Matt Gunterman April 4th, 2007

The following excerpt is from an April 12, 1999 interview between Fox News’s Tony Snow and Senator Mitch McConnell.

The subject is then President Bill Clinton’s effort to rally NATO forces to stop the genocide in Kosovo. The conflict broke out in March of that year, and by late summer the region had been stabilized, as it remains today.

Pres. Clinton’s plan worked well, worked quickly, and has provided long-term peace in the region.

Sen. Mitch McConnell did everything he possibly could to stand in the way of and undermine this successful military action that saved the lives of tens of thousands of people.

In fact, he went so far as to try to pass legislation that would have given $25 million from the American taxpayers to arm terrorists in the region — the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that Snow references at the end of the excerpt.

Read the transcript. It’s another “gottcha” moment between Fox and McConnell.

SNOW: Thanks, Kelly.

Now joining us for more on the situation in Kosovo, Senator Mitch McConnell, chairman of the Foreign Operations of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Senator, welcome back.

U.S. SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Glad to be here, Tony.

SNOW: Are you a fan of this bombing run?

MCCONNELL: Well, I supported the bombing. I think everything else about this operation’s been rather pathetic. What we should have done in terms of preparing for the obvious humanitarian problem that was going to ensue from this, there was better planning for Woodstock. These people are in desperate condition, and we should have certainly anticipated a humanitarian problem of some magnitude.

SNOW: Now, you’ve seen this report from the Republican Policy Committee.

MCCONNELL: Yeah, I…

SNOW: Your own guys…

MCCONNELL: I have.

SNOW: … are saying that the KLA is basically a terrorist group with drug ties.

Oops.

Now, compare how Sen. McConnell treats the wars of competent presidents with those of incompetent presidents. And need we say anything about comparisons between post-war/occupational preparation by Clinton in Kosovo and Bush in Iraq. Let’s let the long-term results speak for themselves.

• Iraq War , Kosovo War (1999) , Mitch McConnell
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Matt Gunterman March 8th, 2007

I’ve had time to take a closer look at the Congressional War Powers report from the Center for American Progress that Think Progress posted today. It has some pretty frightening things to say about Mitch McConnell and his God complex.

If you’ll recall, Mitch and the Republican leadership were none too happy in 1999 when the United States, under the leadership of then-President Bill Clinton, and its Nato allies intervened militarily in the Balkans in an attempt to stop the genocide in Kosovo. In the end, the operation proved to be a great humanitarian and military success, and instilled new life and purpose into the Nato alliance.

But Mitch McConnell was one of the strongest opponents of Clinton’s action,which saved tens of thousands of lives. In fact, Clinton’s efforts in the Balkan conflict were so successful that the Milosevic regime capitulated and the region was stabilized in less than one Friedman unit. If only Mitch had literally shown Clinton one eighth the patience he’s shown George W. Bush, Mitch could have saved himself a lot of humiliation (but humiliating himself by his poor choices is something that Mitch has only gotten better at in the intervening years).

Now, get this, the CAP report reminds us that, not only did Mitch try to undermine the military plan of the nation’s Commander-in-Chief, Mitch–a mere senator–actually tried to enact his own competing strategy. Yes, that’s right! Mitch McConnell tried to fund his own little army in the Balkans! Check out this quote from the report:

“[W]e ought to give the Kosovars a chance to defend themselves. I mean you have refugees when people are afraid and can’t defend themselves; that’s when they run; that’s when they go across the borders into Macedonia and other places. These people will stay, if they think they have a chance to defend their homes and defend their families.” Senator Mitch McConnell, CNN TALKBACK LIFE 15:00 pm ET, March 25, 1999. Later in the fall, Senator McConnell introduced a bill, S.846, to authorize $25 million in assistance for the “self defense of Kosova.”

And this plan of McConnell’s was no small operation. From the floor of the Senate he boldly outlined his plan to “equip 10,000 men or 10 battalions with small arms, antitank weapons, for up to 18 months.”

This is the same man who is now declaring that, “If the Senate doesn’t support the mission in Iraq, it has only one option, and that’s to decide whether or not to fund that mission.”

• Iraq War , Kosovo War (1999) , Mitch McConnell , U.S. Senate
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Matt Gunterman March 7th, 2007

This evening, Think Progress notes Mitch McConnell’s convenient new-found ignorance on the powers of Congress to place limits on presidential war powers.

Mitch’s lead role in restricting President Clinton’s use of force in the Balkans eight years ago is highlighted in a new report from the Center for American Progress.

In short, whereas today Mitch claims Congress’s powers are today limited to the purse, back in the days of President Clinton, Kentucky’s senior senator was happy to play armchair general. While authorizing Clinton’s use of airstrikes in the conflict, McConnell decided to play armchair general with the taxpayers’ billions. As the report states,

Sen. McConnell noted he was not satisfied with President Clinton’s war strategy. As a result, he sought to fund the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, while also asserting his opposition to the deployment of any U.S. troops on the ground.

It’s odd that McConnell would second guess Clinton so, but then again, Clinton had never served in the military, unlike Mitch himself and Bush 43, right?

• Iraq War , Kosovo War (1999) , Mitch McConnell , U.S. Senate
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