Clinton Lauds U.S. Action in Kosovo
By ANNE GEARAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - With U.S. troops poised to move into Kosovo, President Clinton says Americans should be proud of the successful air campaign against Yugoslavia but must be prepared for possible casualties as the difficult, dangerous work of peacekeeping begins. ``We did the right thing, we did it the right way, and we will finish the job,'' Clinton declares.
Seventy-nine days after addressing the nation at the start of the U.S.-led NATO attack on Yugoslavia, Clinton proclaimed victory in the largest, longest and highest-stakes military action of his more than six years in office.
``We have achieved a victory for a safer world, for our democratic values and for a stronger America,'' Clinton said Thursday night in a nationally broadcast address from the Oval Office.
But Clinton was somber as he warned of the dangers still facing 50,000 peacekeeping troops - including 7,000 American forces - in escorting ethnic Albanian refugees homes and clearing mines from the Serb province. Marines and Army soldiers in the vanguard of the U.S. peacekeeping contingent began arriving Thursday in northern Macedonia, where thousands of other allied forces stood ready to begin their Kosovo mission.
``This next phase also will be dangerous,'' Clinton said. ``Bitter memories will still be fresh and there may well be casualties.'' But he said the peacekeeping force ``will have the means and the mandate to protect itself while doing its job.''
``I don't think anyone should minimize the hardship that's going to be involved,'' Defense Secretary William Cohen said. ``The world is going to be outraged,'' he added, once humanitarian groups get into Kosovo and see evidence of atrocities carried out by forces loyal to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
NATO planes flew more than 34,000 missions over Yugoslavia since the air attacks began March 24 with the goal of halting ethnic purges and atrocities by about 40,000 Serb troops occupying the rebellious Kosovo province.
To thank some of those fliers, Clinton today was to visit Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri from where B-2 pilots flew roundtrips to the Balkans that took more than 30 hours.
Milosevic's forces began leaving Kosovo on Thursday, and NATO put the bombing campaign on hold. If the Serbs follow through, NATO will formally terminate the campaign later this month.
But peace may be nearly as grueling as war, at least at the start, when U.S. and allied ground troops march into a shattered land and uncertain dangers including land mines, booby-trapped bridges and the possibility of sniper fire from stay-behind Serbs.
The peacekeepers must secure Kosovo and prepare the way for ethnic Albanian refugees to return home from teeming border camps.
More than 850,000 ethnic Albanians were forced from their homes and fled to Albania and Macedonia. An additional 500,000 also were displaced but are believed to remain inside Kosovo.
In his 11-minute address Thursday, Clinton warned Serbs that the United States would not help them rebuild from bombing ``as long as your nation is ruled by an indicted war criminal.'' He all but called for an uprising against Milosevic, telling Serbs they had needlessly suffered airstrikes because he was determined ``to eliminate Kosovar Albanians from Kosovo, dead or alive.''
``But we are ready to provide humanitarian aid now and to help to build a better future for Serbia, too, when its government represents tolerance and freedom, not repression and terror,'' Clinton added.
Military leaders were reserved in victory, although Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Henry Shelton did take an opportunity to rebut critics of the slow timetable and gradual escalation of the NATO bombing campaign.
``Many outside experts have criticized the NATO military campaign for being incremental or ruling out ground forces,'' Shelton said. ``And while it's true that U.S. military doctrine is geared toward hitting an adversary hard from the very start, it is also true in this instance that the strategy that NATO adopted ... was successful.''
For emphasis, Shelton gave some wrap-up figures for the bombing campaign: 120 tanks destroyed, along with 85 percent of Milosevic's front-line MiG-29 fighters; 220 armored personnel carriers, and 450 artillery and mortar batteries.
Shelton also displayed grainy footage from U.S. military drones flying over Kosovo. The shadowy, slow-moving figures in the film were Serb trucks headed out of the province in compliance with the peace pact, Shelton said.
U.S. peacekeepers were under the command of Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock, an assistant commander of the 1st Infantry Division, which is contributing most of the troops for the mission. Craddock's 7,000-man U.S. contingent, dubbed Task Force Falcon, will be headquartered in the town of Gnjilane in southeastern Kosovo.
Cohen said the operation was likely to cost U.S. taxpayers $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year, not counting the cost of returning the hundreds of warplanes and thousands of troops that the Pentagon has sent to the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe over the past few months.
Clinton said he'll seek funds to pay for the American participation
in peacekeeping operations apart from the regular defense budget. In a
letter to House members, the president said the operation would be carried
out ``without harming military readiness.''
