European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 11, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday March 11, 1993 a commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 . In in to president Clinton a first round of humanitarian Airdrop in tended to relieve distress and boost 0� Stephen s. Rosenfeld diaries by the hundreds in Muslim villages. Eyewitnesses described the survivors As crying for help and begging to be taken out  to which some in the West responded by averting their gaze and advising the United states to lean harder on the Quot intractable muslims to accept a . Peace plan that muslims regard As sealing a National disaster. Did no to after All Washington undertake to do just that when it recruited Russia to join it in consummating the . Plan in fact the muslims could not face a Krueler Choice. They can fight on As Best they can in the Hope that changing military or political Odds will give them a better bargain at the peace table. Or they can Cut their staggering losses and preserve what they can of their sundered National life behind the Wall of a . Plan guaranteed As this one is supposed to be by american participation in a peacekeeping Force. It is Clear that some muslims will try to fight on. But it is also Clear that overwhelming pressure to make a Deal is being generated by the lethal combination of serbian Power and International a Muslim As Well As Western a abandonment. Many americans of course take these developments As vindication of their earlier cautions about the United states sinking into a Bosnia quagmire. But what nags at me is the fear that Washington is giving a Green Light to conduct the sort of unchecked and relatively Cost free ethnic cleansing that could become the global political aids of the 1990s. The proposed International peacekeeping Force that the United states would join in Bosnia is being touted in some quarters As the redeeming end of this unhappy Cycle As a problem solving Model applicable elsewhere. But it looks to me More like an International Blessing for an act of aggression at once Savage and potentially contagious in an ethnically riven Post cold War world. Imis the 0n bosnian  Bosnia is turning out to make a dubious foreign policy Start for the Clinton administration. Yes this nests was dumped boiling and hissing on a new president but he is responsible for his own showing and it is disappointing so far. Clinton showing a feeble grasp on history bet on a certain serbian moderation and readiness for Compromise. But the serbs have shown a fierce paranoia and arrogance. They Are working single mind edly to build a greater Serbia housing All of the old Yugoslavia s serbs continuing military operations and spitting in Washington s face. The president gambled by bringing Russia into negotiations. The Early results indicate that the serbs Are being As contemptuous of their traditional friends in Moscow As of their new political adversaries in Washington. Inc provisional verdict must be that Russia s entry has made it harder not easier to negotiate the . Plan let alone to improve it from a Muslim viewpoint meanwhile Clinton having ruled out More vigorous forms of Aid launched a Relief Mission that itself has become an instrument of the ethnic cleansing it was meant to prevent. Muslims venturing out from cover to haul in far Flung pallets Are having their throats Cut by serbian soldiers. This for an operation inexplicably hailed in Washington by defense Secretary Les Aspin As a Quot great  the United states advertising its hesitancy at every step simply was unprepared for the in hesitant serbs who seemed determined to demonstrate that for every foreign Effort to preserve life in Bosnia they would Deal out death. In this Way has the United states muddied what is the leading new foreign policy question posed by the Bosnia crisis a How to bring Force effectively to Bear in a humanitarian and political intervention in a Sovereign state. Not everyone was prepared for an arduous test but the Clinton attempt to find an answer on the cheap is being confounded. The serbs took a Good Case a the failure of the breakaway republics including Bosnia to offer a proper political place to their serbian minorities a and turned it into a mockery by the military operations and human rights violations that go on to this Day. The , peace plan makes an Effort to Deal with both considerations a serbian rights serbian misconduct a but the serbs extend the misconduct and the United nations merely pronounces itself  Why does it not beef up its bosnian forces and save lives a c the Washington pout Freedom in t always what it s cracked up to be about a decade ago i travelled to Ireland by myself. I was Happy to have no schedule no reservations no one expecting me to do anything. I d just pick up my Backpack and wander. At first i was thrilled by my sense of weightlessness. I was not tethered to Earth by the usual forms of social Gravity a a work schedule a lunch Date a Promise to walk a friends dog. The  off quickly. After a few Days i missed having my family worry about me. I wanted my Boss to Call and my friends to expect me at dinner i never travelled alone again. Drifting is unnatural. We Homo Sapiens survived in the primeval Savannah because we Learned to take care of each other and look out for our group. The lonely drifter May be a romantic figure in westerns but in real life a person who stops connecting with society is bound to become a loser. Recently 1 was reminded of How sad life is for people who Are Quot free Quot from responsibilities. I spent the night in an Atlanta shelter for the homeless. My task was to help watch Over the 26 men sprawled on cots in a Church basement. At 5 30 a.m., i was to turn on the lights hand the men bagged lunches and Sec that everyone cleared out. When the fluorescent lights flickered on the men Rose slowly and drifted silently toward the door. It was a Damp cold saturday. Although some men work during the week few have anywhere to go on weekends. That Day their Idle hours would slip away with the raindrops. That night they would return to their Long rows of cots. During the quiet pre Dawn hours there i tried to imagine what it would be like to have no phone num _ Ber no Bills to pay no Friend s birthday to remember. These men were not enjoying a week Long adventure in weightlessness they were facing a lifetime of disconnected Days. For some this hard life was unavoidable. A factory closed a House burned Down a medical Bill wiped out the rent Money. For others the first step on the Way to the Church basement was a deliberate one a a decision to drop out of school and leave Home a Choice to Start drinking. No matter How their social ties got severed the Job of reconnecting them is nearly impossible. Just think of the obstacles one of these men would face climbing Back into society. He would have to Wake up and put on the same dirty Marilyn Geewax clothes he had worn the Day before. He could not give the Job interviewer a phone number. He could not list an address. He would not have a Calendar to remind him of his new work schedule. He would have no reliable transportation. The path up from a basement cot to a decent Home is so strewn with roadblocks that even a sober sane person Likely would stumble and fall Back. After a few years of Drifting few people could stay sober or sane what a strange culture we have. In songs and stories we glorify the loner a the Guy who demands his Quot Freedom and who in t afraid to Tell his Boss to Quot take this Job and shove  look closely at what happens to those who through their own failings or through unfortunate circumstances ended up free a free of Bills and neckties and time clocks and nagging spouses. Those burdens the rest of us Bear every Day a paying our taxes packing lunches getting to work on time Jas. Save our souls from the hell i getting of such i Reedom. C Cox now Surv co the opinion apr to a in it column and cartoon on thl Page ii Rayam Tunoa of the author and a in no Way to by Conald Arad a a rep a in Tang the vow Al the Star and Start pm a or the United Slat govern Mant