Dornan, Rohrabacher Will Fight Plans to Send U.S. Troops to Bosnia

One day after the formal signing of a peace treaty to end the bloodletting in Bosnia, two Orange County congressmen vowed they will fight to prevent President Clinton from sending 23,000 American soldiers to the Balkans to police the peace.

The President’s plan to send troops to Bosnia “seems to carry high risks and only a small chance of achieving success,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said at a press conference at the Armed Forces Reserve Center. “It reminds me of a Lebanon-type situation, which will cost the lives of American soldiers and damage the prestige of the United States with little chance of achieving its goals, whatever they are,”

In a statement issued from his Washington office, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) accused President Clinton of “creating a costly quagmire in Bosnia.”

The congressmen’s denunciations came on the heels of the U. S.-brokered peace agreement signed Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio.

The Balkan leaders agreed to divide Bosnia into ethnic enclaves kept apart by a 60,000-member international military force, which would include up to 23,000 U.S. troops.

“Is [the] agreement . . . really a peace plan, or is it instead a blueprint for a combat disaster?” Dornan said. “With no vital U. S. national security interests at stake, no specific military objectives, and no clear exit strategy . . . Bill Clinton is dead wrong in sending U. S. soldiers.”