Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 1, 1993                   TAG: 9309080437
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOSNIA

On top of protecting U.N. forces, an essential measure to sustain respect for that agency, Clinton also seems ready to extend the offer of military help to air defense of the beseiged city of Sarajevo.

This may seem like creeping escalation, and it is. But these are defensible options. They probably are less risky than doing nothing.

The Serbs continue to make a mockery of U.N.-designated ``safe areas,'' which are supposed to provide a measure of relief for the beleaguered Muslims. No one believes for a minute that the recent assault on a contingent of French soldiers serving with the United Nations was a mistake.

Meantime, Sarajevo, an extraordinary city with a majestic tradition of multi-ethnic tolerance, is about to fall. This would be a serious blow to civilization, and there is some hope that perhaps Clinton's and NATO's sudden new activity might forestall that prospect.

A U.S. commitment not only to help NATO defend U.N. troops but to prevent Sarajevo's fall isn't necessarily the entry into an open-ended quagmire. American action could be turned over in time to NATO or the United Nations.

No one should believe that U.S. involvement would save Bosnia. Ethnic partition, as horrible and defeating as that is, seems still inevitable. But, just maybe, a belated show of resistance by the world community - and in particular with American military power - to the killer Serbs might hasten partition and the end of this awful war.

It is time for President Clinton to consult with Congress and the public about this always grave decision to commit Americans to possible combat overseas.