Boogie 'til You Bounce
From Green Bay to Bosnia logo

Bosnia Quotes

Three years of wit & wisdom about the war.

Jul'96
"Not for the first time, Radovan Karadzic ... is making a fool of all those important people who like to make statements about the 'will of the international community.'" (Financial Times)
Jul'96
"The major powers are so exhausted by Bosnia their instinct is still to build a fence around the problem. Principle, other than the principle of containment, was abandoned long ago. Everyone, including the Serbs, know that and they exploit it." (anonymous Western diplomat)
Jun'96
"The only choice I have to vote for is the seven bastards that did this tome in the first place." (Muslim refugee from Serb-held Bijeljina)
Jun'96
"[It's] obviously been a bigger problem than I anticipated." (James Pardew, director of U.S. military aid to Bosnia, on the problems posed by Muslim-Croat antipathy)
Jun'96
"I don't know about Geneva, but this is the harsh reality that we are facing on the ground here." (UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski, on the lack of the freedom of movement 'guaranteed' by the Dayton Accord)
May'96
"Our original weapons were simply hatching babies." (Defense Minister Susak, on Croatia's response to American inquiries about arms smuggling)
Jan'96
"There are no flanks, no rear, or, to put it otherwise, it is front all round." (Leftenant Backsight Forethought, 'The Defense of Duffer's Drift')
Jan'96
"Mother Teresa is admirable, but conducting foreign policy by her example is an expensive proposition." (Michael Mandelbaum, professor of American Foreign Policy)
1 Feb 95
"We are in early days, it is a honeymoon period." (Lt. General Sir Michael Walker, NATO ground commander)
1 Feb 95
"Today in the Balkans, we don't have war but we don't have real peace ... NATO must not underestimate the hatred, mistrust and enmity on all three sides." (Richard Holbrooke, US peace envoy)
1 Jan 95
"It's like pornography. We'll know it when we see it." (Clinton's Bosnia exit strategy as whispered by 'top White House official' to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT)
1 Jan 95
"I assume full responsibility for any harm that may come to them [US troops]." (Bill Clinton, to the American people on national TV)
Oct'95
"Defensive advances" (Excuse used by Bosnian government commander to describe an attack on Bosnian Serb forces)
Sep'95
"As long as I am foreign minister, no Italian will sit behind anyone." (Susanna Agneli, after US peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke told her Italy should be content to stay quiet and sit behind EU mediator Carl Bildt at Geneva peace talks)
Aug'95
"Bomb them and bomb them some more until these Chetnik [Serbian] bastards beg for the mercy they never showed anybody in this war." (Sarajevan after NATO air strikes)
Jul'95
"This resolution is again nothing but baloney which nobody takes seriously. We're lying to ourselves day after day with these resolutions and it makes me sick. We cannot defend such enclaves so far into Serb territory without war, and if we don't want that we should retreat. The UN and NATO should finally say what they really want and define a policy." (Hans Koschnik, EU administrator of Mostar)
Jul'95
"We believe there must be a clearly-defined mission for the Rapid Reaction Force. And so far [we have not] received a clear articulation of exactly what that force would do -- except more of the same. The argument that somehow there will be a reinforcement of people who are trying to keep the peace in a place where there is no peace doesn't make a lot of sense." (Sen. John McCain, R-AZ)
Jun'95
"Of the 164 UN peacekeepers killed in Bosnia the past three years, none were killed by Serbs." (Vecernje Novosti, Belgrade daily)
Jun'95 (after NATO air strike)
"We always knew that no matter how effective the air strikes, there would be retaliation." (Anonymous 'senior US official')
Jun'95 (before NATO air strike)
"People come in here on six-month or one-year contracts. They just want everything to be as peaceful as possible on their watch, so they give one concession after another to the Serbs. They don't look at the long-term effects." (UN employee on why he believes the UN's authority in Bosnia had collapsed)
May'95
"We did a lot to preserve peace in this region." (General Perelyakin, fired UN commander)
Apr'95
"United Nations Peace Force One" (The proposed name for a revamped peacekeeping force in Croatia)
Mar'95
A "bewildered bunch which does not know how to solve the war." (Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb President, referring to the 'contact group': America, Germany, France, Britain and Russia)
Mar'95
"It makes me nervous -- everyone knows I'm not used to shooting apples." (Zeljko 'Arkan' Raznatovic, Serb militia leader & wanted war criminal, speaking about the Serb marriage tradition of shooting apples off the bride's roof)
Feb'95
"No wonder, UNPROFOR has better cars." (UNHCR spokesman when told UNPROFOR vehicles were being stolen five times as often as his own)
Jan'95
"Because I'm paid to engage in the absurd." (US State Department spokesman when asked how Clinton can expect the Serbs to agree to a just peace without facing a threat of force)
1Feb'94
"The mission of UNPROFOR is no longer to protect the UN-established safe havens but to protect itself." (George Soros, philanthropist and financier)
1Jan'94
"There were some very strict measures taken undertaken by our commanding officer. Let us say they involved a very heavy armored patrol. The mujahideen do not bother us any more." (Turkish officer in Bosnia, after his troops were confronted by Muslim holy warriors)
Oct'94
"If you confront us with the choice -- either UN blue helmets or weapons -- we choose weapons. They at least guarantee our people's survival." (Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian President)
Sep'94
"Let's cut deals. It's better than fighting." (Fikret Abdic, war profiteer)
Aug'94
"I don't like seeing any lines drawn across Bosnia-Hercegovina. It is like cutting through living tissue. It bleeds." (Haris Siladzic, Bosnian Prime Minister)
Jul'94
"If the United Nations had been conducting US foreign policy in 1940, as it appears to be today, it would have advised England to accept Hitler's offers of peace." (George Melloan, Wall Street Journal)
May'94
"Serbia isn't Somalia." (Zeljko 'Arkan' Raznatovic, Serb militia leader)
Oct'93
"We need to be extremely careful about calling on young men to lay down their lives for something that ... does not affect our own economic or security interests." (Sen. Sam Nunn, D-GA)
Sep'93
"I am not one of those who believes that a few well-chosen bombs will take care of a thousand years of history. They won't." (Gen. Colin Powell)
Jul'93
"SERBPROFOR" (Muslim term for UN peacekeepers)
Jun'93
"UNPROFOR is the sort of institution that transforms a temporarily adverse situation into a permanently adverse situation." (Alija Isakovic, Sarajevo journalist)

Bosnia
Main