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In my view the entire Bosnian tragedy could have been prevented if some of the NATO countries had interfered decisively and in time, according to the rules of crisis management and escalation domination. That’s the aggressor could have been isolated and, at very short notice, threatened with disadvantages unacceptable to him because they would far outweigh possible gains from his aggression.
The opposite happened. It was not Serbia that was isolated through an effective embargo, but its victim Bosnia. The deadlines attached to threats were so long that Belgrade was indirectly signaled that it needs no worry. Against this background, western humanitarian aid looked like an alibi. The West was making sure that the Bosnians were not hungry when they were massacred. As an American Senator put it – “If only the Bosnians were whales, they might at least have had Greenpeace and International Wildlife Fund on their side,”
How is this horrendous failure of public moral to be explained? I can only think of two coherent explanations:
1. Western moral decline where any sacrifice without material gain is no longer sustainable. Muslims suspected that the West has de facto been de-Christianized; now they know.
2. The fact is the victims were Muslims. Like many western observers, I am deeply convinced that NATO countries would have immediately and decisively intervened if the Serbs had been Muslims and the Bosnians Catholic or Jews. (It would of course have helped if, in addition, there had been oil and natural gas fields in Bosnia Herzegovina). Hardly anyone will admit it, but it is only thinly disguised; many European politicians would have felt quite uncomfortable with an Islamic State in the center of their continent. They need not worry – the Dayton Agreement assures that this cannot become a reality.
The Bosnian Muslims are the first but probably not the last victims in Europe of an unfolding compaign of hate, misinformation and defamation against all things Islamic. What the media sow from their desks can become bloody reality in the streets.
But damage has also been done on the other side of the cultural divide. What will be the long-term consequences in the Muslim world of the cynicism developing there about western style ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’? Too many Muslim youths, in the Arab world in general and in Palestine in particular, can see right through the double standards in western foreign policy, last but not least comparing how democracy fared in Haiti as compared to Algeria.
These developments are the very opposite to bridge building and make a ‘Clash of Civilizations’ look like a self-fulfilling prophecy after all.
(By. Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann, former NATO Director of Information, Bonn, July 19, 1993)
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