Much like the Kennedy assassination, it is likely that we can remember where we were when Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm. The announcement that Iraq had bombed Israel reached me on the bus home from an eighth grade dance. The next morning every paper read "IT'S WAR!" Why all the hype for such a relatively small operation? Simple: we knew we were going to win. The publicity brought us all together for a national "let's go kick some Iraqi ass" mentality.
For the most part, the Gulf War was, as CNN so eloquently put it, a "video game war." Unlike in Vietnam, we rarely saw footage of the destruction. We saw our troops mobilizing, we saw fancy laser light shows, and we saw the Kuwaiti people lining the streets, smiling, waving American flags, and chanting "Bush, Bush...!" What we didn't see was the inevitable destruction of any full-scale military endeavor.
Now we have begun deploying troops to Bosnia. But there are several potentially explosive elements of this present situation that we seem to have forgotten. First, Bosnia was involved in the start of both world wars. The ethnic unrest there makes America look like the Land of Oz. For us to think that our Big Brother-like presence will make any difference in the frustrations bred by years of friction is presumptuous and naive.
Second, by putting our proverbial foot in the door, we are entering a potentially dangerous situation. In both world wars, we waited for clear sides to develop, weighed our interests, and only entered when our national security was at stake. The problem with Bosnia is that we have let ourselves become involved in a war which neither involves our people, nor our interests.
Is it our moral obligation to step in on an obvious holocaust? It would seem that, yes, we are responsible to help others because we can and they need our aid. A holocaust, not unlike that which occurred in Europe 50 years ago, is occurring in Bosnia. With our military power, we could probably kill off those inflicting harm. Maybe. Well, we can never be sure. The issue is doubt. What if we killed off all the Serbian rebels? We would have left not only their ideals instilled in most people of that area, but also an intense hatred for America. In a few years, another army would mobilize and the escalating hate would result in more slaughter.
With the stagnant Congress and gung-ho politicians campaigning for 1996, Bosnia seems to have fallen by the wayside. Perhaps after the "easy win" in the Middle East, we have forgotten just what a real war means. But wars aren't video games. We can't just wait and see who's going to make the next move. Our military has entered a warring nation. It doesn't matter what pseudonym the operation has: at this point we either have to bow out and admit we were wrong, or go to war. And when was the last time America admitted it was wrong? We need to find some real motives for occupying yet another foreign country, or get out of there fast. If we don't, we will have major global problems on our hands. And I don't care who wins the battle in Congress. A war in Europe won't help balance the budget.
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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