THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501070307
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: World News
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 27 lines
Lifting the Bosnia arms embargo could widen the war and endanger thousands of United Nations peacekeepers while intensifying air strikes would accomplish little, a U.S. military commander said Friday.
Adm. Leighton W. Smith Jr., commander of allied forces in southern Europe, directly challenged the policy urged by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who favors a sterner use of NATO air power and, if necessary, the unilateral defiance by the United States of the U.N. arms embargo.
``My fear is that there would be a fairly immediate escalation,'' Smith said.
In a Senate floor speech Friday, Dole, noting Smith's comments, said it was not surprising that an admiral would support the policy of his commander in chief. by CNB