Europe couldn't do the job so we were sent in. We provided 65.9% of the sorties against the Bosnian Serbs. Britain provided 9.3% and was the second largest contributor.
And this underestimates our dominance since only 39% of the sorties were combat air support or battlefield air interdiction strikes. The fact sheet doesn't explain this but I'd bet good money that few NATO aircraft other than the British and French carried out strike missions (and the French reportedly made up for that alliance help by passing on information to the Bosnian Serbs. CORRECTION: actually, I think the rumor was about Kosovo and not Bosnia). Killing people and breaking things was our mission.
But since the 1990s when America fought in the Balkans to keep Europe stable (remember the 1999 air campaign in Kosovo, also dominated by American air power), the Europeans have turned against American use of power in areas the Europeans believed concerned them not at all.
Sadly for the Europeans, the Balkans aren't as quiet as they'd like:
Bosnia is heading for a new civil war as a constitutional crisis threatens to cause the collapse of the political system, the country's leaders have warned.
The concerns have been triggered by Bosnian Serb leaders who have stepped up their demands for independence with a warning the country is no longer "sustainable".
The growing ethnic divisions have raised fears of a return to the fighting which claimed the lives of up to 110,000 people between 1992 and 1995.
If Bosnia blows up, I say we wish the Europeans well--and stay out of combat missions. We're busy, after all. Besides, some Belgian judge would probably just charge us with war crimes, right?
If Europe won't help us outside of Europe with more than token support, the least they can do is keep their own damn house in order without us.
We'll see how well that works out.
