Federal Document Clearing House
Wednesday, March 24, 1999; Page A20

Following are excerpts from President Clinton's address yesterday to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees:

The whole 20th century is in large measure the story of slaughter that started in Europe. World War I started in the Balkans, in Bosnia, next door to Kosovo. World War II engulfed the Balkans. The Cold War saw the Balkans where Kosovo is, at the edge of the Communist empire, and the clash of Slavic civilization with European Muslims and others.

Now if we have learned anything after the Cold War and our memories of World War II, it is that if our country is going to be prosperous and secure, we need a Europe that is safe, secure, free, united, a good partner with us for trading . . . and someone who will share the burdens of taking care of the problems of the world. . . .

[T]hat's what this Kosovo thing is all about. . . .

[T]he source of the problem has been that the leader of Serbia [Slobodan Milosevic] has tried to dominate the former Yugoslavia by starting wars in Croatia and Bosnia . . . and repressing the autonomy of the Kosovars. . . .

[W]e had this peace conference in Rambouillet in France just a few days ago . . . that had the potential to end the fighting for good. . . .

Milosevic . . . refused even to discuss key elements of the agreement. The Kosovars said yes to peace. Serbia put 40,000 troops and 300 tanks in and around Kosovo. If you've been watching on the television, you know they've now started rolling from village to village . . . shelling civilians, torching their homes so they can't come back. . . . Serbian police have dragged the male members of Kosovar families from their homes, lined up fathers with sons, and shot them in cold blood. . . .

When President Milosevic started the war in Bosnia seven years ago, the world did not act quickly enough to stop him. . . .

[W]hat have we learned from Bosnia? We learned that if you don't stand up to brutality and the killing of innocent people, you invite the people who do it to do more of it. We learned that firmness can save lives and stop armies. Now we have a chance to take the lessons we learned in Bosnia and put them to work in Kosovo before it's too late. . . .

[L]ike any other military action, there are risks in it if we have to take this action. There are risks every time our young people get up and fly jet airplanes at very high speeds. . . .

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. . . .

You've got to decide, my fellow Americans, if you agree with me, that in the 21st century that America as the world's superpower ought to be standing up against ethnic cleansing if we have the means to do it and we have allies who will help us do it in their neighborhood.

Now I will say again, this is not a slam-dunk, this is a difficult issue, this is a difficult decision. I believe that the position I have taken is the best of a lot of bad alternatives. But you didn't just hire me to make the easy decisions.

So I just will say to you, I ask you to talk to your friends and neighbors about this. I ask you literally to go get down an atlas and look at the map. Pay a little closer attention to the news reports. Think about the arguments that I've made . . . and say a prayer for the young men and women in uniform who are going to be there to do what I, as their commander-in-chief, order them to do.