And appearances are largely what politics is all about. Forcing the Kosovars back would be a cynically brutal way to treat people who have been through so much anguish already. But it would not be out of character for a man who has killed innocent people while bombing a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan on the eve of his impeachment. Long after the Clinton administration is a memory, we may still be entangled in a mess that no one would have gotten into if we understood the full implications at the outset. But, even if we take the optimistic view that we can somehow muddle through it all, without having to either get into a shootout with Russian troops on the scene or having to pull out with our tail between our legs, the damage may still be lasting.
Nothing is more certain than lasting damage to the American taxpayers.
Some of those missiles that made such dramatic explosions on TV cost a million dollars apiece. Breeches of faith are not small things, especially when you are already having trouble attracting enlistments into the armed services. Again, this is a quick fix to another Clinton administration problem. This too is a quick fix whose price will be paid long after the Clintons have left the White House. Perhaps the most dangerous of all legacies left to the United States, to NATO and to the world is the notion that our role is to launch military interventions whenever television puts horrible pictures on the screen at dinner time.