Reining In the Serb Victory : Thanks entirely to U.S. muscle, Sarajevo, at least, may survive

It is a cruel paradox of the Bosnian conflict that a positive portent could be found in the weekend’s renewed fighting. The hope is that the three parties--Serbs, Croats and Muslims--are making their last push before the scheduled resumption of their so-called peace talks.

Those on-again, off-again negotiations had been on hold until the apocalyptic situation around Sarajevo was settled. Now the Serbs have all but withdrawn from their positions on Mt. Igman and Mt. Bjelasnica, above the torn city. The conference that is designed to end the fighting and divide Bosnia into three different states appears set to continue.

If that result is achieved, two important facts must be understood.

First, the truth is that the Serbs have won this war, through their own barbarity and the West’s inaction.

The second truth that must be understood is that if Sarajevo, this multi-ethnic city that was for so many decades a scene of religious tolerance and cosmopolitan culture, is destined to be saved, it is being saved by one thing: the specter of American power. It was not saved by the United Nations, which did not have the political capability to act with effect; or by the European powers, who would not have bothered to act at all except for the United States.

Having inherited the Bush Administration’s neglect of Bosnia, and having suffered from its own initial meandering ineptitude, the Clinton Administration sought to get its bearings. Once the bloodthirsty mortar assaults on Sarajevo got to him, President Clinton seemed to find his own voice. For it was only when the very real threat of American military power was floated over the equation--and specifically over Mt. Igman and Mt. Bjelasnica--that the Serbs paused.

It was Clinton’s conviction, and Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s policy execution, that motivated the NATO threat of action. And it was that, and nothing else, that caused the Serbs to climb down from the mountain. And it is the continued, hovering U.S. military threat that still might see this contemporary apocalypse to an end. President Clinton and Secretary of State Christopher must stay this honorable course.