Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (46378)	5/7/1999 8:10:00 AM
From: JBL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

Clinton asserts his competence to run Kosovo campaign By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES INGELHEIM, Germany President Clinton said questions about his trustworthiness and credibility have not hindered his ability to run the Kosovo war but acknowledged his lack of military service has forced him to spend "major, major chunks of time . . . learning about how the military works." In a transcript of an interview that administration officials released Thursday, Mr. Clinton was gently asked about the irony of being a Vietnam draft-dodger who is now running a war. "This is a real evolution for you," said NBC anchor Tom Brokaw to the president at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany on Wednesday. "Like so many people in your generation, you came of age when there was an unpopular war and you had mixed feelings, at best, about the role of the military in our lives and so on. "Did you ever think that you would find yourself running a war as commander in chief in those days? Mr. Clinton replied: "No. Of course, I never thought I'd be president, and I certainly never thought, therefore, about this. "But when I became president -- and because I hadn't been in the military myself . . . or otherwise dealt with defense policy -- I determined to spend an awful lot of time on it," the president continued. "And I have spent major, major chunks of time . . . learning about how the military works." Mr. Brokaw also asked the president whether "questions about trustworthiness and credibility [have] made running this kind of operation more complicated for you." "No, no," Mr. Clinton replied. "It hasn't been a problem." When Mr. Brokaw alluded to Congress' refusal to support combat troops or even air strikes in Kosovo, the president pointed to last year's congressional elections, in which Democrats made unexpected gains on Republicans. "The American people made clear in the election in 1998 who they trusted," Mr. Clinton said. "They want their lives and their children and their future and their national interest put first. "And that is what I have done and that's what I'm doing today and what I intend to continue to do until my last day in office," he continued. "And I think that those who do it will be supportive and those who don't will have to deal with the consequences." Mr. Clinton also said he is perfectly prepared to continue bombing Yugoslavia until September or even later. "When we started it, I never thought it would be a three-day wonder," Mr. Clinton said. "I have always been -- relaxed is the wrong word -- but patient about the timetable. And I'm looking forward, frankly, to May and June and July, where the weather is much clearer and we'll be freer to pursue our strategy." The president acknowledged to European journalists Thursday that the Kosovo campaign seems agonizingly slow. But he pointed out that in Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO took "a long time -- from at least 1991 until 1995 to act. And by the time we acted . . . a lot of the refugees didn't come home, or haven't yet. "It took too long," Mr. Clinton said. "It's one of my great regrets that it did take so long in Bosnia." He added: "We're acting far more quickly in Kosovo." "It is worth waiting for," the president emphasized. "It will not drag on for years. We're not talking about endlessly." Although Mr. Clinton has championed the intensification of bombing in recent days and insists he is ready to keep up the tempo for months, he told reporters: "I don't think we're going to destroy the country." Still, he cautioned that "we're going to have to spend the money and take care of the refugees." The president met with several Kosovo refugees Thursday at a former youth detention center in Germany. He appeared rapt and moist-eyed as he listened to emotional Albanians tell of killings, rapes and shelling by Serbian forces. "Mr. Milosevic has not succeeded in erasing your identity from the pages of history, and he will not succeed in erasing your presence from the land of your parents and grandparents," Mr. Clinton later told several hundred refugees on a lawn outside the center. "You will go home again -- in safety and in freedom." Yet Mr. Clinton went out of his way during his visit to Germany to caution that even if NATO prevails, it will not have vanquished Mr. Milosevic. "It's not a conventional thing where there's one side's going to win and one side's going to lose," he said. He made the statement less than three hours after Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme allied commander, told reporters: "The reason I'm upbeat is because we're winning." Mr. Clinton said the return of refugees to Kosovo can be achieved through an enforceable agreement with Mr. Milosevic in Belgrade. But he cautioned that Yugoslavs will never be full partners in Europe as long as the Serbian strongman remains in office. "I do not think he's losing his grip on power within Serbia," Mr. Clinton said. He added that NATO has evidence that Mr. Milosevic is "losing his ability to be certain that he could continue to control Kosovo." The president promised refugees they will eventually be able to "go home to Kosovo where all the children can go to school and all the children can laugh and play. "And we can have a future that is not only free of the bad things that have happened to you, but is full of hope and opportunity, where you're a part of Europe and a free world, where all the children can pursue their faith, their religion and their dreams."