Guns for Bosnia

Maine’s four congressional representatives present different views of the continuing crisis in Bosnia, and the Senate vote to lift unilaterally the embargo on arms sales to its Muslim government. Their conflicting perceptions emphasize the complexity of the problem and the risk of involving the United States militarily in an ethnic civil war.

Members of Congress with personal or partisan agendas blame Clinton for the mess, but Sen. Olympia Snowe points out that this president inherited the bankrupt Bosnian policy from the Bush administration. It is a bipartisan flop, at the top. However, as Sen. Snowe makes clear, candidate Clinton promised action in Bosnia, and hasn’t delivered. He’s also in the hot seat as the policy melts down.

Rep. John Baldacci, the sole Democrat in the delegation, is standing by his man. It is a gamble for the freshman from Bangor. Sen. Snowe’s frustration with a vacillating president is shared by many constituents in the 2nd Congressional District.

Impatience is a poor motive to make an abrupt and potentially dangerous shift in foreign policy, but as Rep. James Longely Jr. observed, the combination of weak leadership at home and United Nations mismanagement of the Bosnia mission is forcing the United States into the undesirable position of taking sides in a foreign, internal conflict.

Longley has a military background and knows that while fighter-bombers provide critical support to ground troops, the jets don’t win wars. Infantry takes and holds ground. Simultaneously arming the Bosnians and committing to air strikes starts the United States down a slippery slope that may lead to more killing and a broader battlefield. Rep. Longley is not ready to lift the embargo. His position is day to day. But his visits to the Bosnian front and his own logic eventually will compel him to make a decision.

Sen. William Cohen, who with Sen. Snowe voted to lift the arms ban, predicted the hostage-taking of peacekeepers in response to air strikes, and criticized the U.N.’s clumsy, self-defeating approach to command-and-control responsibilities. The U.N. partially addressed that concern Wednesday when it turned decisions on air strikes over to military commanders.

If the international community, including the United States, truly is committed to intervening and resolving the crisis in Bosnia, it must define its mission, accept that there will be casualties, especially among ground troops, and act as one, as it did in Desert Storm and Korea.

Left in place, today’s bankrupt policy will make consensus on future U.N. actions difficult, if not impossible. Its end point will be the extermination of the last Muslim by the Serbs.