Our Man by George Packer

Author:George Packer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2019-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

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THE TRIP TO LONDON clarified in ever starker terms the reality of the U.S. relationship with our European NATO allies. The Europeans will not use NATO force to help the Muslims, and the United States will not put ground troops into the region. The resulting stalemate is certain to doom the Muslims, except perhaps as a rump state. The Muslim offensive in Bihac triggered the Serbian counteroffensive, which as of this morning is on the brink of total success. Karadzic and Mladic, seeing an opportunity to break the will of their enemies before the winter breaks them in their isolation, have gone for broke, and the West is unable to figure out how to react. The allied response was pathetic. We therefore stand today on the edge of the end of our policy in the region. The search for a new policy is unavoidable, and that new policy will inevitably be at the expense of the Muslims.

I feel sick about being a part of such a policy. I don’t feel responsible, however, as I inherited a terrible hand. But the American administrations’ reactions have been as terrible as the Europeans’, although in a different way. For example, during the week repeatedly my efforts to get quick responses were slowed down by indecision or disagreement or confusion between Christopher and Lake. The NSC’s constant objections to anything we were trying to do slowed down even our pathetic reactions.

Nobody wants to say outright that the war is lost for the Muslims in its current mode and that we should salvage a rump state in the triangular wedge that runs from the Croatian coast up through Sarajevo to the Tuzla plain, to seek a cease-fire and preserve the international status of the state. No one wants to agree to that, and yet no one wants to put enough energy into the effort to make the Muslims win. The effort to save the Muslims now would require NATO airpower and American ground troops—something which is impossible to achieve. I had hoped to construct a policy that would get us through the winter with the status quo, but the Bihac offensive killed that opportunity.

Nixon and Kissinger, confronting the inevitable disaster in Vietnam, figured out a way to pretend that it was peace with honor to the America public, even though it was a sellout of the South Vietnamese. They blamed the Congress, they took some very muscular steps and said they’d done everything they could, and they misrepresented the nature of the deal with Saigon. I’m not suggesting we do the same thing. That level of cynicism is unacceptable, and in any case not something that this administration is capable of, since it lacks coherence and discipline. But the fact remains that we must confront our dilemma, we must confront the horrendous situation we’re in, set up some priorities, and see if we can resurrect a strong American leadership role. It’s going to be very hard to do.

Tony Lake prevents action and yet refuses to take any himself.

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