oPeration allied Force > 165fore fell on the nations most directly affected, not the United States, to fix the situation. Using the guerrilla fighting by partisans in the region during World War II as their model, this group argued that the proposed mission was fraught with peril and did not engage any clearly discernable American interest. This group proposed taking lower cost (in terms of both finances and risk) alternatives in order to deal with the situation. Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) believed that the key to the situation was the removal of Milosevic. Consequently, Mr. Helms introduced a bill to send aid to domestic Serbian opponents of Milosevic in hopes that they could eventually topple the Yugoslav dictator and replace his regime with a new democratic government. Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) advocated sending arms and ammunition to the KLA in hopes of eveling the playing field.�Although the creation of a stalemate on the ground in order to force the two sides to negotiate had its theoretical appeal, others considered the KLA to be every bit as bad as the Serbians and wondered if there might be unforeseen lowback�from pursuing this strategy (CQ Weekly, March 27, 1999, article by Miles A. Pomper). The other opposition group was anti-war liberals. Although they were almost exclusively from the president party, these Democrats stood in opposition to Mr. Clinton on what they believed to be a basic foundation of their beliefs, specifically that war is never an answer because it only creates bigger problems later. Furthermore, the saving of Kosovar Albanians, they argued, should not be purchased at the price of slaughtering innocent Serbian civilians who, for the most part, were also victims of Milosevic (CQ Weekly, March 27, 1999, article by Miles A. Pomper; CQ Weekly, May 15, 1999, article by Mary Dalrymple). Members of this group included left-wing stalwarts such as Representatives Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) (CNN.com, April 30, 1999, article by Ted Barrett). On March 23, the Senate gave its assent to the air campaign in a 58�41 vote (S. Con. Res. 21) (CQ Weekly, March 27, 1999, article by Miles A. Pomper). What is noteworthy is that President Clinton had to rely on significant help from the opposition party, as he cobbled together a coalition of forty-two Democrats and sixteen Republicans. Standing in opposition were thirty-eight Republicans and three Democrats, including Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Russ Feingold (D-WI), and Ernest Hollings (D-SC). Some opponents had originally intended to preclude the deployment of U.S. forces to the Balkans by seeking to block funds for the operation unless Congress specifically approved. Debate had continued until almost the minute that the bombing commenced. When it became clear, however, that
