THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, July 29, 1995                TAG: 9507280017
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   45 lines

INEFFECTUAL BOSNIA DEBATE IS TOO LATE A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

We've said it before, but we'll say it again. There is no peace to keep in the former Yugoslavia, and U.N. peacekeepers are little more than hostages in waiting. They should be gotten out. The arms embargo has favored the aggressors and doomed the Bosnians. It should have been lifted long ago.

The Senate vote to do just that is too little and too late, more rhetoric than realism. It faces a presidential veto and even if that is overridden it requires an elaborate U.N. notification process. Help is not really on the way.

The vote is evidence of a shift in sentiment. Last week, Islamic nations also voted to defy the arms embargo. But the weapons aren't flowing while the safe havens fall and atrocities mount. And air strikes are as likely to put U.N. troops in danger as those of the aggressors.

As Sen. Sam Nunn said, the Senate vote confronted him with a choice between two confused and unconvincing policies. The whole world knows what is happening is wrong, the worst mess in Europe since World War II. But there is no one prepared to stand up and lead if there is a cost attached to it. No one willing to admit the only language the Bosnian Serbs understand is the one they've employed - bloodshed.

There's no Maggie Thatcher in England. Bill Clinton, like George Bush before him, is not willing to risk another quagmire. Boris Yeltsin has no interest in foreign entanglements, and if he did he's on the side of the bad guys. The French seem more interested in a way out than a way to win. The Germans and Japanese have been taught not to volunteer for the past 50 years. By default, the ball is in the court of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and he's more Chamberlain than Churchill.

So, the destruction of the Bosnians continues apace. That's a tragedy for them; it is a dangerous precedent for the world. When the next genocidal tyrant decides he can get away with murder, those who sat by while Bosnia died, who made fine speeches but refused to give the Bosnians the means to defend themselves will share in the blame. by CNB