Savage Peace: American's at War in the 1990s

This thought-provoking analysis focuses on what Bolger considers the three most important ``peace enforcement'' missions since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, each illustrating major aspects of this difficult form of warfare: the operations in Kurdistan, Somalia and the former Yugoslavia. At the end of the Gulf War, U.S. forces entered northern Iraq to protect the Kurds from the regime of Saddam Hussein; Bolger cites this operation as an example of the way such missions should be run. Somalia illustrates U.S. foreign policy at its worst because of policymakers who ``should have known better.'' Bolger argues that in the former Yugoslavia, U.S. airstrikes and humanitarian airlifts have served American interests even though the overall effort has been ineffective. Bolger (Americans at War) is a battalion commander in the U.S. Army. Photos. (July)