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Congressional leaders urge Clinton to use 'anything necessary' in Kosovo
April 13, 1999 WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, April 13) -- With some members of Congress pushing for a quick vote on authorizing military action in Kosovo, dozens of congressional leaders, most of them from committees dealing with national security, traveled to the White House Tuesday for a briefing on the conflict from President Bill Clinton. 
Leaving the gathering, most members agreed that the president is still committed to winning Serb compliance with airstrikes, and while ground troops have not been taken off the table, their use is not currently being discussed. "I heard from the president that they are not currently being called for ... by our NATO allies and that he does not personally believe at this time that they will be necessary to achieve the goal," said Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "I also heard him say that he believes that nothing is essentially off the table." In a nearly unanimous chorus, congressional leaders urged Clinton to "not rule out any option" and use "anything necessary" to achieve success in Kosovo. But many members worried aloud that by not preparing or pre-positioning for the use of ground troops, the president was by default preventing their eventual engagement. "I think there's widespread opinion among members of Congress that the president ought not to rule out any options, and the way to keep the ground option available obviously would be to do some pre-positioning," said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). Kerry agreed, saying he believes "more planning and more preparation" for possible ground troops is needed. But he added that he thinks ground troop preparation is not happening because "there is concern that if and when ground troop preparation were to take place, the alliance must be clearly united in that effort and on board -- the alliance has not yet called for it, the alliance is not yet there, the alliance does not yet believe that is necessary." McConnell also said he raised the issue of arming the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) with the president, commenting afterward that "there's apparently still a good deal of negative reaction to any proposals to arm the KLA." "I still think we ought to be arming the KLA and giving them a chance to fight for their own turf," McConnell said. "Apparently the Europeans for some reason don't like this idea. You realize that if you don't give the force in Kosovo an opportunity to fight to defend themselves the presumption is somebody else is going to have to do that." McConnell dismissed the argument that if the U.S. arms the KLA, the Russians would arm the Serbs: "They're armed! Anybody have any doubts that the Serbs are well-armed?" Congressional leaders did not get one important piece of information they were looking for -- the cost of the operation. According to Senate Appropriation Committee members, the administration promised to give that information to Congress Wednesday. Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Nebraska) told CNN that he has heard the administration may ask for anywhere between $3 billion and $8 billion to fund the U.S. portion of the NATO operation through this fiscal year, which ends in September. Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said she would be "working in the appropriation process to do the best that I can to support our troops to make sure they have what they need to do this job militarily. And then I think we need to set a long-term policy that will have a chance to succeed." "These expenses are an immediate and urgent emergency. They are necessary so that we and our NATO allies can continue to pursue this mission," Clinton said of the supplemental appropriation Tuesday. Aides say the president was encouraged by the congressional reaction to his briefing Tuesday. He urged members to be patient and to let the airstrikes take their toll. Clinton reminded them of the 40 days of airstrikes during the Gulf War, and noted that bad weather had seriously hindered the current effort. But some members of Congress are not satisfied to wait on the administration to set U.S. military policy Rep. Tom Campbell (R-California), a member of the House International Relations Committee, claims the air offensive is unconstitutional because "we are engaged in a war that has not been declared." Campbell, who has filed a resolution that invokes terms of the War Powers Act of 1973, says the House will now be forced to vote by early May on whether to formally declare war on Yugoslavia or order the troops withdrawn. He adds that if Congress refuses to withdraw U.S. forces and also refuses to declare war, he will go to federal court to get the action declared unconstitutional. But House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Monday there would not be a House vote on Kosovo this week. And after a briefing with the president Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) urged patience on any type of vote or congressional movement on ground troops. "I don't think we should preclude anything ... I think we need to see how this thing progresses," Lott said. But Sen. John McCain, who announced Tuesday that he is a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000, is not ready to sit by and see how the air war progresses. In a speech Tuesday, he called again for preparations to begin for the possible use of ground troops. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Arizona Republican pointedly criticized the restrictions placed on NATO troops by the Clinton Administration, saying: "As almost anyone with war experience knows, you're never supposed to show the enemy what you won't do to win. You only make more likely the failure of whatever action you are willing to take." He closed his remarks by warning the administration that "the costs of failure are infinitely greater than the price of victory." CNN's Wolf Blitzer and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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MORE STORIES:Tuesday, April 13, 1999
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