Of course, the Kosovo campaign has been a debacle because of the lack of any strategy. But the deeper problem is lack of seriousness. In and of themselves, pacifism, humanitarianism, even sentimentalism are not to be denigrated. People who hate war, who refuse to participate because they believe it does more harm than good, who cannot bear to kill their fellow man in the name of any cause, deserve the highest respect. But they shouldn't be running wars.
War needs to be carried out by people who are serious about what it is and what it costs.
It took 10 days and half a million refugees for Clinton and the NATO leaders to begin to acquire seriousness. Those who, like me, opposed this campaign from the start can only applaud this dawning of seriousness, because it provides the only possible way out of this war short of abject defeat. When they are prepared to hit a Rembrandt.