Neither the message nor the messenger are very impressive.
That must be why the House on Wednesday rejected a resolution supporting the air campaign in Yugoslavia.For five weeks NATO has been intensifying airstrikes against Yugoslav targets in an effort to make Yugoslavia's ruthless president, Slobodan Milosevic, stop his brutal assault on Kosovo.
The House's failure to approve a purely symbolic measure backing action already underway clearly demonstrates the frustration and lack of confidence that body has in the Clinton administration's handling of the crisis. Reinforcing that observation was an earlier 249-180 vote to make Clinton obtain congressional approval before sending "ground elements" to Kosovo or other parts of Yugoslavia.
As the nation's commander-in-chief, Clinton bears the prime responsibility for properly preparing Congress and the nation for what is escalating into a major military confrontation. Clearly, he has failed to do so.
He has hardly addressed, let alone adequately explained, what U.S. goals are, what the costs of obtaining those goals will be and our long-term strategy for Kosovo, Yugoslavia and the Balkans. The United States, the world's lone superpower, has been put in the uncomfortable position of being reactive instead of pro-active.
All of a sudden, with little dialogue either in the halls of Congress or in the nation's living rooms, the nation is dropping bombs in Yugoslavia and ruling out ground troops. Neither the people nor Congress has recovered from that jarring introduction, which now involves numerous humanitarian missions as well as military ones.
The overall goal of wanting to help a people -- in this case ethnic Albanians -- being subjected to genocide is a noble one. But there are right ways and wrong ways to carry out that objective.
The right way was demonstrated nine years ago when then President George Bush outlined the goals and what it would take to achieve them to both Congress and the American people in the Persian Gulf War. Bush said there would be casualties, perhaps in considerable numbers, needed in order to extract Iraqi forces from Kuwait. America was properly prepared both emotionally and militarily for that struggle.
The wrong way is being demonstrated by Clinton. Our objectives are fuzzy. The price it will take to achieve them even more fuzzy. The short-term strategy is questionable, and there doesn't seem to be a long-term one.
The House by its vote delivered that message to the Clinton administration Wednesday. Now it's time for Clinton to deliver a new and coherent message of his own.