Word: somalia
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...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 in Somalia, one whose hazy military objective resulted in the useless sacrifice of American lives...
...anti-interventionist argument extends however, beyond such superficial points. Surely, our military technology can avoid the mistakes of Somalia and Vietnam. Opposition to the mission is correctly rooted in an evaluation of America's vital national interests with respect to Bosnia. And upon analysis, it demands that America soldiers remain at home...
America's intervention in Somalia, which cost $2 billion and the lives of 30 servicemen and changed nothing, along with the crisis in Haiti and the war in Bosnia, has impelled U.S. leaders to search for new definitions of the nation's interests abroad. Even the prudent George Bush, who ordered U.S. troops to Somalia in the first place, was rethinking the old guidelines just before he left office. He suggested that "military force might be the best way to protect an interest that qualifies as important but less than vital." Force is a key adjunct to diplomacy, he argued...
...collective security so far have simply proved the old rule: the U.S. will act when it sees that its vital interests are at stake--as in the gulf--but feels no compulsion to send in the Marines without a very good reason. The public demanded a pullout from Somalia but said nothing about abandoning overflights in Iraq when two U.S. helicopters were mistakenly shot down in April 1994 and 15 Americans were killed. The difference between the two cases is obvious. The public understands that oil is a strategic interest, and Saddam Hussein--a tyrant hoping to build nuclear weapons...
...Americans rejected intervention in Somalia because their vital interests were not at stake, will they accept intervention in Bosnia? One way to persuade them to go along with the deployment, of course, is to argue that America's vital interests are at stake in Bosnia. The Administration has tried that approach, with limited success. Clinton has another alternative, which is to acknowledge that the fate of Bosnia is not crucial to the national security of the U.S., but add that we still have an interest in peace and stability there, and that our interest merits the loss of some troops...