Word: nato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...British diplomat grumbled sarcastically: "Full marks for Clinton for appalling timing." Visibly angry, he was also speaking for most of his NATO colleagues. As Europeans saw it, they had the besieged Bosnian government just where they wanted. President Alija Izetbegovic was ready to capitulate to a plan to partition Bosnia and Herzegovina into three ethnic zones, with the largest slice going to the biggest aggressors, the Serbs. However distasteful, it was a settlement that might end the war with a "negotiated," face-saving way out for the West...
That was the precise moment Bill Clinton chose to threaten to bomb the Serbian forces that were "strangling" Sarajevo. Encouraged, possibly believing that U.S. military intervention could still save him, Izetbegovic bolted from the talks in Geneva. When Clinton's renewed determination to mount air strikes hit the NATO council in Brussels, it set off a 12-hour meeting so acrimonious that some participants feared the alliance itself was in danger of breaking apart over what would be the first offensive military action in its 44-year history...
...threat has catalyzed events in a way that forces all sides into critical decisions this week: NATO will have to decide what to bomb and under whose command. In order to avoid being bombed, the Serbs must demonstrate that they will live up to their promise to pull back a step from Sarajevo. Izetbegovic and the Bosnians will have to choose between defeat at Geneva and extinction. And all these decisions must be made at roughly the same time...
...ghettos, President Clinton raised the volume by threatening air strikes to protect not only U.N. forces but also civilians in besieged Sarajevo. European allies reacted coolly to the second part of the proposal, as they had to a similar U.S. plan in May. If the United Nations requests action, NATO planes could commence bombing runs early this week...
...city's agony has moved the U.S. to dispatch 30 military aircraft, including A-10 attack planes and helicopter gunships, to Aviano Air Base in Italy. Without being specific, a Pentagon spokesman said the deployment gives NATO the muscle to take action in Bosnia to protect U.N. forces struggling to deliver humanitarian aid "if the U.N. gives the signal." The allies, he said, are agreed on the mechanism and procedures, and the targets have been selected. "We know how to do the job," said the official. "The ball's in Boutros-Ghali's court...