Newspaper Article

SUNDAY FOCUS / Making the Case for the Kosovo Bombing

David Callahan. David Callahan is a fellow at the Century Foundation and the author of "Unwinnable Wars: Amercian Power and Ethnic Conflict"

1999

Overview

AS NATO forces conduct airstrikes in the Serbian province of Kosovo, it's easy to understand why American officials have so often been nostalgic for the Cold War. If the East-West struggle was marked by clear-cut geopolitical challenges and stark policy choices, the imbroglio in Kosovo comes out of a new national security landscape colored in shades of gray. In his address to the nation on Wednesday, President Bill Clinton spoke with confidence and resolve about what is at stake in Kosovo and why military action was the right choice. That sureness should be recognized as a facade. In truth, the Clinton administration knows that the airstrikes will lead NATO down a highly uncertain path, with no guarantee of success and the real possibility of U.S. casualties. For congressional critics of the Kosovo action, these risks are unacceptable. The United States, they say, should only use force when graver American interests are at stake and the outcomes of intervention are more certain. However, in ordering airstrikes, Clinton took the kind of unpleasant - but unavoidable - gamble that is increasingly the trademark of post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy. Third and finally, the Clinton administration confronts in Kosovo the same question it faced in Bosnia and Haiti: Is it prudent to initiate military action when there is acute uncertainty about whether it will achieve the desired ends? In recent years, through much painful trial and error, the Clinton administration has fashioned some rough answers to these questions. Contrary to the claims of critics, both on the left and on the right, NATO airstrikes in Kosovo are underpinned by a coherent strategic outlook. If anything, it is the administration's critics who are the muddled thinkers.

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