Bill Clinton: “I can't answer that except to say that I think that there was a feeling--first of all, keep in mind, the people who were…”

“I can't answer that except to say that I think that there was a feeling--first of all, keep in mind, the people who were opposed to this have troops on the ground there in numbers too small to defend themselves from an overwhelming assault. So all along, I think they were sympathetic with the desire to try to use the muscle of NATO to save civilians. What they felt was that they were saving more lives doing what they were doing now. And I think that just because the conflict has gone on, a lot of people lost sight of the fact that the United States has largely carried out and largely paid for the largest humanitarian airlift in history, now longer than the Berlin airlift, that the people with troops on the ground there have put thousands of people's lives at risk to try to keep those highways open and to keep people alive. And I think they just felt that the risks didn't outweigh the--or outweighed the benefits. I think this last horrible incident, coming as it did after a pattern of shelling of Sarajevo, convinced them that, what I have always believed about this, that Sarajevo is sort of the Humpty Dumpty of Bosnia. If you ever want it to be put back together again, the country, you've got to keep Sarajevo from total collapse, and you've got to try to save those people if you can. And I think finally they agreed with that, and I applaud them for doing it. But let's not be sanctimonious here. It was harder for them than for us because they had their troops on the ground. Thank you.”