Political Quotes

“As a matter of fact, I am about to come to that quote. President Bush's warning was contained in a letter delivered to Milosevic and General Panic, the commander of the Yugoslavian Army. The New York Times and the Associated Press quoted Bush's letter as saying: ``In the event of conflict in Kosovo caused by Serbian action, the United States will be prepared to employ military force against the Serbians in Kosovo and in Serbia proper. Let me read it again: ``In the event of conflict in Kosovo caused by Serbian action, the United States will be prepared to employ military force against the Serbians in Kosovo and in Serbia proper.'' Perhaps because of this Christmas warning, Milosevic refrained from an all-out military assault on the Kosovars, contenting himself with the legal repression that I described earlier. The Kosovars waited in vain for the West to help. They hoped that their plight would be placed on the agenda of the Dayton peace negotiations in November of 1995, but having been warned by Milosevic that he would walk out if Kosovo were brought up, the West, under this President, President Clinton, and our NATO allies, restricted the talks to Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, finally, in late 1996, armed Kosovar resistance began on a small scale under the loosely organized Kosovo Liberation Army, abbreviated UCK in Albanian, but as KLA in the West. Gradually, the KLA escalated to larger attacks by February of 1998.”