God Bless the ‘Iron Lady’: Thatcher Demands Western Action to Stop Aggression In Bosnia

Sickened by the international community’s refusal to take effective steps to halt Serbia’s relentless aggression in Bosnia, at least one world leader has thrown down the gauntlet to the lesser figures who have succeeded her on the world stage. Lady Margaret Thatcher, in appearances today on all three U.S. network morning news programs, denounced Western inaction to date and demanded that the victims of that aggression be immediately armed and supported by a vigorous allied air campaign.

Like millions of Americans, Lady Thatcher has been appalled by the images of desperate women and bloodied children brutalized by Serb forces in Bosnia that have been broadcast to Western audiences over the past few days. The latest evidence of Serbian-perpetrated atrocities moved the "Iron Lady" to condemn sharply the United Nations for its willingness to postpone by two weeks consideration of tightened sanctions — let alone take more effective action — against Serbia in deference to President Yeltsin’s political campaign in Russia.

Unlike many who have only lately come to view as criminal Serbia’s savage attacks in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, however, Lady Thatcher has been a voice of conscience for many months. For example, last September when she received the Center for Security Policy’s "Freedom Flame" award and subsequently appeared on public television’s "The World This Week" hosted by Center director Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Lady Thatcher warned against Western passivity and moral equivalence:

"If we do not deal with the terrible brutalities that are taking place in Bosnia and the terrible ethnic cleansing, something I never thought to hear again in my lifetime, it will spread to other areas….The foreign ministers of Europe…have done nothing effective to stop the brutality, to stop the ethnic cleansing which is taking place in their neighbor’s territory. Nothing effective at all. That’s what happens when you seek consensus, when you go by summitry, instead of exercising clear leadership to do what you believe in."

 

The Center for Security Policy strongly endorses Lady Thatcher’s comments about the conflict in Bosnia and her call for clear leadership and effective responses. Highlights of the powerful remarks she made today are attached.