Decide Now, Congress

Congress consistently asserts its right to have a say in foreign policy, but given the chance to take a stand on tough issues it often prefers to do nothing. This expedient dodging of responsibility does not enhance the credibility or effectiveness of American policy.

Last week the House, in a bizarrely contradictory series of votes, refused to endorse the air war against Yugoslavia. At the same time it rejected the chance to demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the conflict. Then its Appropriations Committee voted to spend $6 billion to continue waging the same air campaign that the full House had declined to back.

Monday it was the Senate’s turn. Confronted with a resolution to use “all necessary force and other means” to achieve victory over Yugoslavia, senators debated into the night and then--with the tacit blessing of the White House--prepared to table the motion today, a parliamentary maneuver that means members will be spared from voting on the resolution at all.

Most Americans, even while responding with sympathy and anger to the atrocities and expulsions suffered by Kosovar Albanians, share Congress’ uneasiness about going to war in the Balkans. But if Congress opposes this war it should have the courage to say so, just as it should be willing to go on record if it believes that once committed the United States and its allies must win the conflict, whatever that takes.

Instead Congress chooses to equivocate. Most Republicans are happy to await what they expect will be the advantageous political fallout from “the Clinton-Gore war,” as they now describe it. Most Democrats, themselves evincing little passion for the fighting, are content to follow President Clinton’s own uninspired leadership.

A few months ago the Senate enthusiastically approved Clinton’s initiative to expand NATO to 19 countries from 16. But of what use is a larger U.S.-led NATO if it lacks the will to decisively quash a local despot like Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic and end his ravaging of Kosovo? And what contribution to an effective foreign policy is made by a Congress that refuses to say whether it approves of the war against Yugoslavia or thinks it’s a mistake?

If it’s a necessary war, as we believe it has been so far, Congress should be supporting its all-out prosecution. And if it’s a mistake, Congress should have the guts to demand that the United States get out. In refusing to say clearly where it stands, Congress mocks its claim to have a responsible role in the shaping of foreign policy.