Friday, December 26, 1997

Clintons' visit to bosnia was commendable

A 32-hour trip to Bosnia and back is no one's idea of holiday fun, but it was good that President Clinton, and first lady Hillary and first daughter Chelsea, made the effort.

First, it was a tangible way of thanking the 8,000 U.S. peacekeeping troops. Agree with Clinton's policies or not, a presidential visit is a Big Deal, and we tend to forget that, under all their war-fighting gear, many of these troops are only youngsters, 18- and 19-year-olds. Just being there expressed gratitude in a way that official pronouncements cannot.

Second, the visit highlighted the U.S. and NATO peacekeeping mission when people back home tend to be preoccupied with the holidays. The thousands of people in shell-scarred Sarajevo who turned out to cheer the Clintons and wave little American flags provided by the local newspaper were no manufactured crowd. In an era when a large American presence is not always welcome on foreign soil, here were people who urged, sincerely if excessively, that U.S. troops stay for 50 years and that Bosnia should become the 51st state.

Third, the visit was a way of explaining to the American people a major - and overdue - policy change. Last week, Clinton scrapped the June 1998 deadline for withdrawal of American troops. That deadline and an earlier deadline that also had to be scrapped only encouraged the warring parties to stall.

The new policy, one that should have been in force all along, is that U.S. and NATO troops, perhaps in diminished numbers, will stay in Bosnia as long as they are doing good, as long as progress is being made toward a self-sustaining peace. The United States has learned the hard way this century that wars in remote lands can directly and drastically affect our national interests.

Inevitably, the indefinite timetable invites comparison with Vietnam. There is a vital and essential difference: We are in Bosnia to prevent a war, not to participate in one. We will know when it is time to go.