War is hell, but it turns out that some parts burn hotter than others.
Only one picture frightens the White House more than televised images of the Chinese embassy aflame from an errant NATO bomb. That is a rerun of the scene from Mogadishu in 1993, when Somalis dragged a G.I.'s body through the streets of their capital. The searing footage, the result of a helicopter assault gone awry, turned Capitol Hill and the American public against the humanitarian Somalia mission overnight. That's what haunts the Clinton team as it struggles to attain victory in Kosovo. As the war enters its third inconclusive month, political and public battle fatigue is setting in.