Bill Clinton: “Well, first, I don't think that's accurate or a fair judgment. I think we're all deeply grateful to the generation of…”

“Well, first, I don't think that's accurate or a fair judgment. I think we're all deeply grateful to the generation of D-Day and the Second War for what they did and the freedom they bought us. I think we're also grateful to those who fought and won the cold war. And what we have to do now is to work out how we're going to face the challenges of the post-cold-war era and what our responsibilities are. The United States is still prepared to lead in a world in which our concerns are clear--security, prosperity, democracy, and human rights-- and in which we know there is an interdependence, a level of cooperation required, because we want to maintain a discipline that was not there before the Second World War, a discipline that was not there before World War II, a discipline that will permit us to work on these problems, contain those we can't control, and prevent the whole world from becoming engulfed again. And that is what we are attempting to do in working with the British, the French, and others in Bosnia, what we are attempting to do in leading NATO to take action out of area for the first time and trying to support the attempt to secure peace in Bosnia. That's what we're trying to do with the Partnership For Peace. Eighteen nations have now signed up to cooperate with NATO in a way that gives us the opportunity, for the first time since nation states came across the European continent, to unify Europe rather than have it divided. So, I'm quite encouraged, actually, about the way things are going. We're engaging Russia; we're engaging the other republics of the former Soviet Union. We are working hard there. In Asia, the United States is engaging Japan, is engaging China, is engaging a whole lot of other Pacific powers in an attempt to preserve the peace there. In our own hemisphere now, 33 of the 35 nations in Central and Latin America are now governed by democracies. And we are working together as never before. So, I think that we are trying to forge this newer world. I admit there are ragged edges and uncertainties, but that was the case after the Second World War for a few years as well. Bosnia Mr. Esler. Well, one of those ragged edges is Bosnia itself. You're going to a Europe which, for the first time in 50 years, is at war with itself. You're the Commander in Chief of 1.6 million men and women under arms. Why is it so difficult to do what Roosevelt did, to send some of those men to put the fire out in Europe?”