Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, I believe, first, the report that you have from the Pentagon planners is an accurate one and is what…”

“Well, first of all, I believe, first, the report that you have from the Pentagon planners is an accurate one and is what I believed to be the case at the time. Keep in mind--and I think I made this clear at the time--the reason we went forward with the air actions is because we thought there was some chance it would deter Mr. Milosevic based on two previous examples: number one, last October in Kosovo, when he was well poised to do the same thing; and number two, in Bosnia, where there were 12 days of NATO attacks over a 20-day period. However, I also well understood that the underlying facts were somewhat different. I still believe we did the right thing. And I believe, as one of the area's leaders said in the last couple of days, it would have been much worse had we not taken action. Now, there is a literal sense, Sam, in which, from the air, you cannot take every Serbian body in a uniform on the ground in Kosovo and extract them from Kosovo and put them back in Serbia. That, I think, is self-evident to everyone. So when I tell you that I think this will work, what I mean by that is, I think if we execute well, if we are determined, and if we spend enough time doing it, we will either break down his military capacity to retain control over Kosovo or the price of staying there will be far greater than the perceived benefits. That is the logic behind the campaign, not that it will physically extract every person and put them back across the border. Everyone knows that's not true. And I'm glad you asked the question because I think it's very important that everyone be clear on this. This is--my belief is that if we vigorously, comprehensively execute the air campaign, and if we are prepared to take the time and do our very best to care for the refugees as best we can in the meanwhile and to provide stability and support to the frontline states and especially to Albania and Macedonia, that we will prevail. That is what I believe. And I believe we will do it because we have the capacity to dramatically degrade his military operation which is the instrument of his control and because we have the capacity to make this policy very, very expensive for him militarily and economically and in other ways. Yes, sir, in the back. Effectiveness of Policy”