vietnam casualties. It demeans the sacrifices of the non wealthy by suggesting that manipulated and misled they shed their blood in a conflict i which the privileged and influential were unwilling to shed As Arnold Barnett Timothy Stanley and Michael Shore of Mit s Sloane school of management found the myth of a class War was built not on scientific study but on anecdotes and personal impressions. Among these was author James Fallows october 1975 article what did you do in the class War daddy in which he confesses his guilt Over his deliberate Eva Sion of the draft As a student at Harvard while at the same time subtly reminding his readers that by that action he certified himself As a member of the True elite who also avoided such service. Harry g. Summers shedding Crocodile tears that those killed in Vietnam were the Southie from Boston s slums who were drafted in his Stead Fallows went on to say that the mothers of Beverly Hills and Chevy Chase and great neck and Belmont were not on the telephones to their congressmen screaming you killed my boy " because most of the men from prosperous communities were officers they were about 10 percent likelier to die there than were other servicemen reflecting the disproportionate presence of the affluent in such hazardous roles As pilots or infantry captains and As the study concluded the casualty rate per 1,000 people in better off communities was typically about nine tenths of the Overall regional a parallel study by researcher Bill Abbott to be published in the june 1993 Issue of Vietnam Magazine also explodes a number of myths about who served in Vietnam including the notion that Black americans and draftees carried the Brunt of the War. In his detailed analysis of the War dead listed on the Wall of the Vietnam veterans memorial in washing ton d.c., Abbott found that of the 50,272 enlisted men who died in Vietnam the 7,262 Blacks who died there made up 14.1 percent of the total at a time when they made up 11 percent of the Young male population nationwide. But if the 7,874 officer casualties Are added to the calculations then the Black percentage is reduced to 12.5 percent. Hispanics mostly from the West and Southwest made up an estimated 5.5 percent of the casualties while americans of italian French Canadian polish and other South Ern and Eastern european ancestries from the Northeast made up about 10 percent. The remaining 70 percent were of British German Irish and scandinavian ances tries mostly from the South and Midwest. Of the 11,000 women who served there from 1964 to 1973, eight died in Vietnam one by enemy action. Seven were army officers and one an air Force Captain. All were single and All but one were in their 20s. Like almost All officers who served in Vietnam All were volunteers. And contrary to popular mythology so were most enlisted casualties As Well. It May come As a Surprise Abbott notes that 63.3 percent of All Vietnam enlisted casualties were volunteers. If officers Are added then almost 70 percent of those who died in Vietnam were the reason was that with the exception of the few men who were drafted into the Marine corps All Navy air Force and Marine enlisted men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. But even in the army which did have a Large number of draftees almost 50 percent of enlisted casualties were volunteers. Instead of Black poor and conscripted As we have been led to believe the evidence is those who died in Vietnam were mostly White Middle class and vol and so were most who served there As Well. But that is a non fact i.e., a fact not acknowledged because it s not politically Correct. But politically Cor rect is not always Correct politically. As evidenced by the current juror Over Gays in the military the friends of Bill Are much More Likely to include a homosexual than a Vietnam vet. He May pay for the snobbery. Clot time
