"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