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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 21, 1993                   TAG: 9305210455
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DON'T MAKE WAR TO BRING PEACE

ARE WE so outraged by the "ethnic cleansing" that we feel morally justified in entering the war to restore the status quo ante so that the Serbs (or Croats) would not continue to hold territory recently gained by aggression? How many United States administrations beyond 1996 would be willing to maintain an occupying force in Bosnia to prevent the resurgence of internecine uprisings?

Assuming we enter the Bosnia conflict with the best of intentions (to end the war sooner), would the United States be remembered and respected abroad for that motive, or for the additional deaths and suffering it caused (as in the case of Hiroshimo and Nagasaki)?

Like most Americans, I am appalled by the events in Bosnia as reported by our media. I would like to see the end of human suffering, death and destruction. But unlike most Americans, I do not want to "punish" one side by joining the other side in a massive military attack.

If our secretary of state is having a hard time selling our European allies on a policy of limited intervention in what we call a European problem, perhaps it is because they are closer to the problem and understand better than we the endemic discord and incipient paranoia of the Balkan people.

Let's urge our government to continue to seek peace through negotiation and not act on the impulse to demonstrate militarily our claim to superpower leadership. WHITFIELD COBB BLACKSBURG

by CNB