Eric Schmitt reports (New York Times, 5/17/00, p. A11) that "Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, today sharply criticized a bill backed by Senate Republicans that would set a deadline for withdrawing American ground troops from Kosovo. Mr. Bush called the bill a 'legislative overreach' that would tie his hands if he becomes president. ...

"Until today, momentum seemed to be building among most Senate Republicans for the measure, which would cut off funds for the 5,900 United States forces in Kosovo by July 1, 2001, forcing their withdrawal, unless Congress authorizes an extension. Many Republicans said they assumed that Mr. Bush endorsed the measure, which may be voted on as early as [May 24]. ..."

"'The Clinton-Gore administration has failed to instill trust in Congress and the American people when it comes to our military and deployment of troops overseas, but the governor does not believe this provision is the way to resolve the lack of presidential leadership,' Scott McClellan, a spokesman for Mr. Bush, said. 'Governor Bush views it as a legislative overreach on powers of the presidency.'"

"Top aides to President Clinton have recommended that he veto an $8.6 billion military construction bill if the Senate language is attached. The bill includes $4.7 billion for American military operations in Kosovo, anti-drug efforts in Colombia and other defense spending."

Eric Schmitt adds (New York Times, 5/19/00, pp. 1, 10) that "In a victory for the Clinton administration, the Senate...narrowly rejected a measure to set a deadline for withdrawing American ground troops from Kosovo. Gov. George W. Bush of Texas had also criticized the measure, but even so 40 Republicans voted for it."

SPENCER ABRAHAM, BILL ROTH, ORRIN HATCH AND OTHER Y2K CANDIDATES IGNORE THE CONSTITUTION

"By a vote of 53 to 47, senators stripped a provision from a military construction spending bill that would have cut off funds for the 5,600 United States troops in Kosovo by July 1, 2001, forcing their withdrawal unless Congress authorized an extension. ...

"Fifteen of the 55 Republicans voted for a Democratic amendment to strike the withdrawal language from the $8.6 billion military construction spending bill. At least two or three Republicans, including Thad Cochran of Mississippi, said they were swayed by the opposition by Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. ..."

"'The intent of the amendment is to restore congressional oversight over the Kosovo mission,' said Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the provision's chief Democratic sponsor. 'Of course, the administration doesn't like it. They want a free hand to participate in military adventurism whenever and wherever they please. They don't want to hear a peep out of Congress.'"

According to Col. David Hackworth (WorldNetDaily, 7/9/99), author of Hazardous Duty and co-author of the 1989 international best-seller About Face and the subsequent Brave Men, "NATO claims its aircraft destroyed 120 Serb armored vehicles and tons of other military hardware during its recent Balkans bashing. But as reported in this space last week, down in the Kosovo mud our grunts say, 'It ain't so.'

"Our warriors say it sure looks like NATO, after blowing a cool $4 billion on bombs and missiles, didn't do the demo job as hyped. Pound for pound of enemy gear destroyed, this is America's costliest war."

SERBIAN DECEPTION THWARTED NATO VICTORY

"So how did the Serbs pull the wool over NATO's electronic eyes and foil the most high-tech military force in history?

"Simple. They used their imaginations and adapted tricks and deceptions that've been around since long before the Trojan Horse rolled into Troy. And our electronic spies in the sky and other high-tech gadgets, gadgeteers and generals fell for it."

DECOYS ARE CHEAP TO BUILD, PAINLESS TO LOSE

"During the conflict, smart bombs and missiles costing from 50 grand to 2 millions bucks repeatedly blew up decoy 'tanks,' 'artillery pieces,' and other 'targets' made of sticks and plastic, some of which included primitive heat sources for faking out gold-plated thermal-image systems in NATO aircraft.

"Our guys in Kosovo have found hundreds of imitation tanks, trucks, artillery pieces, missiles and missile launchers, roads and even bridges, which NATO aircraft and cruise missiles had 'destroyed.' 'From up close they look like junk, but from three miles up, they'd look like the real thing,' says an Army sergeant.

"Real roads and bridges were painted to show 'battle damage' to con NATO satellites and reconnaissance aircraft into thinking they'd already been knocked out.

"Another trick used by the Yugoslav army was to set up dummy mobile-air-defense missiles units. Many of these were placed next to fake bridges (made out of logs) and mock roads -- strips of black plastic sheeting laid across open fields with 'tanks' and other 'military vehicles' painted on them."

NATO BOASTED WITHOUT FACTS ON THE GROUND

"U.S. aircraft flying at 15,000 feet had a field day blowing up these 'Serb air defense units' and other dummy targets, while their spinners back at NATO headquarters daily chanted to the world, 'We are significantly degrading their air defense and combat ability.'"

