The United States should add a formal apology to the one President Clinton has already offered to the Chinese leadership. The United States probably has an obligation, too, to compensate the Chinese government and the families of the victims of that attack. Further, as Secretary of Defense William Cohen has already suggested, an investigation is needed to determine who was responsible for what and how, exactly, the intelligence information available to American flyers could be so inaccurate. During the Cold War, Belgrade followed the lead of other Communist regimes and made state secrets of any accurate maps of their countries and major cities. But those who use the mistake as another argument for ending the Yugoslav campaign are missing the point.
Mistakes are inevitable in war.
That does not excuse the mistakes, of course, but there is no way to guarantee anyone's safety in a war zone. The other development is Monday's news that some Yugoslav troops are withdrawing from Kosovo. Coupled with the Russian-German effort last week to broker peace negotiations, the withdrawal truly is a hopeful sign. But it is not a sufficient reason for a letup in the bombing. The NATO conditions were complete withdrawal of Yugoslav military and special police units from Kosovo.