PrintWelcome to the quagmire
It appears that newly arrived EU units rotating into Bosnia for peacekeeping duties are not getting the latest intelligence on the tactical situation. According to an AFP dispatch in EU Business News, British Major Sebastian Wade was amazed to learn that there are still large numbers of illegal weapons caches dotting the countryside, and that illegal arms continue to flow into the war—torn Balkan nation.
I'm surprised that we are still devoting so much manpower to seizing illegal weapons and I'm also surprised that there are still weapons coming in," Wade told AFP during a recent house search near Prijedor, northwestern Bosnia.
Weapons and ammunition ranging from light arms to mortar bombs continue to turn up in hidden caches around the country, which imploded in war between its Croat, Muslim and Serb ethnic groups from 1992—1995.
Had the good Major been a reader of AT, he would have learned last July that Bosnia had become,
a "one—stop shop" for Islamic militants heading from terrorist battlegrounds in Chechnya and Afghanistan to Iraq, according to European intelligence officials.
Essentially, Bosnia is now a terrorist way—station, where fighters can pick up guns, money, and forged documents. It's no wonder the Major sees no progress in reducing the number of weapons in stashed in the country. Of course, this is the real quagmire the major press refuses to cover; they wouldn't want to tarnish the Boy President's legacy, after all.
Doug Hanson 3—03—05
