Bill Clinton: “Well, it hasn't worked out as fast as I'd hoped, but it actually is kind of working out the way I had hoped in the sense…”

“Well, it hasn't worked out as fast as I'd hoped, but it actually is kind of working out the way I had hoped in the sense that the Dayton peace agreement is very much alive and well. And we've separated the troops--I mean the forces--and the people, and we've got some relocation going on, and we've collected a lot of the bad weapons and destroyed them. We're making some progress on the joint institutions and other things, and we're trying to get that country together. And I must say, I was very impressed on my recent trip there by the level of support for the United States and the international community in our presence there, the level of support for our staying there, and the level of commitment of so many people to genuine pursuit of peace. And I think we can make it in Bosnia. Did I think we could all withdraw by now? Yes, I did. But if you had told me, on the other hand--that's the down side. If you had told me, on the other hand, you can go there and stay a couple of years and there won't be any gunshots fired, and the only people you'll lose will be in accidents of one kind or another, and you'll have an increasing amount of harmony in the urbanized areas that you hadn't imagined you would get, and some of the other positive things that have happened, I think we'd all been very happy about that. So I'm going to stay after this. Again, this may be my congenital optimism, but I believe we're going to make the Bosnian peace process work. Mr. Lehrer. U.S. troops are going to have to be there a long time, aren't they, Mr. President?”