U.S. Accused Of Foggy Thinking U.N., Bosnian Officers Say Americans Failing To Heed Experienced Advice

With Tuzla Air Base shrouded for four days in predictable fog, U.S. Task Force Eagle has yet to land, and U.N. and Bosnian officers are starting to worry aloud about American planning.

It’s not just the fog, the officers say. They say the U.S. forces will have trouble moving their heavy tanks over narrow, mined roads. And they worry the GIs will be triggerhappy when they encounter unfamiliar Bosnians.

Several U.N. and Bosnian officers, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had given advice to the Americans that appeared not to have been heeded.

The U.N. mission in Bosnia may have failed at keeping peace in the midst of war. But it was on the ground for three years, they argued, and learned a lot about the place and its people.

U.S. commanders said they solicited advice and made their own decisions.

Like a number of U.N. and Bosnian officers interviewed, a U.N. Nordic Battalion colonel said he saw little problem in the delayed arrival of the small airborne force that is to take command of Tuzla air base before the main U.S. contingent arrives by land.

But, like the others, he said the failure to calibrate an instrument-guided system that would let them land in fog and at night suggested that U.S. commanders were not learning from local experience.

American officers said they were waiting for a clear day amid the usual Tuzla fog to adjust their instruments, but would not explain why they failed to do so during a rare series of clear days last week.

Norwegian Brig. Gen. Hagrup Haukland, commander of the U.N. force for which the Americans are taking over, was careful to avoid outright criticism in a farewell news conference, but he touched on the problems of getting NATO troops into place.

“It is important for IFOR (the Implementation Force) to deploy immediately,” he stressed.

Asked to elaborate, his aides said they feared that the Americans’ plan to build a pontoon bridge across the Sava River and bring in heavily armored columns by road was likely to take far longer than expected.

U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Bob Gaylord acknowledged that the Sava bridge would take “a couple of weeks” to build. Earlier, Americans said this would require only a few days.

The Americans are opening the new routes for their 70-ton Abrams tanks - if they had brought lighter tanks, U.N. and Bosnian officials said, they could have used roads that would have taken less time to repair.

“We warned them not to bring Abrams tanks, that they were too heavy for the angles they would have to negotiate and not necessary here,” a senior Norwegian officer said.

The Americans said the Abrams tank is their strongest piece of heavy armor, and necessary to their doctrine of overwhelming force.

Until the northern route across the Sava is open, the Scandinavian officers said, the only way to truck supplies into Tuzla would be from Split, on the Croatian coast, or Sarajevo. Both alternatives would mean traveling narrow mountain roads already choked by snow and heavy traffic.

Another danger convoys will face in negotiating the roads of Bosnia will be assuaging local authorities - Croats, Serbs and Muslims - as they protect their flanks to avoid encounters with hostile mavericks.

In his briefing, Haukland stressed the importance of cool-headed troops and diplomacy in dealing with the various military factions and Bosnian civilians.

He urged the Americans to be firm but also friendly.

“The population is a very proud people,” he said. “They do not like arrogant people. They want to be masters in their own house.”

This, the general’s aides said, reflected a fear that American soldiers who had been prepared for a dangerous mission might mistake a harmless gesture for a threat.

U.S. commanders dismiss these concerns as groundless, insisting that the well-trained First Armored Division knows its mission and will use extreme care.

But Bosnian military officers, U.N. officials and humanitarian workers separately raised similar fears.

Although none wanted to be named to avoid ill-will from the Americans or their own superiors, some used forceful language to make their point.

One veteran U.N. civilian staff member was upset after a meeting between U.N. officers and Americans of the “enabling force,” which flew in early.

“They said that even if anyone shot in the air, they would shoot back straight,” the official said. “We told them they had better be ready for problems. Around here, firing off guns is a favorite sport.”