Senators Reject Kosovo Withdrawal Deadline

By a narrow margin, the Senate spared President Clinton a major foreign policy embarrassment Thursday by rejecting a proposal that would have forced him to pull U.S. peacekeeping troops out of Kosovo by the middle of next year.

Vice President Al Gore, who rushed to Capitol Hill to be ready to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie, said approval of the plan would have “demoralized our allies” and in effect reversed NATO’s victory in its air war against Yugoslavia last year.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, may have saved Clinton from a stinging defeat by joining the White House in opposing the measure, which was defeated 53 to 47.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also an opponent of the plan, told reporters after the vote: “It was helpful to have Gov. Bush’s clear [position] on this issue. I can’t tell you it changed a single vote, but it gave great weight to the argument” against setting a deadline.

But Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), co-sponsor with Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) of the plan to have U.S. forces withdraw from Kosovo by July 1, 2001, said Bush’s position had very little impact. Warner noted that both Texas senators voted for the deadline.

Nevertheless, despite the opposition of the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees and Democratic president, the measure drew support from 40 Republicans and seven Democrats. Voting against the step were 38 Democrats and 15 Republicans. Both California senators voted with the president against the deadline.

The Senate vote came less than 24 hours after the House voted overwhelmingly to require a gradual removal of U.S. troops starting in April unless the president--presumably either Bush or Gore--certified that Washington’s allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are paying an increasing share of the cost.

The House measure, an amendment to the defense authorization bill, was approved, 264 to 153, late Wednesday with 67 Democrats, 195 Republicans and two independents voting for the deadline.

Even though the president prevailed in the Senate, the two votes were a clear demonstration of congressional impatience with the protracted deployment of U.S. ground troops in Kosovo, a restive province of Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia. A growing number of lawmakers wants to turn the responsibility for keeping peace in the Balkans over to the European countries.

About 5,900 U.S. troops are in the NATO-led, 37,000-strong peacekeeping force, which has been stationed in Kosovo since the 11-week air war to drive Yugoslav troops out of the province ended in June.

Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.), who was seriously wounded in the Vietnam War, supported the deadline, arguing, “It’s time to Europeanize the peace.” Since the days of Alexander the Great, he said, world leaders have tried without success to pacify the Balkans. He said the U.S. government will be no more successful.

Warner complained that if the amendment failed, the United States would be “back to blank-check business as usual.”

But Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) opposed setting a deadline, which he said could reverse NATO’s victory. Moreover, he said, setting a date for withdrawal would “bring a year of very dangerous uncertainty.”

The debate underlined a centuries-old conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government. With the president and the two main candidates to replace him on one side and more than half the combined membership of the Senate and House on the other, the division could not be more clear.

After Thursday’s vote, Gore said: “On this day one year ago, America’s sons and daughters were engaged in an armed struggle for the future of Kosovo and the future of Europe. Their courage and commitment to the principle that ‘ethnic cleansing’ will not stand ended the killing. Now, the United States and its allies are dedicated to winning the peace.

“Today’s vote ensures that their efforts would not have been in vain and the goal for which they risked their lives would not be denied.”

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Times staff writer Paul Richter contributed to this report.