Policy rhetoric repeatedly permitted ends its enforcers refused to achieve.

Evidence

It is impossible to know the personal motivations of those who for three years manipulated a language of pseudopacifism and false humanitarianism to justify a policy that rewarded aggression and punished its victims; who recognized Bosnia’s sovereignty and pledged to defend it, then broke their own pledges; who declared a “no-fly zone” in October 1992, refused to authorize any enforcement for months, then refused to enforce it anyway; who declared six cities safe areas but refused to protect them; and who authorized “all necessary means” to get humani tarian convoys through to starving civilians but refused to use the means available. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 341