Long-stalled talks among Bosnia's three warring factions resume in Geneva on Thursday, with hope for progress close to extinguished by the blood of Saturday's attack on civilians at a Sarajevo market.
Jack Kingston, president of the National Security Advisory Board, a private policy study group, says the idea of more talks is "very depressing."
"Why are we talking about peace instead of making peace? I don't understand the reluctance of the U.N. and the United States to stop this insanity and outright butchery in a European capital in broad daylight," said Kingston, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.
"Realistically, the only way this will be stopped is on the battlefield," he added. "Somebody's got to win, and somebody's got to lose."
After more than a dozen rounds, the talks are "a waste of everybody's time," noted Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council.
Worse, says Alamoudi, talking delays action: "It's part of a plot to avoid doing anything."
Plans to partition Bosnia have been proposed and put aside by one party or another since 1992, when the European Community recognized Bosnia's independence and generations of suppressed ethnic hostility erupted into war.
Most recently, Bosnia's Muslim Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic rejected a proposal by the Serbs - who hold 70% of Bosnia - giving Bosnians a third and Bosnian Croats 17% of the territory.
Major differences exist over Bosnia's access to the sea and over which villages will be Bosnia-ruled.
Despite a continuing arms embargo intended to keep weapons out of Bosnia, the Muslim-led Bosnian government forces are increasingly obtaining access to guns, and have recently been fighting back successfully against Bosnia's Serbs and Croats.
Now that they've tasted some victories, says University of Pittsburgh Balkan historian Dennison Rusinow, the Muslim-led Bosnian government is even more loathe to accept a less-than-optimal agreement.
"They're on a bit of a roll and have been winning a few," he says, "and are therefore reluctant to settle for what they're being offered."
Khaled Saffuri, director of the American Task Force on Bosnia, say that "both Serbs and Croats are trying to push the Bosnians into accepting an unfair deal . . . what they are trying to push the Bosnians to do is commit suicide."
In spite of the gloomy prospects now, "There's always a point in having another round," says Rice University historian Gale Stokes. "No matter how hopeless things are, they are more hopeless if you can't even bring people together to not agree. It's never a bad idea to have negotiations. It's always a good idea."
