Annotation of an article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Annotation of an article - Essay Example has the moral imperative to stop genocide through different methods that would not have necessarily meant sending thousands of American troops to wage war with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. Power not only describes the Bosnian genocide, she also strongly condemns Milosevic’s deceptive ways of hiding genocide and America’s and Europe’s silence to it. Power narrates the history of conflict in Yugoslavia that affected Bosnia’s struggle for independence, which she compares with the Holocaust and other ethnic cleansing events in the world. Before 1991, Yugoslavia had six states, but after Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic stressed his nationalist stance, its several states seceded from it. Slovenia was the first, followed by Croatia. Both successfully declared their independence, but Bosnia did not. The seven members of the Bosnian presidency asked advice from Europe and the United States regarding how they could declare independence without much blo odshed. Western diplomats suggested giving human rights protection to their minorities and launching a free and fair referendum. The two Serbian members of the presidency resisted the referendum and supported the militarization of Bosnia. Power stresses that the Serbs had military power and backing, while the Muslims and Croats had none. As a result, they became targets of ethnic cleansing. Power describes the three forms of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia: economic, social, and physical. The economic part meant denying employment to minorities, while social sanctions, such as curfews and limited possessions were applied to them too. In addition, the most horrible forms of ethnic cleansing were murdering these people by shooting and bombing their houses, and forcing fathers to kill their sons and rape their daughters, while Serb soldiers humiliated and raped many young women. Power notes that during this time, the United States did not respond in military terms despite widespread media c overage on the atrocious acts done in Bosnia. She proposes several actions with different levels of military activities, which could have prevented the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia that resulted to 200,000 people killed and two million displaced during Bush’s administration. Power notes that the U.S. is significantly updated of the happenings in Bosnia before and during the ethnic cleansing. The U.S. intelligence system knew beforehand that based on what was happening in Bosnia from the 1980s to the 1990s, the situation would eventually become â€Å"bloody as hell† (Power 253). But since Europe stepped up and promised to manage the consequences of the breakup of Yugoslavia, Power notes that it seemed that the U.S. had been too happy to take a step back in influencing international foreign policymaking for Bosnia. In addition, Power describes in detail how much the U.S. government knew about the happenings in Bosnia. She mentions Jon Western, an analyst in the State Depar tment’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Western processed refugees’ testimonies, including one where Serbian soldiers raped a 9-year-old Muslim girl and left her to die in her blood, while her parents watched behind a fence (Power 265). Other refugees supported this event with their own accounts. In addition, Power shows that the ethnic cleaning strategies of the Serbs were similar to the Nazis and other oppressive regimes. For