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 beha

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.

reasonable number of ground troops that

The twenty thousand troops stationed in Bosnia could be protecting the borders of Texas, California, and Florida. This would help to eradicate the largest drug importation problem in the world. Florida, in one day, imports more cocaine than Arizona imports fish products. Texas has the highest population of illegal immigrants in the country. California has a cocaine problem second only to Florida. There are many things these troops could be doing in the United States to better conditions there.

"Well, I would like to see a better ethnic tolerance and reconciliation. I would also like to see an understanding that, in order to enter Europe, you have to meet European standards. That's what's still missing here. There are many people here who are comfortable with not meeting those standards. Because they profit by not being in Europe. They profit by the current instabilities. They profit by current ethnic tensions. They profit by dividing people, and being part of hard line nationalistic parties. Unfortunately, these are the minority, but the majority of people suffer for"(Klein 1).

There are two sides to this story. The first is the opinion that the United States should completely withdraw from Bosnia. The other opinion is that the United States should go headlong and give Bosnia their full support, and commit more troops and more supplies to the Bosnian Cause.

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Approximate Word count = 2255
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)