Word: airdropping
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...into the streets, but Gorazde's citizens are holding firm. They hope that help is coming. But so far, the C-130 transport planes droning over Gorazde have been destined for others. "The mountain trail can satisfy only 5% of our needs," says Gorazde Mayor Hadzo Efendic. And the airdrop? "The world has attached much pomp to that," he says...
...TANGLED EQUATION OF BALKAN POLITICS, neutrality is a chimera. That was the first painful lesson of the U.S. airdrop of food and medical supplies over Bosnia, an effort widely touted as nonmilitary in intent and, by offering help to all, evenhanded in scope. In night after night of high-altitude cargo clearing missions, U.S. C-130 aircraft parachuted tons of goods to the republic's warring multiethnic residents. But the rain of relief had unpleasant consequences. Not only did it make sniper targets out of many who ventured out to retrieve it, but it may also have helped provide cover...
Instead of more vigorous action to stop Serbian aggression, as he promised during his presidential campaign, Clinton settled for a humanitarian airdrop to besieged civilians in eastern Bosnia. To avoid offending the aggressors, he said relief supplies would go to all parties--to the attacking Serbs as well as their victims. The Serbian aggressors replied to that deferential policy by using the airdrops as a cover for a major offensive against the Cerska enclave. They overran it, killing hundreds of civilians in what one United Nations official called a "massacre...
...Bosnians, Americans do not support intervention strong enough to make a real difference. To sustain intervention for the years it will take to stabilize the situation would require Clinton to spend scarce political capital that he prefers to save for domestic economic renewal. Clinton may have adopted the airdrop plan as a minimal gesture, hoping to avoid more serious responsibility. Yet he will have to be serious, sooner or later, if he hopes to stop Serbian aggression--and address this widening danger to European security...
...airdrop mission will not bring the vicious Bosnian war to an end. It may have its main impact in Washington, temporarily silencing those clamoring for the U.S. to do more. But for all the flaws in the operation, it is certain to save at least some lives -- and test whether the Serbs are ready to pick a military fight with Clinton...