From notes@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 23 06:33:54 1995
Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (192.82.108.1) by MediaFilter.org
 with SMTP (MailShare 1.0b10); Wed, 23 Aug 1995 06:33:54 -0500
Received: (from notes) by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.204 ) id AAA20498 for "conf-zamir.chat"; Wed, 23 Aug 1995 00:46:36 -0700
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 00:44:13 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: Ivo Skoric 
Subject: No Subject Given
To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l 
Message-ID: 
X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org
Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org
Precedence: bulk
Lines: 89

>From majordomo  Tue Aug 22 03:26:18 1995
Received: (from majordomo) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) id DAA14839; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 03:26:18 -0700
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 03:26:18 -0700
Message-Id: <199508221026.DAA14839@igc3.igc.apc.org>
To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org
From: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org
Subject: BOUNCE zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org: Non-member submission from [Robert John Bennett ]
Status: U

>From iskoric@igc.apc.org  Tue Aug 22 03:26:15 1995
Received: from eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (eikon.regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de [129.187.42.3]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.6 ) with SMTP id DAA14735 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 03:25:55 -0700
Received: (from root@localhost) by  eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (8.6.12/8.6.9) id MAA06316; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 12:25:07 +0200
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 12:18:48 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Robert John Bennett 
Subject: "You Americans"
To: President Clinton 
cc: 100440.270@compuserve.com, 131!tim003@dialcom.tymnet.com,
        5jensen_e@spcvxa.spc.edu, 71154.1605@compuserve.com,
        74431.3674@compuserve.com, AmComSaBos@aol.com, Balkaninst@aol.com,
        BosNet@cu23.crl.aecl.ca, bosnews@doc.ic.ac.uk, Brentxxx@aol.com,
        daleh@efn.org, dc42@cornell.edu, fastx@sky-tv.com, GMKURZON@aol.com,
        haberman@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, IHT@eurokom.ie,
        mag@news.nbc.com, MVANDIVER@MSUVX1.MEMPHIS.EDU, nightly@news.nbc.com,
        ucklasl@ucl.ac.uk, Vice.President@whitehouse.gov,
        wobidot@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de, zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


Dear President Clinton:

Another Serb acquaintance has commented on the negotiations that Richard
Holbrooke has been conducting in the Balkans.

"Those American negotiators are a little out of touch with reality," she
told me. "According to news reports they've been trying to get Milosevic
to agree to recognize Bosnia in exchange for the lifting of sanctions
against Serbia."

She paused and laughed. "Why in the world would Milosevic want to do that?
Those so-called sanctions make little difference to life in Belgrade.
There are lots of television reports showing that sanctions affect us
hardly at all. Fuel supplies are coming in from Rumania, shops are
well-stocked in Belgrade, and trade and traffic along the Danube are
almost as heavy as ever. These are the most "sanctionless" sanctions I've
ever heard of."

She smiled to herself and then went on, "There's even enough materiel left
over to supply the Serbs in Bosnia. Let's face it, do you think Karadjic
has been really hurting for fuel - or for anything else he needs?"

So, I asked her, what was the point of the negotiations, as far as
Milosevic was concerned?

"How many times do I have to explain it to you," she said, smiling at my
apparent thickheadedness, "he's just buying time, the same thing that he
and the Pale Republic have been doing since these negotiations started
three or four years ago."

She took a small sip of coffee. "He's getting time for the Serbs to
improve their military position on the ground, while simultaneously
manipulating the negotiators in any other way he can."

She looked directly into my eyes. "My God," she said, "you Americans are
so hopelessly naive."

She seemed to reflect on that for a moment. 

"But then," she said, "I suppose that's why you're so useful to us."

Sincerely yours,

Robert J. Bennett

Munich