USE AIR POWER NOW; SAVE NUMEROUS LIVES LATER

In the Bosnian nightmare, it is President George Bush and Prime Minister John Major vs. Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher. Bush and Major want to do the absolute minimum. At best (and worst) this will preserve a status quo that has the Serbs occupying two-thirds of Bosnia. The Croats have grabbed another one-fourth of the country for themselves. That leaves the Bosnian Muslims, with 44 percent of the population, occupying 3 percent of the land. Thus, the status quo crushes the Bosnian Muslims. The status quo rewards the murdering thieves. The status quo ratifies "ethnic cleansing."

Bush and Major want to use unspecified, minimal force to get food and medicine to those Bosnians under siege. For the time being they have persuaded the United Nations Security Council that this and no more is what is needed to cope with the Serbian rampage. Food and medicinal assistance will alleviate some of the suffering, but it will not evict the Serbs from what they have taken nor will it fully remedy the suffering and terror.

The Bosnians desperately need arms, but arms are embargoed to them. It's a replay of the Spanish Civil War. The West embargoed arms to the Republican forces, but Hitler and Mussolini supplied Franco with guns, tanks and air power.

No one is advocating the introduction of ground troops into erstwhile Yugoslavia. All agree that this would be the "quagmire" that everyone fears. Vietnam was two decades ago, but its memory lingers in the minds of the President and his military advisors. Grenada, Panama and the Persian Gulf were quick strike operations no more getting "bogged down" in a prolonged engagement.

First should come a Thatcheresque ultimatum to Belgrade that the West is prepared to use air power to resolve the crisis air strike against identifiable Serbian-held military installations in Bosnia and against a few selected military installations in Serbia itself. Then would come the second Thatcher ultimatum that more is on the way unless ...

Peace will not come to the region unless Slobodan Milosevic is toppled from power. He is a bloody bully and the only way he can be stopped is to bring the war to the Serbian military never by land but by air where the consequences can be demonstrable within Serbia itself. Opposition to Milosevic is already widespread. The Serbian economy is on the rocks. He does not have a Saddam Hussein-like grip on all levers of power.

As the U.N. forces began to inch their way into the outlying towns in the Bosnian mountains, they will have to fight to secure their positions. Ground engagements will inevitably take place. Relief forces may have to be sent to certain locations. Lives will be lost. The inclination then will be to resort to increased use of air power.

Unchallenged, Serbia and Croatia will have gobbled up Bosnia, and a million people will have been "cleansed" of their homes. Where do the Serbs feed next?

For tens of thousands, the suffering and the atrocities will continue. The crisis will be resolved only by "going to the source." Why not sooner rather than thousands of lives later?