New York Times - June 12, 1999
ABROAD AT HOME/ By ANTHONY LEWIS When Praise Is Due
Bill Clinton held firm. That was a crucial fact in the Kosovo war, and it should be recognized. Under savage criticism at home and abroad, the President stuck to his policy. And it prevailed.
Right up to the denouement, critics predicted that the President would weaken his demands on Yugoslavia. A writer in The Times of London, Ben Macintyre, wrote: "Clinton is seeking a diplomatic escape route that will allow him to cut his losses and save face. . . . It is the modus operandi of a man whose primary instincts are to vacillate, compromise and then gloss."
It is true that Mr. Clinton has often abandoned positions in the past when the going got rough. But this time he abandoned nothing. Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian tyrant, had to eat every one of the terms set out by Mr. Clinton and NATO, including withdrawal of all Serbian forces from Kosovo, and its occupation by an international force with NATO at its core.
President Clinton was also firm in dealing with Russia, aided by the skillful diplomacy of Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. The United States and its allies coaxed and pressed the Russians to accept the NATO terms, including a call for international cooperation with the War Crimes Tribunal and its indictment of Mr. Milosevic. That left Mr. Milosevic nowhere to turn, and he capitulated.
It was a great mistake to forswear ground forces at the start, and to hold back the really damaging air strikes for weeks. When the serious bombing came, Mr. Milosevic yielded.
But Mr. Clinton proved right in his belief that an air war alone could do the job. And he did not shy, in the end, from giving the orders to strike at such critical targets as the Serbian electric power system.
John Keegan, the highly regarded military historian and defense editor of The Daily Telegraph in London, admitted gracefully last week that he had been wrong in saying -- along with most military experts -- that air power alone could not win the war. He added: "If Milosevic really is a beaten man, all other would-be Milosevics around the world will have to reconsider their plans."
Others who had criticized the President were not so generous in recognizing his success. That is an understatement. Political hatred of Mr. Clinton is so intense that it seems to turn judgment into psychopathology. One far-right American commentator said the peace "resembled the President who will embrace it. Both are without honor."
Republicans, with such notable exceptions as John McCain and Bob Dole, put partisan politics ahead of patriotism. A year ago Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader, said, "Something must be done" to protect Kosovo civilians from Mr. Milosevic -- "We cannot allow this slaughter to continue." But when President Clinton acted, Senator Lott said, "Give peace a chance" -- and joined most Republicans in opposing the war.
House Republicans, under the leadership of the majority whip, Tom DeLay, were the disloyal opposition. They were more interested in scoring points against the President than in stopping a mass murderer's atrocities. Conservatives tried to cut off all funds for U.S. forces in the war.
Having criticized the Kosovo conflict as "Clinton's war," some conservatives then attacked the President for not insisting on a more complete victory -- including the overthrow of Mr. Milosevic, which could not have been achieved without a large-scale ground war. Oliver North, on his radio talk show, asked, "Can anybody out there tell me who won?"
Anyone who really doubts that NATO and the United States won this war should consider what it would look like if Mr. Milosevic had succeeded in holding out and NATO had been forced to water down its terms. Of course it will take a lot more steel in the backbone of President Clinton and other NATO leaders to keep the Serbian dictator down and see that the refugees actually get back to Kosovo.
After the impeachment struggle some thought Mr. Clinton should be written off as a lame duck. That notion is now reminiscent of the prediction made by a French general after France fell to the Nazis in World War II: "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." To which Winston Churchill responded: "Some chicken! Some neck!"