Intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina
In response to “Should America Use Military Force in Bosnia?” Commentary, Nov. 23:
On an early 17th-Century map of the Danube, a Christian monarch in full armor with an orb in one hand and a drawn sword in the other confronts a Muslim prince, who sports feathers in his turban and holds his sword in readiness. Behind the Christian stands a damsel with a crucifix; she leans upon a shield emblazoned with the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman emperor. Beside the Muslim, a lady defiantly places her foot upon a cross.
Religious and ethnic strife in southeast Europe was a basic fact of life centuries ago, when Christians were splintered among Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy and the new religions of the Reformation; and the Turks pressed to the gates of Vienna. We should not now be surprised that the Serbs, Croatians and Bosnians are at each other’s throats. Hatred has a long memory.
MARGARET L. ROMANI, Los Angeles
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