The capitalist rulers in the United States are now leading the charge for the largest intervention of imperialist troops into a workers state since the Korean War four decades ago.
Unlike what Clinton claims, the deployment does not have much to do with bringing peace or ending the slaughter of Muslims and other working people. The intervention is aimed at boosting Washington's military and economic domination in the region, getting one up on imperialist rivals like Paris and Bonn, imposing the division of Bosnia and the rule of the wannabe capitalists on the working people of the region, and taking a step closer toward re-establishing capitalism in the former Yugoslavia.
This "mission," like recent military interventions in Iraq, Somalia, and Haiti, is about imperialist domination and ultimately about boosting the profits of the sharks on Wall Street. Like those interventions as well, it could end up in a quagmire for Washington - the only reason conservatives like Newt Gingrich are taking their distance from Clinton.
Rightist politicians like Patrick Buchanan are denouncing Clinton's steps toward military intervention seeking to tap in to widespread sentiment against war to build up their fascist cadre.
Working people and fighting youth must clearly speak against the deployment of any U.S. or other imperialist troops in Bosnia and demand that the "peacekeepers" already there be removed.
It was the working people of Yugoslavia who successfully fought to cut across divisions along national, religious, or language lines, and raised demands for equal treatment of all working people in the region during World War II. This is how the Partisans gained the allegiance of the majority, defeated the fascists, and led a worker and peasant revolution that overthrew capitalism and established a workers state.
The aspirations of the toiling masses in Yugoslavia were subsequently subverted by the Stalinized bureaucratic caste that ran the country more and more for their personal gain and privilege.
The goal of these bureaucrats - from Milosevic to Tudjman and Izetbegovic - has been baldly laid out before the world for some time: they want to go back to the dog- eat-dog capitalist market system and are willing to lead hundreds of thousands to slaughter in the process.
Now American GIs are going in to stabilize the rule of these warring ganglords and boost the fortunes of Wall Street and Washington in the process.
It will be workers from Yugoslavia, the United States, and elsewhere who will pay a dear price for this attempt.
What is needed now are meetings to tell the truth about Yugoslavia, and public protests against the administration's war drive. Opponents of Washington's war moves should take advantage of every opportunity to jump into the debate about the real causes of the fighting in Bosnia, and to explain why the intervention of U.S. troops is not in the interests of workers here or there.
We should speak out loudly and demand: No U.S. Troops to Bosnia! End the U.S./NATO intervention!