But apocryphal or not, the story does tell you everything you need to know about the President's attitude toward force. He doesn't like it, isn't comfortable with it, and will avoid using it until the last moment. And so last week, when he finally had to take action against Slobodan Milosevic, he first had to make peace with going to war. As the downing of a U.S. jet shows, the attack on Serbia is easily the riskiest and most complex military action of Clinton's presidency, his biggest roll of the dice. U.S. interests in Kosovo are murky, the coalition is fragile, the terrain unforgiving, and the enemy holds a lot of cards.
Credibility abroad begins at home.
It has taken six years of using force around the globe for Clinton to overcome his instinct not to use force at all. He really believes that we all could get along fine if only he were around to lead us in a big conflict-resolution workshop. He normally keeps that stuff under wraps, but it was on display last Tuesday in a mostly ad-libbed speech at a conference of government unions. But that's exactly what Clinton was saying last week. He knows from his experience in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995 that Milosevic understands only force.