Wayne Gilchrest: “at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum, the purpose of that dark monument was summed up in two words: never again.…”

“at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum, the purpose of that dark monument was summed up in two words: never again. That museum was supposed to be the concrete symbol of our resolve to never repeat the mistakes of the 1930's and the 1940's when humanity stood by and watched a genocidal slaughter. ``Regional conflict'' is no longer an adequate term to describe the situation in Bosnia. The concept of war implies a clash of armed factions, where civilian casualties are collateral. In Bosnia, civilians are the target of military action, and only one side is adequately armed. The sterilized terms which we have used to describe the Bosnian bloodbath have made it far too easy for us to respond to Bosnia as if it were an academic problem. But there is nothing academic about a shattered little girl in Gorazde whose house was targeted by Serbian artillery. And that little girl will never know or care whether her death was the result of U.N. inaction, NATO inaction, or U.S. inaction--the end result is the same, and all bystanders are complicit. I will soon be introducing a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the Bosnian massacre is genocide as defined by international treaty, and should be treated as such. The result of this is symbolic, but it is a powerful symbol. There is no longer any justification for inaction--deliberation is costing lives. We no longer have any reason to believe that Serbian forces will stop while Moslem live in eastern Bosnia.”