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He said the reason such campaigns had failed in the past is that most bombs had missed their targetsThe weaponry used in Kosovo was more precise than that used in the first Gulf War; and though some bombs went astray in Kosovo and Serbia, far fewer civilians were killed than in IraqIm also still convinced that fewer civilians died than would have perished if we had put in ground troops, a bridge I would nevertheless have crossed rather than let Milosevic prevailThe success of the air campaign in Kosovo marked a new chapter in military history
There was one more tense moment before things settled downTwo days after hostilities officially ended, fifty vehicles carrying about two hundred Russian troops rushed into Kosovo from Bosnia and occupied the Pristina airport without advance agreement from NATO, four hours before the NATO troops authorized by the UN arrivedThe Russians asserted their intention to keep control of the airport
Wes Clark was lividI didnt blame him, but I knew we werent on the verge of World War IIIYeltsin was getting a lot of criticism at home for cooperating with us from ultra-nationalists whose sympathies lay with the SerbsI thought he was just throwing them a temporary boneSoon the British commander, Lieutenant General Michael Jackson, resolved the situation without fendi handbag replicas incident, and on June 18, Secretary Cohen and the Russian defense minister reached an agreement under which Russian troops would join the UN-sanctioned NATO forces in KosovoOn June 20, the Yugoslav military completed its withdrawal, and just two weeks later the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that more than 765,000 refugees had already returned to Kosovo
As we had learned from our experience in Bosnia, even after the conflict there would still be a great deal of work ahead in Kosovo: getting the refugees home safely; clearing the minefields; rebuilding homes; providing food, medicine, and shelter to the homeless; demilitarizing the Kosovo Liberation Army; creating a secure environment for both Kosovar Albanians and the minority Serb population; organizing a civilian administration; and restoring a functioning economyIt was a big job, most of which would be performed by our European allies, even as America had borne the lions share of responsibility for the air war
Despite the challenges ahead, I felt an enormous sense of relief and satisfactionSlobodan Milosevics bloody ten-year campaign to exploit ethnic and religious differences in order to impose his will on the former Yugoslavia was on its last legsThe burning of villages and killing of innocents was historyI knew it rolex replica watch was just a matter of time before Milosevic was history, too
On the day we reached the agreement with Russia, Hillary and I were in Cologne, Germany, for the annual G-8 summitIt turned out to be one of the most important such meetings of my entire eight yearsIn addition to celebrating the successful end to the Kosovo conflict, we endorsed our finance ministers recommendations to modernize the international financial institutions and our national policies to meet the challenges of the global economy, and we announced a proposal, which I strongly supported, for a massive millennium debt-relief initiative for poor countries if they agreed to put all the savings into education, health care, or economic developmentThe initiative was consistent with a chorus of calls for debt relief from all over the world, led by Pope John Paul II and my friend Bono
After the summit we flew on to Slovenia to thank the Slovenians for supporting NATO in Kosovo and helping the refugees, then to Macedonia, where President Kiro Gligorov, despite his countrys own economic hardships and ethnic tensions, had taken in 300,000 refugeesAt the camp in Skopje, Hillary, Chelsea, and I got to visit with some of them and hear the horrible stories of what they had enduredWe also met members of the international security force gucci handbag new collection who were stationed thereIt was my first chance to thank Wes Clark in person
Politics began to heat up in JuneAl Gore announced for President on the sixteenthHis likely opponent was Governor George WBush, the preferred candidate of both the Republican Partys right wing and its establishmentBush had already raised more money than Al and his primary opponent, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, combinedHillary was moving closer to getting into the Senate race in New YorkBy the time we left the White House she would have helped me in my political career for more than twenty-six yearsI was more than happy to support her for the next twenty-six
As we entered the political season, I was far more concerned about maintaining the momentum for action in Congress and in my own governmentTraditionally, when presidential politics begin to heat up and the President isnt part of it, inertia sets inSome of the Democrats thought they would be better off if little new legislation was passed; then they could run against a Republican do nothing CongressMany Republicans just didnt want to give me any more victoriesI was surprised at how bitter some of them still seemed to be four months after the impeachment battle, especially since I hadnt been hammering them in public or in private
I tried to wake up white chanel j12 watch replica every morning without bitterness and to keep working in a spirit of reconciliationThe Republicans seemed to have reverted to the theme they had trumpeted since 1992: I was a person without character who could not be trustedDuring the Kosovo conflict some Republicans almost seemed to be rooting for us to failOne Republican senator justified his colleagues tepid support for what our troops were doing by saying I had lost their trust; they were blaming me for their own failure to oppose ethnic cleansing
It seemed to me that the Republicans were trying to put me in a lose-lose situationIf I went around wearing a hair shirt, they would say I was too damaged to leadIf I was happy, they would say I was gloating and acting as if Id gotten away with somethingSix days after my acquittal in the Senate, I had gone to New Hampshire to celebrate the seventh anniversary of my New Hampshire primarySome of my congressional critics said I shouldnt have been happy, but I was happyand for good reasons: all my old friends came out to see me; I met a young man who said hed cast his first vote for me, and I had done exactly what I said I would do; and I met a woman who said I had inspired her to get off welfare and go back to school to become a nurseBy 1999, she was a member of the New Hampshire Board of watch chanel j12 black with diamonds Nursing