REPUBLICANS CRITICIZED CLINTON DURING KOSOVO CONFLICT

From March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999, the United States and NATO engaged in a military campaign to protect ethnic Albanians in Kosovo from Serbian aggression. While American troops engaged in battle, Republican presidential candidates and leaders in the House and Senate criticized the Clinton administration and the war in Kosovo, including the proposed supplemental funding for the conflict.

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES:

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Governor George W. Bush: According to the Houston Chronicle:"Bush, in Austin, criticized President Clinton's administration for not doing enough to enunciate a goalfor the Kosovo military action and indicated the bombing campaign might not be a tough enoughresponse. `Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exitstrategy is,' Bush said."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Dan Quayle: "What has happened is we have taken a political crisisand a humanitarian crisis and escalated it into a full military crisis. The handling of the situation in theBalkans reflects the inattention of the Clinton Administration to foreign policy. ... You have the same situation . Ambiguity, no stated, clear cut mission and then you are going to have to be there quite some time."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Lamar Alexander: "Once we've started bombing we should bomb aggressively and consistently and for a long time to try and bring Milosevic to the table. But the president needs to tell us the rest of the story. Which is that if we put peace-keeping American forces in Kosovo they are going to be there for a long time, maybe as long as they have been in Korea, 25 to 50 years; and if they are harmed as they were in Somalia, then we are going to put other forces in there to make sure that they are safe."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan: "And what are we doing bombing and attacking this tiny country that has never attacked the United States to rip away from them a province that does not belong to us? I believe it is an unjust war. I think we have failed in our strategic objectives, and it is now becoming basically no longer a war for Kosovo but a war to save NATO's credibility and NATO's face. And that does not justify sending in an army of 100,000 American ground troops into the Balkans."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Gary Bauer: "The President has not demonstrated he's got a way to solve a crisis or conflict that literally has been raging since 1350. ... They treated each other with an incredible amount of inhumanity. That's a terrible thing. It offends our conscience. But how in the world are American boys flying over Kosovo dropping bombs going to somehow stop something that's been going on for 600 years?"

REPUBLICAN LEADERS IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE:

GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL): "Many may question the path that has taken us to this point. I have my own questions about the long term strategy of this campaign."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "Mr. Speaker, this is a very difficult speech for me to give, because I normally, and I still do, support our military and the fine work that they are doing. But I cannot support a failed foreign policy. ... But before we get deeper embroiled into this Balkan quagmire, I think that an assessment has to be made of the Kosovo policy so far. President Clinton has never explained to the American people why he was involving the U.S. military in a civil war in a sovereign nation, other than to say it is for humanitarian reasons, a new military/foreign policy precedent. ... Was it worth it to stay in Vietnam to save face? What good has been accomplished so far? Absolutely nothing."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): The deployment of U.S. military forces in Kosovo is "just another bad idea in a foreign policy without a focus."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "America needs to quickly change directions and leave behind this chilling comedy of errors that has defined our foreign policy."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "First of all, it's using NATO for the first time to attack a sovereign nation. ... It's also one more adventure in a whole line of adventures of failed foreign policy." <"Fox News Sunday," 3/14/99>

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "I had the utmost confidence in President Bush. He had laid the groundwork, and our national interest in the Middle East was clear. In the gulf we had a country that was invaded , and an oil interest to defend. ... we have a president I don't trust, who has proven my reason for not trusting him: had no plan. We have a civil war that was falsely described as a huge humanitarian problem, when in comparison to other places, it was nothing."

Then-Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK): "I think he's gotten us into a mess. I don't think you can bomb a country into signing a peace agreement."

Then-Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK): "The Administration, and NATO as a whole, greatly miscalculated the response Slobodan Milosevic would have to a bombing campaign. As I predicted, the Administration has escalated what was guerilla warfare into a much more serious conflict. The bombings have unleashed an evil reign and resulted in a humanitarian disaster."

Then-Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK): "I want NATO to be credible, but for crying out loud, when you are so arrogant to say here is our wisdom, here is this accord, we determined this is in your best interest and you must sign it or else we are going to bomb you--I stated in my speech on the bombing resolution that I don't think you can bomb a country into submission or into signing an agreement."

CRITICISMS FROM OTHER REPUBLICANS:

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK): "(P)resident has decimated our ability to defend ourselves."

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH): "I don't believe that a ground war in Kosovo using American troops is going to be very successful."

Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA): "This is the most inept foreign policy in the history of the United States."

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN): "This is President Clinton's war, and when he falls flat on his face, that's his problem."

remember , we won that one!