Word: bosnian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This is a valid comparison. Much like Vietnam, Bosnia is a land foreign to American soldiers. It presents an unfamiliar terrain and adds to it a people with unfamiliar language and cultural traditions. The origin of the Bosnian conflict is largely alien to the average American GI, and the rationale behind American intervention is further hidden in ambiguity. In as much as Vietnam became the manifestation of George Kennan's containment doctrine, so has Bosnia become the symbol of America's ambivalent role as the global superpower. If not with Vietnam, then similar comparisons are provided by the military disaster...
...temporary security granted by NATO's year-long presence will surely necessitate a permanent position for America within the Balkans, and as such, one which is clearly dissonant with any interpretation of the nation's interests. The much lauded "exit plan" fantastically assumes our ability to retreat from the Bosnian situation once we have morally as well as physically entangled ourselves within it. One would hope that no president is so callous as to renege on an already assumed responsibility. For as many predictions and guarantees have been made, when the time for withdrawal approaches and the situation...
...American-arbitrated Bosnian settlement presents itself as contrived political move in the face of the upcoming Presidential election. Each President requires a mini-war and Clinton's Presidential resume remains empty in that regard. (One might note the hypocrisy of his decision in light of his own military record). The American troop deployment is a decision opposed by former Chief of Staff General Colin Powell, and it is a decision which fails to reconcile itself with a sound foreign policy; lacking though it may be in the present administration...
...moving to Clinton's side last Thursday, Dole highlighted an irony. Had the President earlier forced an end to the arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims, Dole argued, it might not now be necessary for U.S. soldiers to enforce the peace agreement, an accord whose ultimate goal is to strengthen the Bosnians so they can defend themselves when the U.S. leaves. As a consistent opponent of the embargo, Dole had the standing to complain. But the heart of the matter, he said on the Senate floor, is simple: "The troops are on their way. We cannot stop their deployment...
...Bosnian Serbs have ignored a French-imposed Sunday deadline to release the two French pilots downed over Bosnian Serb territory in August. TIME'S Edward Barnes reports from Pale that Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic may be holding up the release of the pilots "to cut a deal to avoid a war crimes trial. No one thinks he'll pull it off." Barnes also reports that Bosnian Serbs are busy trying to move Serb industry out of the divided Muslim capital, Sarajevo, before ceding control of the city under the Dayton accord. There, about 3,000 Serbs and other residents...