(24 Mar 1999) English/Nat
U-S President Bill Clinton prepared the U-S public on Tuesday for NATO military action against the Serbs.
Clinton said patient diplomacy had reached a dead-end, while Serb troops were terrorizing and murdering civilians in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, U-S defence chiefs were preparing for attacks.
Almost immediately after President Clinton met lawmakers at the White House to seek support for U-S military action in Kosovo, he prepared the American people for an attack on Serb targets.
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"This is like any other military action. There are risks in it, should we decide to take that action."
SUPER CAPTION: Bill Clinton, U-S President
But Clinton warned that the dangers of inaction were greater than the dangers of action.
Clinton said that if NATO didn't stand up to Milosevic now, it would be inviting him to commit more atrocities later on.
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"But the dangers of acting must be weighed against the dangers of inaction. If we don't do anything, after all the to and fro that's been said here, it will be interpreted by Mr. Milosevic as a license to continue to kill. There will be more massacres, more refugees, more victims, more people crying out for revenge."
SUPER CAPTION: Bill Clinton, U-S Clinton
Clinton said the U-S and its NATO allies had tried everything in their power - including a last-ditch negotiating attempt by special envoy Richard Holbrooke - to solve the crisis peacefully.
After a Tuesday morning meeting with his national security advisers, Clinton gathered key members of Congress to seek support for the NATO mission.
Senate leaders then cancelled plans for a vote on a resolution to cut off funds for a mission in Yugoslavia.
As they left the meeting, Republican lawmakers said, despite earlier reservations, Congress now unanimously supported a mission.
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"Well, as you know I haven't been the greatest supporter of this administration over the last six years, but I think the President is on the right track here and I intend to be one of the Republicans in the senate who are going to support the strikes if indeed they are necessary and it is becoming more apparent that they are."
SUPER CAPTION: Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Senator
But Yugoslavia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vladislav Jovanovic, said it wasn't his country's fault that talks between U-S envoy Richard Holbrooke and President Slobodan Milosevic had broken down.
Jovanovic also argued that any attack against his country over the conflict could not be justified on any grounds.
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"If Mr. Holbrooke didn't achieve what he expected to achieve, it is not because of our lack of cooperativeness. It is because that Yugoslavia was asked to fulfill one impossible condition, which is to surrender its sovereignty to foreign military units and to accept losing part of its sovereign territory after a few years. No state which has self-respect, no sovereign state, would be ready to accept such a degrading condition."
SUPER CAPTION: Vladislav Jovanovic, Yugoslavian ambassador to the United Nations
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon says NATO strikes are now inevitable. He says Milosevic's refusal to accept peace terms has left NATO with little option.
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SUPER CAPTION: Kenneth Bacon, U-S Defence Department spokesman
Bacon says the Serbs can avert or stop the military strikes with a quick agreement to the peace terms.
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"Milosevic knows the phone number of NATO, and he knows where to call when he wants the strikes to stop."
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