President Bill Clinton’s pledge to veto the lifting of the arms embargo against the Muslin Bosnians typifies his whole policy over the former Yugoslavia: ill-judged, ineffectual and too late.
He has constantly vacillated while making bold statements, with the result that all parties (the Bosnian, Serbs, Muslims, his NATO allies and even the UN) have come to regard any constructive US role as hopeless.
The latest pledge is in the face of a 298-128 vote in the House and a 69-29 vote in the Senate _ both large enough to override a veto should Mr Clinton be silly enough to go ahead with it _ requiring Mr Clinton to end US support for the embargo after the withdrawal of the UN force or within 12 weeks of a request from the Bosnian Government, whichever comes first.
Mr Clinton and his staff say they can round up enough senators and representatives to make the veto stick. It is a risky strategy. If the veto does not stick Mr Clinton will be seen as even more ineffectual than before. That the Congress came to call for the lifting of the embargo in the first place highlights the weakness of US policy over the past three years. While the UN, US and NATO fail to defend the Bosnian Muslims against Serb aggression, the embargo prevents them from defending themselves. A level battleground would at least have been better than an unlevel execution ground.