Toward Dresden

THE air war against Yugoslavia promises to stretch well into summer. Bill Clinton, sounding ever more like the beleaguered Lyndon Johnson, has declared that “our plan is to persist until we prevail.’’

Given a sound strategy, a commander in chief endowed with determination can serve the nation well—think of Abraham Lincoln persevering through the bloody spring and summer of 1864. More commonly, persistence masks conceptual bankruptcy. In this instance, Clinton’s plaintive call for patience is a hastily contrived fig leaf, concealing his abandonment of one defective strategy for another, one that is both militarily suspect and morally problematic.

AJ

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Andrew J. Bacevich

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THE air war against Yugoslavia promises to stretch well into summer. Bill Clinton, sounding ever more like the beleaguered Lyndon Johnson, has declared that “our plan is to persist until we prevail.’’

Given a sound strategy, a commander in chief endowed with determination can serve the nation well—think of Abraham Lincoln persevering through the bloody spring and summer of 1864. More commonly, persistence masks conceptual bankruptcy. In this instance, Clinton’s plaintive call for patience is a hastily contrived fig leaf, concealing his abandonment of one defective strategy for another, one that is both militarily suspect and morally problematic.