U.S. Must Aid in U.N. Rescue : Clinton, Congress should quickly send commandos to Bosnia if needed

Most Americans, even those skeptical of the United Nations, recognize that this forum created in the shadow of World War II has been an asset in the world struggle against war and chaos. Sadly, that asset has been depreciating in Bosnia, and it will depreciate further on the day when the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Croatia is judged such a failure that it must be terminated. Having failed so ignominiously in the Balkans, the United Nations will bring a reduced expectation of success to any future peacekeeping venture.

The wound to the United Nations can be mitigated, however, and its recovery time shortened if an eventual retreat from the Balkans is not a ghastly rout but an orderly, planned withdrawal. The men and women serving in the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) deserve that much. For indefensible political reasons, their leaders--and American leadership shares this responsibility--have given them an impossible assignment. But to the best of their ability, they have carried it out. Abandoning them in the hour of their own need would be an unimaginable disgrace.

This is why, in the face of bipartisan reluctance to send U.S. ground troops to defend Bosnia, President Clinton rightly pledged last December that the United States would contribute as many as 25,000 troops to assist in a U.N. withdrawal. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said Monday: “The Clinton Administration will only compound [earlier] problems unless it makes a clear case to the American public on why military involvement is needed and Congress approves. We cannot continue on this policy of denial.”

But to admit that the U.N. peacekeeping mission has failed is precisely to end the policy of denial. And the case for a one-time rescue of the peacekeepers--including, as may be necessary, the use of American commandos to rescue Serb-held hostages--all but makes itself. Clinton should seek congressional approval, but Congress should give it with greatest dispatch.

Bosnia has been disastrous for solidarity of the Western alliance. A gesture of loyalty now cannot turn bad into good, but can at least prevent bad from turning into worse.