"HIDE" OUTFOXED "SEEK"

"Serb commanders worked out that NATO did most of their reconnaissance during the daytime, after which targets were laboriously picked by generals, diplomats and horse-holders for presidents and prime ministers to approve, then assigned to pilots who'd be tasked to zap them. So as soon as darkness fell, Serb units scooted to new positions and began the mock-up game. One Serb commanding officer said, 'From the 300 projectiles which NATO has fired, only four have hit something of substance.'

"Another Serb CO said his unit would fire at attacking NATO aircraft and then quickly move his firing batteries, replacing them with dummies. 'The time it took NATO's photo-reconnaissance people to identify the point of fire ... and return to bomb the mock-up was a minimum of 12 hours. So we knew when we had to move our equipment -- every 12 hours,' he said.

"The same officer said that Serb army technicians had taken apart an unexploded $1 million U.S. Tomahawk missile and figured out that its targeting largely depended on a chip that guided the rocket by heat sources. As a result, soldiers burned tires parallel to major roads and bridges. The burning tires emitted more heat than the surface of the bridges themselves and attracted the missiles away from the vital bridges."

MILOSEVIC EMULATES SADDAM'S DEFENSIVE STRATEGY

"Saddam Hussein used similar tricks during Desert Storm. His heat source was a can with burning oil, set next to a plywood or rubber tank. An Iraqi prisoner of war said he knew of one such 'tank' that was 'knocked out 10 times' by U.S. aircraft.

"In February 1991, the Air Force reported they'd destroyed half of Iraq's tanks. This news triggered Stormin' Norman's ground attack. U.S. units on the ground later discovered that only 13 percent of the enemy tanks were knocked out. Luckily, the Iraqis didn't have the stomach for a fight, or we would've paid for this bad call in American blood."

On May 26, the Senate voted 77 to 21 (Roll Call No. 151) to reject a move by Senator Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.) to cut off funds for U.S. participation in Bill Clinton's Balkans bombing campaign.

Investor's Business Daily (6/15/99, p. 1) reports that "Bombing killed more people than a year of fighting between Yugoslav forces and Albanian rebels. Before the bombing, fighting killed 2,000 people on both sides. NATO's refused to estimate how many were killed by its bombing, but Yugoslav officials admit to losing about 1,000 troops and 2,000 civilians.

"Independent analysts believe military casualties are probably much higher. The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, based in Sweden, puts deaths as high as 15,000.

"Bombing also sparked retaliation against Albanians in Kosovo. Many were driven from their homes. Refugees swelled to over 850,000, compared to less than 100,000 before the bombing. ...Bomb damage to Kosovo and the rest of Yugoslavia has been estimated at $30 billion."

NATO WON NO MORE THAN WHAT SERBIA ACCEPTED IN PRE-WAR NEGOTIATIONS

"Military operations have cost billions more. Other countries in the region have suffered economic loss from disruption of roads, railways and river crossings. ...

"During the bombing, the U.S. and NATO insisted the bombing would end only when Yugoslavia accepted the Rambouillet ultimatum.

"In the end, the Yugoslavs accepted much of it -- withdrawal of troops, foreign occupation of Kosovo and autonomy but not independence for Kosovo.

"But the Yugoslavs had agreed to much the same before the bombing. The only genuine dispute was over the makeup of foreign military peacekeepers.

"There were already 600 civilian observers in Kosovo before the bombing. Yugoslavia had agreed to accept 2,000. But then bombing started.

"'We could have gotten a multilateral (military) force (in Kosovo) if we had included the Russians at that time, but we were not willing to let them in,' said Ron Hatchett, a former Balkan analyst for the Defense Department. ...

"Hatchett said the Yugoslavs might have been more yielding at Rambouillet if NATO hadn't been so demanding. To win the support of Albanian radicals, NATO insisted that Kosovars be given a vote to secede from Yugoslavia."

NATO SOUGHT TO COLONIZE YUGOSLAVIA

"NATO also demanded 'free and unrestricted passage and unimpeded access' throughout all of Yugoslavia, not just Kosovo.

"This would have included 'the right of bivouac, maneuver, billet, and utilization of any areas or facilities as required for support, training, and operations,' according to the Rambouillet proposal.

"Yugoslav officials objected that this provision would have amounted to unconditional surrender of their entire country to NATO -- much like the 'quartering' of British troops in colonists' homes Americans objected to before our own Revolutionary War."

NATO PREFERRED WAR TO PEACE

"Such 'deal-breakers' have prompted criticism that NATO did not negotiate in good faith at Rambouillet.

"That criticism is bolstered by reports that State Department officials have bragged to reporters that they deliberately set the bar too high for the Yugoslavs to reach.

"'What surprises me is the brassiness of these State Department people bragging that they went out to concoct a pretext for bombing,' said George Kenney, former Yugoslav desk officer at State. ..."

