'Mr. Congressman, we only trust America'

Former U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard
Community Leader's Forum

At the height of the Bosnian conflict, I was a member of a 15-person congressional delegation sent to that war-torn part of the world.

It was our job to observe, to gather information and to report back to the Congress and the president our findings. Our report would become an important part of the national debate, which would determine America's position in this conflict.

We flew all night to the Serbian capital of Belgrade, meeting for over two hours the next day with President Milosevic and expressing in the strongest possible way our absolute belief that the genocidal war he was wading on the largely Muslim populations of Croatia and Bosnia had to stop.

The next day we flew to Zagreb and met with President Tudjman of Croatia, and the following morning we climbed into the cavernous belly of a fully armored C-130 and began the flight into Sarajevo. Our trip preceded by several months the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, and hostilities were being waged daily in this beautiful old city. Nearly 20 years earlier, Sarajevo had been the site of the Winter Olympics, and I had such vivid memories of the charm and beauty of its people and its picturesque setting.

Landing at the Sarajevo airport was a reality check. We landed on the only runway that hadn't been destroyed. Every building on the airport property, including the tower and terminal, lay in ruins. U.N. troops were bunkered around the perimeter of the airport. We excited our plane and walked behind a massive caterpillar tractor to our security detail.

Winding our way through the city to our meeting with President Izobegovitch, the extent of the destruction was too great to imagine. Nearly every building destroyed, burned-out streetcars turned on their sides, people living in bunkers and bombed-out basements. Eight-five percent of the food and water supplies had been cut off from the city.

Depending upon the circuitous route we had to take, trying to stay behind the only buildings still standing for fear of mortar rounds coming in from the surrounding mountains, we were alternately handed off to both Christian and Muslim security details.

Wanting us to keep moving, the security guards on our vehicle were difficult to convince of our need to talk to the people. They said the people were too frightened to come out of their hiding places, that they wouldn't talk to us. We finally prevailed, and they pulled off into a square where just a month before, so many people had been killed by a mortar round. By the time we exited our vehicle, hundreds of people had rushed into the square and surrounded our bus. Obviously, the guards had been wrong.

The word had spread. There was an American congressional delegation in town, and we would have something to say about their future. And they wanted us to hear their stories.

In the crush of this crowd, an elderly man grabbed my arm. He was nearly toothless with sunken cheeks. He was frail, and tears streamed down his face. In a moment's time, now indelibly etched upon my memory, he proceeded to tell me that he was the only one left in his family. He said his wife and children had been killed, and his last remaining brother lost his life in this square one month ago.

And then he said, "Mr. Congressman, we only trust America."

He repeated his declaration again, then released his hold and drifted off into the crowd. I was certain I understood his message, but there was something unsettling about it.

After making our appointed rounds and leaving Sarajevo, we flew to NATO headquarters in Italy and on to visit our troops in Germany. Somewhere along the way, still hearing his words, I finally understood.

It was neither the military might of America that he trusted, not our economic or political power. It was the experience of America.

Bosnia is a multiethnic, multicultural, multi-religious, multilingual nation. But because its people would not accept one another's differences, would not attempt to understand nor tolerate the rich diversity, which required each to be his brother's keeper, nearly 4 hundred thousand of his fellow countrymen lay dead or wounded beyond repair.

And he knew the story of America. He knew that people from all over the world had come to these shores and had all the same differences as the people of his country. Not all had come willingly, and while America still had a ways to go, particularly in race relations, for over 200 years we had chosen to be a nation of neighbors who care more about our responsibility to each other than our differences with each other.

And he knew that if just one other country in the world could succeed in that endeavor, then there was still hope for his country.

And so he said, "We only trust America."

He was Muslim.

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