One charge to which Bill Clinton should be invulnerable, at least, is lack of leadership. For sure there are, and will be plenty more, critics to accuse Clinton of having allowed the situation to get out of hand to begin with. But ever since Congress legislatively frowned on United States operatives eliminating in the early stages troublesome characters like Milosevic, we pretty much have to deal with crises as regularly served up by bloodthirsty dictators. Perhaps they really were better old days when some CIA crackpot would have long since decommissioned Milosevic with an exploding cigar or some other peculiar weapon of destruction. But that's a different tale.
For now, whether or not you agree with his actions, Clinton has firmly gripped the reins of leadership - and this is not a singular instance. Notwithstanding accusations of the Clinton White House double checking opinion polls before ever making a move, Clinton is acting as he acted in Haiti in the face of negative public opinion, and as he similarly acted in Bosnia and Mexico. When these foreign affairs initiatives are combined, historians may conclude that no president was more unfairly maligned by contemporaries brandishing the charge of kowtowing to uninformed popular opinion.
What's more, NATO is finally and arguably being put to good use because of one man's determination. The assertion that NATO is unwisely intervening in a civil war undoubtably has its merits. On the other hand, what would these same critics say of an autonomous Germany repoised for ethnic cleansing? That NATO has no right to halt sovereign slaughter on European soil? Endless debate might be dandy at universities but deadly for a president.
Useless when created (even Cold Warrior George Kennan advised against it) and a drain on taxpaying participants for fifty years, NATO is now at least a potentially decisive instrument for deterring European genocide. This finessing of allies with conflicting interests in itself required creative, forceful leadership - a leadership that is respected abroad.
Excellent arguments can be made for staying out or going in. Leaders, not politicians, have the unenviable burden of deciding. Bill Clinton, love him or loathe him, is fulfilling that obligation.
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