"The eerie morphing of Clinton into Johnson"

[Carl Remick]

The only thing we're missing now -- in our latest foreign adventure, the
Balkans -- is Robert S. McNamara with his rubber-tipped pointer and a
bunch of aerial photos.  From today's Wall Street Journal:

"U.S. spokesmen continue to insist that a combat ground force [in the
Balkans] isn't an option, yet some top U.S. generals glumly argue that
such a U.S.-led force, probably with participation by the French and
British, may be the only way out.  Meantime, military planners both in
Brussels and Washington are working on what such a force might look
like.

"One senior U.S. Army officer says some planners already are pondering
how to fly in the elite 82nd Airborne Division, the U.S. military's ace
in the hole, as a blocking force to create a safety zone for ethnic
Albanian refugees being driven out of Kosovo by Serbian troops.  In this
scenario, that light-infantry force, which can't assault Serb armored
units head-on, would be relieved in a few weeks by a heavier American
tank division based in Europe.

"President Clinton has repeatedly said NATO won't send ground troops to
impose a peace on Kosovo, and opposition in Washington to such action
would be fierce.  But already, some politicians are warning that the
alliance may have no other choice.  Sen. John McCain, who was shot down
over Vietnam, is urging NATO to take far more risks form the air, yet
also says that the U.S. may have to send in ground troops.  'We've
committed ourselves....  Now we have to do whatever it takes.'...

"White House officials insist the option of sending in ground troops not
only isn't on the table, but also simply isn't feasible:  Getting a
ground force into Kosovo would take weeks, far too long to wait.  At the
Pentagon and at NATO headquarters, however, planners say that it could
be done, if the political will is there.

"One idea, quietly being discussed, would put a light-infantry U.S. Army
division into Kosovo and then replace it in a few weeks with a
tank-heavy armored U.S. division based in Germany.  Planners say 3,000
to 4,000 troops could be flown into Macedonia and then trucked into
Kosovo, and could be on the ground in 48 to 72 hours." 

Best of all is the WSJ sidebar, "Clinton's Kosovo Policy Has Echoes of
LBJ, Vietnam."  A sample:

"Nobody expects the Balkan crisis to reach the scale of Vietnam.  But,
ironically, the president's approach has some echoes of Mr. Johnson's
record of gradual escalation, putting sharp limits at each stage on how
much military power can be used and allowing hubris to cloud his vision.
In Johnson-like style, Mr. Clinton approves which targets are to be
attacked, questions objectives and inquires whether there could be
unintended casualties....

"Taking the plunge with ground troops would complete the eerie morphing
of Clinton into Johnson.  'Johnson had his Great Society and Clinton has
his domestic focus,' says Richard Haass, director of foreign studies at
the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.  'Johnson's undoing was
Vietnam.  Bill Clinton has labored for six years to avoid having foreign
policy at center stage; now it threatens to do just that.'"

One problem with that parallel, of course, is that LBJ at least *had*
the Great Society program as a legitimate domestic achievement.  What
can Clinton point to ... welfare "reform"?  This Administration has been
a catastrophe in every possible sense.

Carl Remick