The war in Bosnia

To many, the media images of the bloodbath in Bosnia have also obscured one basic fact: that the Bosnian war is not a civil war in its own right, but an extension of the Serbian-Croatian war, a continuation by other means of the Serbian and the Croatian demand for territory. In addition, the bitter ethnic and religious differences within Bosnia have a repeated history of drawing in outside powers with ties to one or the other local factions. For example, more than a hundred years ago, Russia and Turkey fought a war that began with an uprising in Bosnia.

The geography of the region--a wooded and mountainous region--is another constraint. It is difficult to conduct military operations, whether from the air or on the ground. Geography not only makes the Balkans a difficult place for military operations, it has itself contr

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began with Tito's Yugoslavia--in the frailty of Tito's state and in three distinct sorts of nationalism that sprouted as his odd form of communism collapsed. A clue to the violence of the break-up may lie also in the balance of weaponry inside Yugoslavia. Serb officers dominated the federal army with its tanks, howitzers, and mortars. Almost every Yugoslav household, especially in the countryside, had small arms and men trained in the militia to use them. Those that share the view that the latest Balkan war has more recent roots point out that, while it is true that old feuds exist and that under Hitler's occupation Croatian and Bosnian fascists murdered Serbs, Jews, and Muslims, Yugoslav history is not entirely bleak. It is too simplistic to assume that old hatreds are surfacing. For example, after the first world war, Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, and Slovenes united freely. For all the horrors of the second world war, they lived in peace under Tito. Serbs and Croats used the same language, and readily intermarried, especially in the cities. Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, was cosmopolitan. By Eastern European standards, communist Yugoslavia was modern and international. The other simplification, according to this viewpoint,
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Approximate Word count = 1667
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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