After a lifetime of war in Bosnia, can the United States really offer positive change? To truly get a feel for the conflict in this region we must first look at the long-standing hatred between the occupying ethnic groups: Serbs, Muslims, and Croats.

From 1481 to 1903 the Ottoman Empire was the ruling body over the entire Balkan region. By the early nineteen hundreds the Ottoman Empire had collapsed. In 1918, at the end of World War One, Russia annexed the Balkan region renaming it Yugoslavia. In 1919 Joseph Stalin, Communist ruler of Russia and its satellite states (i.e. Yugoslavia), appointed Tito to be the head of Yugoslavia. Tito quickly became an iron fisted and ruthless dictator. The Machiavellian characteristics exhibited by Tito have given all Serbs a reputation as being strong armed and merciless. With Tito’s death in 1991, Yugoslavia collapsed and split into 3 independent states: Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Croatia. In 1994 Slovadon Malosovitch was elected ruler of the Serbian state. Incidents of mass genocide and several other war crimes became regular occurrences under his rule. The Bosnian crisis has shown the world the worst of human nature. On

Even in a place as horrible as Bosnia, the United States has no place there. It is not their fight. They need to consider their own affairs and think about reconciling domestic issues before worrying about troop commitments. “Contrary to public knowledge Bosnians do not want the United States there” (Fareed 2). This is the feeling of the general Bosnian public stated by an expert. The only people United States troops are reassuring are the heads of state. All the United States is doing by “helping” the Bosnian Cause is exactly what the Ottoman Empire did for 427 years. They are occupying a foreign nation against their will. The United States efforts in Bosnia are made in good intention but are needed on the home front as well.

In reality the United States could have stayed out of this conflict all together. Even if the costs in loss of life surpassed that of Vietnam, it would have eventually solved itself. In history large scale battles over ethnicity are eventually lost in politics making people forget about the ethnic diversity and realize that sometimes the true enemy is in the government. The same problem was faced in the Congo in the late eighteen hundreds. What began as disputes between rival tribes, eventually evolved into a battle against a repressive government. In the end the tribes united to overthrow a corrupt Belgium government.

This quote is from SRSG Jacques Paul Klein. It is the response to the question, “What is your hope for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the immediate future?” As you can see he is very adamant about the changes that need to be made in Bosnia. Unfortunately, the only way these hopes can become a reality is through the execution of one of the two following solutions. The first solution coincides with United States involvement in Bosnia. The United States needs to re-state what they want their role to be in the Balkan region. They then need to make their motives clear, defined, and specifically organized to each individual task. In this scenario a larger force, up to fifty thousand ground troops, needs to be deployed throughout the Balkan region. “If the Serbian war machine is not stopped, the war can only spread to new areas and is likely to result in a confrontation of continental proportions”(Fogelquist 1). This quote from Alan Fogelquist is a testament to why the United States needs troops occupying Bosnia. A group of ground troops will keep peace and help rebuild cities until the proper government decisions are made. The secretary of state, secretary of defense, and the vice president should oversee the governmental decisions. Then, a team of economical experts needs to be employed to diagnose the problems that are keeping the economy from being totally resolved. When the goals stated earlier are attained it is time to leave. No re-commitment needs to be made. During all of these drastic changes the United States should provide an aide package. This package should include financial and humanitarian aide, airlift, intelligence, and “diplomatic good offices”. These mass funds should be used to rebuild cities and establish a bureaucratic civil service branch of the government as well. Under no circumstances should the United States hold out the prospect of long-term involvement. At this point, when the United States withdraws from Bosnia, if a war should break ou

Some topics in this essay:
Alan Fogelquist, Bosnia United, California Florida, Bosnian Cause, Bosnian American, Ottoman Empire, Clinton Administration, Slovado Malosovitch, Klux Klan, Wall Street, balkan region, bosnia united, bosnian cause, racial bigotry, united involvement, foreign policy, twenty thousand troops, twenty thousand, ottoman empire, ground troops, opinion united, united involvement bosnia, feels obligated help, help bosnian cause, obligated help bosnian,