X-Envelope-to: POLITICS@OHSTVMA.BITNET
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 16:48:00 EDT
From:         GRACZ1@ITHACA.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Bosnia conflict

Why is it *our* responsibility to do "something" about the situation
>in Bosnia?  Is it the responsibility of China or the former Soviet
>Union or even Bosnia to send relief to the hurricane victims in
>Florida?  Or to rescue the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories
>from the tyranny of the Israeli government?  Or to invade the
>United States to bring military action to end the slaughter of
>4000 unborn children every day?  Or to feed those who are starving all
>over the African continent?

     Don't you think that the US has some responsibilities in the
   world simply because we are capable of doing something?  The US
   is the only country left with a military force capable of exerting
   powerful force on its own anywhere in the world.  I say, either use
   it to bring some peace in the world and prevent a few killings, or
   scrap it entirely, leaving only enough to protect our immediate
   interests.  If the US (with the UN) had gone in a long time ago,
   the Serbians could have been discouraged from invading Bosnia and
   Croatia.  IMHO, the biggest reason there is such a mess there is
   that everyone in the area who was power hungry was convinced that
   grabbing some land would lead to no consequences.  Hussein grabbed
   Kuwait for the same reason -- he thought he would get away with it.
   If you send a clear message early on that "crime does not pay" and
   back it up with a small force (that would surely grow if trouble arose)
   instead of dithering for months, you would prevent, I feel, the
   vast majority of the kind of disaster that is currently occurring
   in Bosnia.

>If the government feels it can do nothing, and you think "something"
>should be done, then *do* something.  Go there.  Take up arms.  Fight
>for whichever side you prefer.  Organize a relief effort.  Take those
>who agree with you and bring aid and comfort to those who are in need.
>Something.  Whatever you think is necessary.  Just do it.


    That thinking brought the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish
   Revolution, which, by the way, was Hitler's  (and Mussolini's)
   test of the rest of the world's resolve to oppose him.  Need I say
   what happened after that?

>The government's interest is in not invading a (semi-) soverign nation
>to become embroiled in a conflict for an undetermined period of time,
>with an inestimable number of casualties, on a mission that has little
>chance of success.  That's the way the government sees it.

    I'll admit it's too late now to do anything about the problem without
   becoming hopelessly entangled in a bloody conflict for years, but
   I'm still royally pissed at the gov't for not doing something when
   it could have.

>Wars go on all over the world.  Outside nations involve themselves only
>when it is in their interest to do so.  The Bosnian conflict is not
>intricately enmeshed in the interests of the United States.  We are not
>the world's police force; that is supposed to be the job of the newly
>strengthened United Nations.  That is the world of realpolitik.

     That's just cold.  We're all human beings, and if you think about
    it, US inaction has caused thousands of deaths (and still counting).

>--Missy P 2 B

          --G. Racz
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