Clinton agrees to review ground-troop options

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 17, 1999 | by Jamie Dettmer, | Catherine Edwards

As news alert! was going to press and leaders from the United States' 18 partners in NATO were gathering in Washington for a celebration to mark the Western alliance's 50th anniversary turned into a somber council of war, President Clinton met with the organization's secretary-general, Javier Solana, and gave his backing for a broad review of options for deploying ground troops in Kosovo.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac were understood to have pushed for NATO to update months-old assessments on the use of ground troops and to have lobbied the president strongly to agree. Until Clinton gave the go-ahead on April 22 for an update of ground-troop options, the White House was wary of doing anything that could suggest an allied land war in Kosovo was a possibility.

Even after the presidential green light was given, administration aides continued to maintain that Clinton still had no intention of sending U.S. troops to Kosovo in anything but a peacekeeping role. "We do not favor the employment of ground forces in a hostile environment" Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said. But she added, "I think it is inappropriate to rule anything out, and we have not done so."

But Pentagon and congressional sources tell news alert! the decision to start transforming NATO's short assessments on ground-troop options into more-detailed battle plans had been taken several days before Clinton gave his public approval. And they maintain that drafting work already was afoot. They say that the decision made 48 hours earlier to dispatch 700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to Albania was part of the effort. According to the administration those troops were sent to protect the Apache attack helicopters detailed to Albania. But several U.S. military sources claim that's not so. "You don't send troops from the 82nd Airborne to act as base guards," says one source. Another ventured: "They are there for reconnaissance reasons and will be working up on-the-ground stuff in the event a ground invasion is ordered."

The sources also said the 82nd Airborne detachment could be used for special operations within Kosovo and to link up with squads from Britain's Special Airborne Service, which are understood to be spotting for NATO warplanes.

According to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon, the review of NATO ground-troop assessments would explore what a NATO peacekeeping force would look like if Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic agrees to stop fighting Kosovar Albanians, as well as what it would take to send ground forces into Yugoslavia and Kosovo "in a nonpermissive environment."

Defense Secretary William Cohen told a House Appropriations subcommittee on April 21 that NATO is not considering a ground assault, although plans could be updated "very quickly." It is doubtful, though, that battle plans could be drawn up in less than a fortnight. And several retired U.S. generals tell news alert! that it would take a minimum of two months before an invading army could be positioned to strike.