WASHINGTON, May 29 -- Some 2,000 U.S. Marines, backed by an Aegis missile cruiser and attack helicopters, were headed Monday into the Adriatic Sea near the escalating civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but officials insisted no combat role is contemplated for American troops. National security adviser Anthony Lake told reporters the decision to move some 2,000 U.S. Marines into position off the coast of the former Yugoslavia was made 'purely as a precautionary measure.' Lake, speaking with reporters at a White House Memorial Day ceremony, said 'no decision has been made' on the possibility of any actual land deployment of the Marines. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., appeared to reflect the sentiments of Congress, calling the Bosnian situation 'a vexing thing,' but while Americans are appalled and concerned, he said 'they're going to have to get along without us.' A subdued Simpson acknowledged he was hard-put for answers, and added 'this is not the place to second guess' President Clinton's strong support of last week's airstrikes against the Serbs, after they failed to meet a U.N. ultimatum to return heavy weapons taken from storage sites near Sarajevo. The Wyoming senator called the Bosnian crisis 'a cancer in the belly of Europe' and said Americans know 'it would take hundreds of thousands of Americans over there and they're not ready for it.' 'Our people do not believe we should invest any forces in that part of the world,' he said, explaining that if the conflict was closer to home, it might be a different story.
He also indicated that the U.S. is running out of options. Clinton has promised up to 25,000 troops to help the U.N. peacekeepers evacuate from Bosnia-Herzegovina, where ethnic Serbs, Muslims and Croats have been fighting for three years since the break up of former Yugoslavia. Simpson revealed that Gen. John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is expected to meet soon in Vienna with his Russian counterpart. The continuing Bosnian war is expected to be high on the agenda. The president's national security advisers, however, met Sunday to consider U.S. options in the 3-year-old war between the rebel Bosnian Serbs and the mostly Muslim government in Bosnia. In London, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Britain also was sending 5,000 soldiers, backed by air power, to the Adriatic. The British forces are being sent to support the 3,500 British troops that are already part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Bosnia. Britain said Sunday that 33 of its soldiers were taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs to be used as shields against further NATO airstrikes. The U.S. Marine task force is supported by a Navy cruiser and Cobra attack helicopters, a Pentagon spokesman told United Press International. In the past two days, both France and the United States have sent aircraft carriers to the Adriatic.
