ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Hagelian Worldview

As each month passes, Americans watch with mounting horror and a sense of helplessness as Bosnia is torn apart. The question of what action to take has divided Americans and has split the United States and its allies; at times it almost seems that hand-wringing is the only thing to do.

But off the world’s center stage, as the fighting mocks an evanescent cease-fire and as NATO apparently backs renewed U.S. threats of air strikes, a group of Southern Californians has been making heroic efforts to help those maimed by the war.

Sonja Sofia Hagel, a Huntington Beach hospital administrator, engineered an airlift of war victims to America for treatment of shattered limbs and damaged eyes. Nineteen casualties of the Bosnian fighting arrived last week, brought to hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties and elsewhere in the United States. Hagel spent months seeking out doctors and hospitals willing to volunteer their efforts. On Thursday she plans to fly to Croatia with a team of doctors, bringing medical supplies and instruction, as well as children’s toys, to some of the wounded left behind.

The U.S. Air Force, the United Nations, private airlines, hospitals and doctors all have helped with the airlift and treatment, known as “Operation Second Chance.” It’s a fine humanitarian effort.

The volunteers say their work is only a fraction of what is needed throughout the former Yugoslavia. That’s true, but to those who are helped, the assistance seems enormous.