Reassessing U.S. Involvement in the Balkans
Saturday, August 22, 2009
In his Aug. 16 column, "
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081402520.html>
Ahead, for Once, in the Balkans," Jim Hoagland celebrated the 1995 U.S.
intervention in Bosnia but omitted mention of its failures. The defeat of
Bosnian Serb forces was achieved through a series of vicious Croatian ground
offensives during the summer and fall of 1995, which were supported and to some
extent directed by U.S. officials.
These offensives began in the Krajina region of Croatia and were extended into
western Bosnia. They resulted in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of
Serbs -- thus producing some of the worst instances of ethnic cleansing of the
entire war -- as well as thousands of civilian deaths. It was these events that
made possible the November 1995 Dayton accords that Mr. Hoagland now
celebrates.
None of these events can excuse the Serb-perpetrated atrocities at Srebrenica
and elsewhere. But they were revolting nonetheless, and the Clinton
administration played a key role in making it possible. Years later, we should
not whitewash these atrocities.
DAVID N. GIBBS
Tucson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082103421.html
