A year ago the local elections were postponed because the so-called International community concluded that the necessary conditions hadn't been met. Today, the situation is actually much worse! Chaos and psychosis of civil war rage in the Serb entity. SFOR has brought itself in the position where it first must intervene on Biljana Plavsic's side, only to be forced to save life of her deadly enemy Krajisnik from Plavsic's own supporters. At the same time the methods used in all that made a part of the American press wonder: Is it possible to impose democracy using dictatorial and non-democratic means? Isn't that going to discredit America and its culture?
Americans tried to implement a similar plan in the Croat part of Bosnia-Hercegovina, but without success. Nevertheless, the leadership of the Croat people decided that Croats won't participate in the local elections because that was the only way to protect themselves.
Thus, Washington is facing the ruins of the project for whose demise it bears chief responsibility. The basic problem is that the Americans have opted for an one-sided interpretation of the Dayton Agreement and decided to impose such solution with all means available. OSCE's electoral engineering, SFOR's attempts to bring the media in line, political instrumentalization of the Hague Tribunal at the expense of one side, unequal criteria in connection with the return of refugees and expelled persons are all in line with such policy.
Namely, the Americans have opted for the reintegration of Bosnia-Hercegovina which is against the spirit and letter of the Dayton Agreement; thus the current events in Bosnia are basically an implementation of Dayton II, only without formal sanction.
That, naturally brings in question the constitutional nature of nations, their equality and their cultural and civilizational identity. Especially that of the Croat nation, as well as the right of entities for special relations with neighboring republics (the Washington agreement specified that the Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia were to establish a confederation).
The other key reason why Bosnia is at this moment approaching a new outset of chaos is the American illusion that Bosnian feuding political elites are the main reason for the troubles in Bosnia-Hercegovina; thus if those elites were neutralized (especially the Croat and Serb ones), "the old brotherhood and unity" would again take hold in Bosnia.
The problem is, however, much deeper and much more complex. But not only because Bosnia-Hercegovina is a multiethnic country and the fundamental political consensus of its nations about what kind of state they desire is lacking, but also because Bosnia-Hercegovina is a country in which several civilizations meet. Therefore it is a crossroads, but also a battlefield, of three civilizations. The civilizations which by their own nature cannot be reduced to a common cultural-civilizational denominator, because civilizations are more-or-less closed and autonomous systems of values and the essence of a collective identity.
In that sense, no mix is possible, but only such solutions which would encourage coexistence, and discourage clashes and wish for domination.
The Dayton Agreement was definitely a bad peace agreement, but not so bad that it couldn't show a way to avoid the clash of civilizations and their radicalization.
Nevertheless, the current American policy in Bosnia-Hercegovina demonstrates that it is farther away from the ideas of Kissinger or Huntington [advocates for the division of Bosnia-Hercegovina], than from the prejudices which had brought about the Vietnam catastrophe, tragedy in Cambodia, and even disgrace in Somalia.