Editorial The costs of peace
Steinfels, Margaret O'Brien
The costs of peace Qeacemaking is not peaceful. In Somalia violence dogged every peacemaking step, finally driving the United States to withdraw from what began as a humanitarian mission to feed...
...and the unofficial militias who have operated outside of official chains-of-command...
...Neither Franjo Tudjman of Croatia nor Slobodan Milosovic of Serbia, signers of the Dayton Peace Accord, is to be trusted...
...For them, the cost of war has been enormous, and peace, if it is achieved, will exact a further price...
...Thus, the chief source of uneasiness about NATO troops in Bosnia: Are they guarding a peace that will take hold or enforcing a cease-fire that Serbs and Croats will use to prepare a final offensive against the vulnerable remains of Bosnia...
...troops to Bosnia is a risk, not the least because the very presence of Americans may invite terrorist attacks from all of the belligerents: recalcitrant Bosnian Serbs...
...The Bosnians did not start this war...
...The cost to the United States, in contrast, seems relatively modest...
...now they are ready to pursue peace despite the looming threat of a greater Croatia and a greater Serbia...
...A cease-fire is better than slaughter...
...Armies can only protect a peace that the belligerents themselves must pursue...
...We should pay it...
...Haiti has been more complicated and the outcome more ambiguous...
...Healing these wounds, of course, is not the mandate of NATO, which has been given a year to separate armies, patrol borders, provide security...
...This in the midst of a devastated economy in which infrastructure, homes, schools, businesses have been ruthlessly destroyed and international funds for resettlement and reconstruction are in short supply...
...the Islamic fighters whose presence helped to fortify the Bosnian army, but whose future plans remain obscure...
...As 60,000 NATO troops, including 20,000 Americans, move to impose a rough calm on a still-simmering Bosnia, simply enumerating the potential terrorists begins to suggest the explosive costs of peace...
...Short-term peace has prevailed-more or less: political agreements have been kept and elections were quiet...
...How much more it asks of those who have raped, tortured, murdered, burnt, and pillaged, those who have been victims, and those who have been witnesses of these crimes...
...No doubt sending U.S...
...the Croats, should their territorial hopes be thwarted...
...A year seems pitifully brief...
...Many Americans, certainly many in Congress, do not trust that President Bill Clinton and his chief negotiator Richard Holbrooke know what they are getting into-and more critically know how to get out...
...In Somalia violence dogged every peacemaking step, finally driving the United States to withdraw from what began as a humanitarian mission to feed the hungry...
...Still, development and real peace exist only in an elusive future...
...some are plausible, some reek of mere political calculation...
...they resisted defeat and international indifference...
...All things considered, one thing is clear: In Bosnia, a year of peace is better than another year of war...
...In Bosnia, 2 million people are displaced from their homes, 250,000 killed, 200,000 wounded...
...Every possible argument against sending American soldiers to Bosnia has been made...
...Yielding, negotiating, repenting, and reconciling all demand more of us humans-spiritually, psychologically, and materially-than most of us have much experience at giving...
Vol. 123 • January 1996 • No. 1
