THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 14, 1994 TAG: 9411120014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
The Clinton administration's decision Friday to cease enforcing the United Nations-imposed arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims is a positive step. It should move forward and take the next steps to supply arms to the beseiged Bosnians, who have recently begun making impressive military gains on the ground.
What precisely to do about the train wreck that is the former Yugoslavia has bedevilled American and Western European foreign policy since once-dominant Serbia began trying to hold the country together by force in 1991. Supporting the brutal Serbian aggression was out of the question, of course. Using U.S. or other Western troops to protect the country's beleaguered minorities was neither politically practical nor desirable. Limited Western air strikes have not achieved the desired effect of deterring the Serbs.
The obvious solution, therefore, was to allow those under attack to defend themselves. This was the essence of the ``Reagan Doctrine'' of the 1980's, which supplied arms to anti-Communist insurgents in Nicaragua, Angola and Afghanistan. These small efforts paid big dividends when the cost of supporting this far-flung empire became too much for the Communist system to bear in the end.
Our European allies, however, particularly the French and the British, have always vetoed such a strategy in the former Yugoslavia. These countries, among others, have troops on the ground in the area and their governments fear that arming the Bosnians will cause the Serbs to attack U.N. forces. They also argue that supplying arms will simply ``escalate'' the war.
Whatever validity these arguments might once have had, they don't apply anymore. The U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia don't appear to be doing anyone a lot of good. Their only function now appears to be serving in effect as hostages against any Western effort to aid the Bosnians. They ought to be withdrawn.
Providing arms to the Bosnians and other minorities might temporarily make the war hotter, but that at least would have the virtue of leading to some kind of resolution. The Bosnians seem to be doing all right for themselves under their current straightened circumstances. More arms might lead to a certain stability.
Another reason is that the Iranians are stepping into the vacuum we are leaving by refusing to arm the Bosnians. The Bosnians will remember who helped them and who did not. The influence of Islamic extremism could increase in the absence of Western aid.
Wars are not pretty, but they are uglier still if one-sided. The administrration has made a good first step by no longer enforcing the embargo. It should take one more and give the Bosnians the means with which to defend themselves. by CNB