Intervention in Bosnia

It is disturbing to witness Cockburn characterize Croatia’s bid for independence as the “fanaticism of exiles,” rather than as the culmination of a 1,000-year struggle for Croatian self-determination.

It also defies reason for Cockburn to claim that nationalist sentiments in the Balkans stemmed from a failing federal economy sabotaged by an anti-communist West. In fact, Yugoslavia’s inflation was decreasing steadily when the republics declared independence.

Also specious is Cockburn’s argument that it was communist rule that “kept the peace and banished religious bloodshed” in Bosnia. Cockburn seems unwilling to accept the fact that the fighting in the former Yugoslavia is emerging not along ethnic or religious lines, but rather along the path of Milosevic’s nationalist troops--first in Slovenia, then Croatia, and now in Bosnia.

VIDA MILANOVIC

San Diego