On This One, Dole Is Precisely on Target : GOP leader calls for ‘lift and strike’ policy in Bosnia

Can there be a military solution in Bosnia? Of course there can be, and indeed there will be. The only question is: Whose military solution? It seems President Clinton’s military solution consists of Serb military victory, followed by the annexation to Serbia of all or most of the Bosnian territory that Serbian rebels now hold. Clinton’s unspoken hope, matching the hope of the British and French architects of this military solution, apparently is that the Serbs will be appeased by this much of a surrender and will not attempt to conquer or annex the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serb-held parts of Croatia or the independent post-Yugoslav state of Macedonia.

Bob Dole, soon to be the Senate majority leader, advocates another kind of military solution--the “lift and strike” policy that until now, however unvigorously, has been Clinton’s own; it would lift the arms embargo against the Bosnians and direct NATO to strike the Serb aggressor from the air. The “strike” half was partly enacted when NATO committed itself to guarantee several Bosnian “safe areas.”NATO chose to subordinate its command structure to that of the United Nations, however, and when the cooperation collapsed in the face of a joint Serb assault on the Bihac “safe area,” Dole did not hesitate to use the word failure .

The Kansas Republican’s solution, like Clinton’s, is only military at the start. Both aim in the end for a negotiated peace. Our support for Dole’s approach--Clinton’s earlier approach--rests on our belief that it would reach the negotiation stage quicker. “We’re not trying to fracture the NATO alliance,” Dole said in London on Wednesday, “we’re just suggesting we try something else.” The evident British-French determination to preserve Serb military superiority and seek peace by negotiations unbacked by the threat of military engagement in any form has led to a progressive widening of the war. On Thursday fighting broke out again in Croatia, which had abstained from fighting in the hope that the major powers could force the Serbs into at least a partial retreat. The Croats are now virtually certain to attempt to recapture territory seized more than two years ago by the Serbian army with the help of Croatian Serbs. As the extent of likely Western capitulation to the Serbs became evident, Croatia--still ill-prepared for war--is concluding that it cannot wait any longer.

Neither Clinton’s nor Dole’s option can be called good. Neither promises peace without further war. But the less bad option, Dole’s, is to recognize that appeasing the aggressor will only lead to endless aggression. With “lift and strike,” an end is eventually in sight.

Dole is not without support both at home and abroad. Thursday the Action Council on Peace in the Balkans--whose members include such major foreign policy voices as former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Richard Allen and former U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick--called for creation of a U.S.-led coalition of NATO and non-NATO nations if NATO itself cannot be persuaded to perform the “strike” half of “lift and strike.” NATO members mentioned by a council spokesman included Turkey, Denmark and the Netherlands. Once the first steps were taken, Italy might lend the use of the Aviano NATO base, and Germany, which dares not lead, might be willing to follow.

There are those who want this war over at virtually any price. Dole is not among them, and in this case he is right.