"'There is no place in modern Europe for ethnically pure states,' said NATO's Supreme Commander U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark on CNN in April. 'That's a 19th century idea and we are trying to transition into the 21st century, and we are going to do it with multi-ethnic states.'

"But even NATO now expects Kosovo to become solidly Albanian. The peace settlement is expected to create a new flood of refugees -- this time as many as 100,000 Serbs fleeing Kosovo. ..."

U.S. SEEN AS OUT-OF-CONTROL AGGRESSOR REGIME

"The war also has strained U.S. military capabilities and tarnished the reputation of the U.S. around the world.

"'More than half the population of the world now regards the U.S. as the single greatest threat to their own countries,' said Robert Hayden, director of the Center for Russian & East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh."

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

"'We seem to think we can go in and destroy other people's countries and nothing will ever happen to us,' he said."

Paul Craig Roberts concludes (Washington Times, 5/7/99, p. A19) that "When the Soviet Union folded its tent and disappeared, NATO also should have disbanded. NATO's function was to deter Soviet military aggression against Western Europe. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist and its former empire broke apart, NATO no longer had a function. ...

"In recreating itself, NATO is following in the footsteps of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the early 1970s when President Richard Nixon abolished the fixed exchange rate system that the IMF had been created to regulate, the organization created a new role for itself as a lender to governments experiencing economic difficulty. ..."

NATO IS THE MILITARY WING OF THE SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL

"Now it is NATO that has outlived its time. 'One World' politicians have seized the organization and have turned it into an aggressive interventionist military force. These politicians claim the right to deploy the military force without the approval of legislatures and have undertaken on their own a campaign of bombing Serbia."

"SHOOTING FISH IN A BARREL" IS COWARDICE, NOT COURAGE

"The air war against Serbia is causing mounting civilian casualties. Recently, NATO's cowardly attacks killed two schoolgirls, one age 10 and one age 12. How do these schoolgirls' deaths differ from the shooting spree at Columbine High School in Colorado? ..."

CLINTON IS A BABY KILLER IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

"The deaths of schoolgirls in Serbia is the result of an official act by the president of the United States who took it upon himself to order a nation with which we are not at war to be bombed. President Clinton, who used to scream 'baby killers' at U.S. troops fighting communists in Vietnam, is now one himself."

GOP FAILS TO PROPOSE "GUN CONTROL" IN KOSOVO

"Instead of demanding accountability for such an irresponsible use of the presidency, conservatives and Republicans, caught up in Cold War rhetoric, call for more force in order to win now that we are committed. Schoolgirls be damned. They are only important in Colorado. ...

"Serbia has not invaded any country, nor threatened us in any way. Serbia is trying to put down a separatist insurgency that is run by a drug gang. For reasons he has not explained, Mr. Clinton is on the side of the drug gang."

AMERICA IS GUILTY OF IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION

Tony Snow adds (Washington Times, 5/7/99, p. A19) that "Three features distinguish the war in Kosovo from every other in American history. This is the first in which we have been the unambiguous aggressor; the first in which we've had no discernible national interest at stake; and the first in which we have let others serve as our sovereign.

"The conflict, which has been described as the crucible for NATO's future, could become the cauldron of its destruction."

Investor's Business Daily editorializes (5/4/99, p. A22): "Let's face it. The U.S. should not be in this position. By intervening in the armed conflict between the Serbs and the Croats in 1995, the Clinton administration prevented the beginning of the end for Slobodan Milosevic. With the Dayton accords, the U.S. legitimized the Milosevic regime and his genocidal notions of governance. ..."

GOP LACKS THE GUTS TO VOTE AGAINST FUNDING CLINTON'S WAR

"In the midst of all this bobbing and weaving, the Republican leadership in Congress has distinguished itself with its own hypocrisy. The House refused to approve the air war but turned around and OK'd $12.9 billion in funds for the military to prosecute the war."

Nancy Roman reports in The Washington Times (5/4/99, p. 1) that "House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who voted against the air war last week, returned from a trip to the Balkans saying more bombing may be necessary.

"'Milosevic is a stubborn man and a mean person,' the Texas Republican said. >We may have to spend more time in the air convincing him.'"

On April 28 (H. Con. Res. 82, Roll Call no. 101), the House voted 139 to 290 to reject a proposal to require the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Balkan conflict. The resolution stated: "H. Con. Res. 82 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), SECTION 1. REMOVAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA. Pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)), the Congress hereby directs the President to remove United States Armed Forces from their positions in connection with the present operations against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia within 30 days after the passage of this resolution or within such longer period as may be necessary to effectuate their safe withdrawal."

ARMEY, COX, DAVIS, HYDE, KASICH, WATTS VOTE FOR CLINTON'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL WAR

Those 92 Republican members of Congress who voted against H. Con. Res. 82 and in support of continuing Clinton's war were:

HOUSE VOTES 311 TO 105 TO FUND CLINTON'S WAR