President Clinton said Friday that charges by Ross Perot that the White House might start "a little war" in Bosnia-Herzegovina to divert attention from his troubled presidency were outrageous.
In an interview in the current issue of U.S. News & World Report, Perot spoke his mind on a number of subjects, including war-ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina. Clinton has spent the past two days trying to drum up international support to end the civil war between Serbs, Muslims and Croats in the former Yugoslav republic.When asked about sending troops to the region, Perot said, "My biggest concern is that any time things get complicated in this country, we like to start a war. (For Clinton) the first hundred days didn't go well. Everything's in disarray. Everything we told people during the campaign, we're reversing now - from taxes to the medical system to you name it.
"So it's a good time to distract the American people. When you are shutting down the defense industry, you can get a little war going. When you're downsizing the military, you get a little war going."
Clinton issued a statement that called Perot's remarks ill-considered and intemperate.