"The cornucopia of disinformation that has been propagated about
the Bosnian civil war would require volumes to adequately address."
General Charles G. Boyd
"Against the perceptions so solidly in place, it is all
but useless to assert something so subversive as a fact."
Lewis Lapham, Hotel America
Once the mitigating Serb factor was expelled in 1992,
Muslim-Croat violence hopelessly exploded: Mostar, Bosnia.
Few recent events have captured media attention - and the public's
imagination - on a sustained basis so powerfully as did the war in
former Yugoslavia. Hardly anyone following the news has not at least
heard of the siege of Sarajevo or "ethnic cleansing" campaigns. Yet
paradoxically, after over four years of almost daily headlines, most
Americans find their knowledge of this conflict superficial at best.
Only now - when U.S. involvement in this event has become anything but
superficial - are we finally asking ourselves in earnest some
fundamental questions: what is this war actually all about, and what do
we really have at stake there?
This is hardly surprising, given that
much of the news coverage has been based on simplified cliches and
catchy sound bites. Consequently, now is the time to replace cheap
sensationalism with rational discourse, and for Americans to begin
understanding what is it exactly that our lives, prestige and tax
dollars are trying to achieve in the Balkans. For this to happen, one
must first address some of the common myths that have largely permeated
the public perception of this conflict, and start looking at the facts:
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