(2 of 5)
When in doubt, buy time. At a seaside meeting in the Netherlands last week, NATO foreign ministers announced their determination to stay in Bosnia, to strengthen their forces on the ground and take up positions that can be more readily defended. The Clinton Administration, fearing serious damage to the Atlantic Alliance if the U.S. were to stand aloof, announced the next day that it would consider sending troops to help the allies reconfigure their forces. That offer wins the support of 65% of the respondents to a TIME-CNN poll, but provoked a torrent of criticism in Congress, and by Saturday the Administration was furiously backpedaling. For all their show of determination, the allies had actually decided very little. The new policy -- leave the peacekeepers and hope for a deal, some way, somehow -- is an extension of the battered old policy, and the cruel dilemma of Bosnia remains.
Karadzic's hostage taking, possibly to his surprise, caused spine stiffening amid talk of national honor in both Britain and France. Far from considering a withdrawal, the two countries turned quickly to reinforcement. Prime Minister John Major ordered 1,200 more troops, backed by artillery, to join 3,500 British soldiers already serving with the 22,000 peacekeepers deployed in Bosnia. An additional brigade of 5,500 will move out later this month. The idea, says an aide to Major, is to build a unit "with an offensive role." U.N. resolutions authorize the peacekeepers to use all means necessary to get relief supplies through, but up to now they have not had the muscle to do so against Serb resistance. If they were in serious danger, U.N. peacekeepers could call in air strikes by NATO planes -- a move that has twice resulted in hostage taking by the Serbs. Now the British expect to be able to take better care of themselves with their own forces on the ground.
The French, who had earlier been demanding either firmer action or a pullout, acted as host of an alliance meeting on Saturday in Paris to discuss the formation of a multinational "rapid reaction" force of as many as 5,000 troops. This force would be based in Bosnia and would be equipped with helicopters and mobile artillery. Peacekeepers under threat would be able to call on it for support and to keep the Serbs from rounding up U.N. hostages at will. French officials, who regularly complain about the American refusal to contribute ground troops, tried again to persuade Washington to take part. Defense Secretary William Perry, who attended the Paris meeting, said the U.S. would help with logistics but not with ground troops.
U.S. policy had in fact looked tougher earlier in the week. Washington dispatched a small fleet to the Adriatic led by the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, carrying 50 warplanes, and amphibious assault vessels, carrying 2,000 Marines specially trained for combat landings. The U.S. had pledged in the past that it would provide troops to police a peace settlement if one ever came about and also to help peacekeeping forces withdraw if they ever made that decision. But last week's offshore buildup was not clearly intended for either of those contingencies.