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U.S. waging war, but without will to win

President Clinton, true to his ingrained squeamishness toward waging war for strategic rather than warm-fuzzy humanitarian reasons, more or less made it official that the United States is not at war in Kosovo in order to win. U.S. forces are there merely to make Slobodan Milosovic behave himself.

Clinton didn't actually admit in plain language that he has no intention of allowing the U.S.-led NATO force to win. Clinton does not ever use plain language. He did, however, categorically rule out the use of ground forces in Kosovo.

Unless the Kosovo campaign breaks all historical precedent, Serbian forces will not be defeated by air power alone.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole succinctly described why ground forces are necessary to win any strategic objectives, and the difference between Serbia's hard-edged warfare and Washington's poll-enslaved bombing campaign: "Serbia is fighting a full-scale war to achieve its goal of purging Kosovo of its ethnic Albanian population. Thus far, the response of the U.S. and its allies has only been to conduct a political bombing campaign. Unless we escalate immediately, our efforts will prove to be too little and too late for the Kosovar Albanians, Serbia's future as a democratic state, and U.S. and NATO credibility."

Dole is right. One of the most significant lessons of Vietnam is that when the nation goes to war, it should go to war to win. So far there is little evidence that the Clinton administration is in Kosovo to win.

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