Dole Says Bosnia Responsibility is Shared

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said Sunday that he would be willing to share responsibility with President Clinton if U.S. forces suffer casualties in Bosnia.

But Dole, who helped Clinton win conditional congressional support for the deployment of U.S. peacekeepers in Bosnia-Herzegovina, made it clear that his action was designed only to show his support for U.S. troops serving overseas.

“Well, I assume to some extent we all will be accountable,” Dole said on the NBC-TV news program “Meet the Press.” “Once the American people know they [U.S. troops] are there, that they’re on the way and the decision [by the president] has been made, it seemed to me pretty obvious we ought to get behind the American forces, and that’s precisely what I tried to do.”