Fear of "Mission Creep" - shorthand for being asked to do too much without being given the tools - has made NATO forces in Bosnia so cautious that, far from overreaching themselves, they risk doing too little.
Such at least is how some Western diplomats in Sarajevo size up NATO's effort five weeks into the largest operation in the alliance's history."NATO is so determined to make the mission a success it's erring well on the side of caution before accepting tasks which aren't explicitly mandated under the terms of the Bosnian peace agreement," said one diplomat who asked not to be named.
"That's prudent, especially in the early going before all the troops are here. But media and political pressures for an expanded effort are building. The question for NATO is fast becoming: `Can what you don't try to do hurt you?' "
Most of the pressure has built up as a result of journalists reporting on alleged mass grave sites on Serb-held territory in Bosnia following leads provided by Muslim refugees from Serb "ethnic cleansing" and by the Bosnian and U.S. governments.
NATO troops, of whom 60,000 will eventually arrive in Bosnia on a one-year mission, could be sent to provide security for investigators from the International War Crimes Tribunal.
Ground soldiers and aircraft could be used to monitor the sites and detect any efforts to destroy evidence.
But in the aftermath of a war where more than 200,000 people are either dead or missing, the investigation of mass graves and war crimes is a staggering undertaking.
NATO insists its priority task under the peace agreement is supervising the disengagement of the three Bosnian armies. Responsibility for war crimes is assigned to the Tribunal, which is based in The Hague.
U.S. Admiral Leighton Smith, commander of NATO forces in Bosnia, has ordered aerial reconnaissance of some key sites as a task incidental to regular overflights of the country. The aim is to keep evidence from being disturbed.
Smith and Justice Richard Goldstone, the head of the Tribunal, agreed on Monday that requests for assistance from Goldstone would be handled on a case-by-case basis within the capacity of the NATO mission.
But some analysts say fear of "Mission Creep," a debilitating mismatch between military tasks and capabilities, could hold NATO back. Recent U.S. military misadventures are casting a long shadow over Bosnia, they say.
Thus the failure of the U.S. search for a Somali warlord in 1993, which ended in the killing of American servicemen by his followers in Mogadishu, has indirectly given Bosnian Serbs indicted for war crimes a new lease of life.
NATO says its U.S.-led forces will apprehend the Bosnian Serb "president," Radovan Karadzic, and General Ratko Mladic if they come upon them but will not try to hunt them down.
This, the analysts say, has left Mladic in firm control of the army and allowed Karadzic to stir the post-war political pot in Bosnia with relative impunity.
"The problem is that Bosnia remains a country with so little law and order and organized government that it's tempting to ask NATO to step in and sort out disputes and try to enforce agreements," a diplomat in Sarajevo said.
"But NATO doesn't want to fail at anything."
So long as Bosnia's warring parties try to implement the peace agreement in good faith, NATO's strict view of its mandate will probably suffice.
But it will be another matter if the Bosnian factions need a muscular nudge and perhaps direct assistance from NATO to meet many of their commitments.