Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 18:16:08 EST From: freemanaz@aol.com Subject: [azpeace] Cato Institute Foreign Policy Pieces 03/01/2002 To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com Reply-To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com
BOSNIA'S TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Sharp reductions in the number of U.S. troops in Bosnia could shrink the total to about 10 percent of the 20,000 Americans who were sent to the Balkans country six years ago to help enforce a peace accord, Gen. Joseph W. Ralston told Congress on Thursday, according t the Associated Press. ( http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020301/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/u
s_bosnia_3&cid=535 )
The cutback is a sign of progress in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ralston said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of the progress that has been made," the U.S. Air Force's commander in chief in Europe said.
To mark the tenth anniversary of the commencement of fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Cato Institute is today releasin a new book, "Exiting the Balkan Thicket."( http://www.cato.org/cgi-bin/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=balkanthicket.html&ca
rt_id= ) Edited by foreign policy analyst Gary Dempsey, it is a collection of essays reviewing the West's experiences in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Dempsey's 2001 book "Fool's Errands,"( http://www.cato.org/cgi-bin/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=foolserrands.html&car
t_id= ) dissects U.S. nation-building efforts and argues that the Balkan mission has been a disaster. In "Waist Deep and Sinkingin the Balkans,"( http://www.cato.org/dailys/05-25-01.html ) Cato Vice President Ted Galen Carpenter writes, "Washington should extricate U.S. forces from Kosovo and transfer responsibility to the European Union. America has no legitimate interests in the Balkans that even remotely justify becoming obsessed with its parochial disputes. From Americas perspective, the Balkans should be viewed as strategically and economically irrelevant."
THE OPEN-ENDED WAR ON TERROR
After months of solid support for President Bush's war on terrorism, the top Senate Democrat on Thursday questioned White House plans to expand the war and said Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden must be found for the effort to succeed, Reuters reports. ( http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020301/pl_nm/attack_congre
ss_dc_9&cid=584 )
"I don't think the success has been overstated, but the continued success, I think, is still somewhat in doubt," said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who added his voice to a small group of lawmakers expressing concern at the widening military effort.
"We've got to find Osama bin Laden, and we've got to find other key leaders of the al Qaeda network, or we will have failed," Daschle said.
Charles Pena, Cato senior defense policy analyst, had the following comments:
The further we get from September 11, the further the United States gets from its original objectives: toppling the Taliban regime, dismantling the al Qaeda terrorist network, and finding Osama bin Laden. To date, only one objective has been realized: removing the Taliban regime from power. Training camps in Afghanistan may be destroyed, but the al Qaeda network still exists and, according to Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, is rebuilding its operations and remains capable of mounting another large-scale attack against the United States. The trail on bin Laden has gone cold.
"What was originally supposed to be a war against terrorist groups with global reach (ostensibly al Qaeda) has now become a global war against terrorism, even against groups that do not threaten or attack the United States. Not only is this a prescription for a costly war with no end in sight, but also for needlessly inciting new enemies and breeding more terrorism directed at the United States and its citizens.
Jerry Brito, editor, jbrito@cato.org
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