A Compelling Bosnia Argument

President Clinton has presented his case for sending U.S. troops to Bosnia, a hellfire of ethnic fighting for four years that is now fragilely calm under a truce and peace agreement achieved by his diplomats.

Speaking Monday night from the Oval Office, Clinton aimed his remarks at the electorate and Congress, neither of which is comfortable with sending Americans into peril. The attempt to sell the public on a U.S. military involvement in a faraway, little-understood country is a high-risk political gamble. Those who would attribute Clinton’s Bosnia strategy primarily to electoral politics are way off target. Nevertheless, this President’s relationship with the people will be greatly affected by what happens in the coming months in the Balkans.

Clinton emphasized a point also made by this newspaper: that the United States has no choice but to lead the NATO deployment in Bosnia to secure the peace agreed to last week in Ohio. “It is the right thing to do,” Clinton said. “ .J.J. We cannot stop all war for all time. But we can stop some wars. We cannot save all women and all children. But we can save many. We cannot do everything. But we must do what we can do. The people of Bosnia, our NATO allies and people around the world are looking to America for leadership. Let us lead. That is our responsibility as Americans.”

Going directly to American fears, Clinton disclosed some new elements of the NATO plan and said the operation, if it meets his approval, will be presented in detail to Congress by week’s end. He requested the concurrence of Congress, but it was clear he intends to stay on a timetable already in motion. The first American soldiers could be in Bosnia within a week. All told, about 60,000 NATO troops, including 20,000 Americans, would enter the warweary but still volatile region soon after the signing of a peace treaty in Paris in mid December. “If we’re not there, NATO will not be there,” the President argued. “The peace will collapse. The war will reignite.”

This is dangerous country. Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader and convicted war criminal, says Saravejo will become a “new Beirut.” Clinton said the U.S. troops should be out in a year; that sounds optimistic. Congress must question that target date. But the Presi dent’s cause is right.