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| WAR OF WORDS | |
 May 13, 1999 
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Presidential hopefuls are beginning to take stands on the Yugoslavia conflict. After a background report, two journalists covering the campaigns discuss the candidates and their positions.
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LAMAR ALEXANDER: I'm here this morning to declare that I will be a candidate for President of the United States. MARGARET WARNER: By early this year, more than a dozen would-be presidential
contenders were gearing up |
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VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: MARGARET WARNER: Gore's sole Democratic
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| The Republicans . | |||||||||||
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SEN. JOHN McCAIN: We are in this military situation, MARGARET WARNER: McCain also sponsored a Senate resolution to let the President deploy ground troops if needed. That measure was defeated last week. Former talk show host Patrick Buchanan, by contrast, has opposed the venture from the start. PATRICK BUCHANAN: It has never been a vital interest of the United States whose flag flies over Pristina. And what are we doing bombing and attacking this tiny country that has never attacked the United States? MARGARET WARNER: The early reaction from Texas Governor George W. Bush, who leads the early polls, came at a press conference the day after the bombing began. "Any time we commit American troops, I believe we must have a clear mission, an achievable goal, and a credible exit strategy," Bush said. "The ultimate question is, will this military action lead to the goal of ending the conflict and bringing peace and stability to the region?" By this week, Bush had toughened his rhetoric.
MARGARET WARNER: Elizabeth Dole, the other leader in the Republican polls, supported the air strikes from the start. ELIZABETH DOLE: Thank you so much for the chance to visit with you. MARGARET WARNER: And in mid-April, Dole toured refugee camps in Macedonia
and Albania for a firsthand look at the crisis. Many of the candidates
also have posted their views on their Web sites. Former Governor Lamar
LAMAR ALEXANDER: If NATO troops go in to Kosovo, let them be from our European allies. No American troops on the ground. It is time for Mr. Clinton to come forward and spell out with no weasel words his success strategy and his exit strategy. This is Lamar Alexander. Thanks for listening. |
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for
the year 2000 campaign. When the conflict in Kosovo erupted in late
March, it quickly dominated the news, and forced many of these presidential
hopefuls to take a position. Here's a sampling of what some of them
have said. Two days after the air strikes began, Vice President Al Gore
was interviewed on a New Hampshire television program. 
If the world stood by and did nothing in the face of such a brutal,
bloodthirsty slaughter, we would feel awful bad about ourselves, and
actually our future would be diminished, and the consequences of not
acting therefore seemed clearly to be worse than the consequences of
taking this risk to act. 
challenger,
former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, took the opposite tack in a
statement that same week. "We are escalating our commitment without
establishing a clear exit strategy. As with Bosnia, we run the risk
of becoming bogged down in a quagmire whose end we cannot predict or
control." Among the 11 Republican contenders, Arizona Senator John
McCain spoke out early and forcefully. 
this war, and we will win it, and we will take whatever means are necessary.
If that means at some point we may have to use ground troops, than we
may have to use ground troops. The consequences of failure are profound,
both in Kosovo and around the world, and we cannot fail. 
GOVERNOR
GEORGE W. BUSH: We need to go on until we win. The objectives are to
return the Kosovars to their homes, to remove the Serbs from Kosovar,
and to have a political settlement that will yield autonomy. 
Alexander,
for example: