European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 25, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday november 25, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 2t nato is saving face with Bosnia airstrikes by Paul Ames Brussels Belgium the bombing of serbian bases May have More Success momentarily at least in Patching up nato s battered credibility than in changing the course of the bosnian War. This week s airstrikes allowed the North Atlantic treaty organization to present itself As the Strong Arm of the United nations using its military might to enforce the Post cold War order. Just 10 Days earlier the United states broke ranks by refusing to enforce the arms embargo on the bosnian govern ment. Critics described nato As divided redundant and Drifting toward oblivion the first raid on serb controlled Dubina air base in Croatia silenced sceptics. It nato s biggest combat operation since the Alliance was founded 45 years ago and the largest airstrike so planes i Europe since world War ii. Nato s new Secretary general Willy Claes declared the raid a real president Clinton called it a Good Stepin the right but the effects of the continue strikes May be fleeting. Although the raids demonstrate nato s firepower they also highlighted the Alliance s limitations in Bosnia As a servant of the United nations. With the United nations demanding caution Allied bombers have been or dered to target Only runways and air de lenses. Bombers avoided hitting the serb warplanes accused of dropping napalm and Cluster bombs on the Safe area around Bihac in Northwest Bosnia. It was not our intent to put the air Field put of commission for an awfully Long time,".adm. Leighton w. Smith the american commander of Allied forces Southern Europe told reporters Mon Day. When the soviet Empire collapsed the threat that had United the 16 nato Al lies disappeared helping end the blood shed in the former Yugoslavia seemed to offer a new role quelling regional Dis Putes in the Post communist world. But nato went into Bosnia and Herze Govina shackled by the constraints of the United nations. The Alliance cannot take military action without . Say so. . Officials Are wary of actions that risk spreading the War or May provoke reprisals against . Peacekeeping troops. For months Allied frustration has mounted Over . Reluctance to approve Tough moves against serb Force that violated Security Council resolutions and nato s own decisions on Safe areas for Muslim civilians or the no Fly zones Over Bosnia. That frustration caused unprecedented trains within the Alliance. Britain and France with Large numbers of troops on . Duty in Bosnia have been cautious about air strikes against the serbs. But the United states wants More air strikes and a lifting of the arms embargo on the Muslim led government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Resurgent republicans in . Congress Are particularly critical of nato s dependence on the United nations. " nato has sort of become subordinated to the whims of the United nations Kansas sen. Bob Dole who will become Senate majority Leader in Jan uary said before meeting Claes on Mon Day. It almost makes nato seem irrelevant from time to under pressure from Congress Clin ton announced on nov. 11 that the United states would no longer help its allies enforce the International arms embargo on the bosnian government. For Many in Europe the . Action was a body blow for nato. There is no doubt that nato has been wounded said Jonathan Eyal director of studies at the Royal unite services Institute in London. You be got the most important member of he Alliance unilaterally with drawing from a joint action. Never before have we seen something like that. ". This weeks airstrikes May have papered Over the rift temporarily. This attack whatever the consequences on the ground already has one the nerve of these people wanting us to give up some of the land we killed raped and tortured for virtue binding together for the moment the ranks of the Western nations the French daily be Figaro wrote tues Day. /.-, but the raids alone will not have healed the fundamental differences be tween America and its european allies what the americans want is Fornato to do things which Are not in the in. Mandate Eyal said. For the europeans the use of Power is intended to Stop the fighting. For the americans these of Power is to punish the ious menaces if the leaders of the Western Alliance want to understand the Challenge we face after the cold War one they show no signs of having understood so far they should meet or. Esma Zecevic. 4 Zecevic is the chief paediatrician of the Kosovo hos Pital in Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina working under appalling conditions being gravely wounded her self by a sniper s Bullet that pierced her lung. Friends got Zecevic out of Sarajevo and flew her to Boston to have the Bullet removed. Surgeons found it resting on her Aorta the great artery from the heart. Another fraction of an Inch and she would have i saw her last week Zecevic said she Felt Fine now. Would she stay Here for a while to rest and recover from the tensions of life under serbian attack no she said her place was in Sarajevo. She began her journey Home last Friday. To meet Zecevic is to understand How the Bosnia War menaces Western values. Here is a 54-year-old woman. Western in Outlook committed doctor whom serbian aggressors want to kill because of her is a Muslim not someone who wants a Muslim state but one who precisely cherishes Bosnia because it has been a mixture of cultures and religions. Her family happens to be Muslim. For that she an others like her must be killed or removed so that bosnian serbs can have a pure serbian is the Challenge to the Western Alliance. Forty years ago the countries of Western Europe the United states and Canada having fought the racist savagery of nazism joined in the North Atlantic treaty to preserve humane values from soviet they face this new menace this new savagery in the name of religious h. Gelb president of the Council on for eign relations defines the Challenge in the current Issue of foreign affairs. It is an All corrosive danger he writes the Teacup wars filled with countless Bod is and horrors the Scourge of civil and ethnic the piece warns that we inthe West May underestimate the change in the world since the cold War ended. We May go on worrying about the old problems that haunted us Russia Germany nuclear weapons and neglect what Gelb Calls the new Core prob Lem wars of National debility if we fail to ameliorate an Check this Scourge he writes both the victims and the unpunished killers will undo much of what we value and undermine efforts to Mold a just and stable International and the damage will be not just abroad but at Home the failure to Deal adequately with such strife to do something about mass murder and genocide corrodes the essence of a democratic society. We have failed in the former Yugoslavia. When ser Anthony Lewis Bia sent the yugoslav Federal army into Bosnia to Hel the serbian aggressors there Britain and France chose appeasement. George Bush fresh from his Triumph inthe persian Gulf War did nothing. So it goes to this Day. . Forces mainly British and French Are in Bosnia to help get supplies to besieged civilians. But . Commanders have accepted serbian rules of engagement worked with the serbian besiegers and siphoned off Relief supplies to Serbia forces. Nato aircraft have attacked serbian forces this week for their frequent violations of declared Safe areas. Before the . Command regularly refused to prove strikes. And nato itself is deeply divided stain and France previously resisting any forceful action on behalf of the victims because the serbs might then attack their troops on the ground. The weakness and Folly of the Western position were Humilia tingly illustrated in recent weeks when bosnian serbs shot missiles at the Sarajevo building that houses the bosnian presidency. Planes from the adjoining Krajina area of Croatia held by serbs Vio lated the no Fly Rule to drop Cluster bombs and napalm on the bosnian Safe area of Bihac. Unchecked aggression in Europe does not just men Ace Zecevic and the innocent people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It menaces belief in the Western that goes the visigoths of nationalist frenzy and eth Nic hatred will indeed be at the Gates. C new Yorac time
