WASHINGTON -- As the flood of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo inundated neighboring countries, President Clinton faced mounting political and diplomatic pressure yesterday to consider sending ground troops to quell the slaughter in the Serbian province.
White House aides insist that NATO's military objective -- to grind down Yugoslavia's war-fighting capability -- can be achieved from the air and that ground troops are not even being discussed.
But a NATO diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said long-standing contingency plans are constantly being reviewed.
And officials may be deliberately leaking word of the plans as a warning to Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic that he cannot simply wait out airstrikes.
"If we do not have plans on the shelf -- no matter what we say publicly -- about how we send troops into Kosovo, somebody ought to be fired for gross negligence," said Ivo Daalder, a former top European affairs adviser to Clinton.
The crush of refugees is creating its own pressure. Kosovar Albanians, trudging out of their country, many with only the clothes on their back, have filled the American media with their cries for help.
'Pec is burning'
"Are you American?" Nejmije Kelmendi, 50, asked an Associated Press photographer on a steep mountain road near Pec in southwestern Kosovo, accompanied by her two daughters. "Tell NATO that Pec is burning, and where are the ground troops?"
In Albania, where more than 65,000 Kosovar Albanians have streamed across the border since NATO bombing began, the parliament passed a resolution yesterday pleading for ground troops to force an end to the murder, rape, looting and arson that are destroying Kosovo.
"Milosevic is trying to throw the [Kosovar] Albanians into a big black hole," Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko told national television after the session ended.
Macedonia, which has absorbed about 7,000 refugees since the airstrikes began, has also called for ground troops.
And the government of tiny Montenegro, which with Serbia forms Yugoslavia, also pleaded for help, saying the 20,000 refugees who have entered the state since Wednesday are threatening to overwhelm its fragile economy.
Even some Republicans -- who loudly questioned the wisdom of intervention before NATO airstrikes began -- called on the administration to begin looking beyond the air war.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, an influential voice on military matters and a Republican presidential hopeful, said the White House "must now decide what actions are necessary" to halt the slaughter.
McCain stopped short of calling for ground troops. But, he said, nothing should be ruled out.
"Whether one agrees or not that we initially had a strategic interest in the Balkans, we have one now," McCain said. "There is no alternative to success."
Slowing down Serbs
But Clinton remains resolutely opposed to the introduction of ground troops, at least publicly.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart cited reports from Kosovo that indicated the air campaign is already slowing down the Serbian assault on the ethnic Albanians who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population.
A fighter for the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army, identified only as Lirak, told CNN yesterday that Serbian forces were hiding their tanks and heavy weapons for fear of losing them to NATO attack planes.
The difficulty of sending in troops could be exceedingly high. A NATO military study last year estimated that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to pacify the province in the absence of a cease-fire and peace agreement.
Such a force would take weeks, if not months, to assemble. By then, Pentagon officials say, it would probably be too late.
The American public remains ambivalent on using ground troops in Serbia, perhaps reflecting the president's own ambivalence on the subject.
In contrast, Clinton's resolve on the air campaign appears to be winning the country over.
A public opinion poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 60 percent of Americans now approve of U.S.-led NATO airstrikes against Serbia, a significant leap just over the past week. Only 30 percent now say they disapprove.
But 49 percent said they oppose sending U.S. troops into Kosovo to help NATO enforce a proposed peace settlement that Yugoslavia refused to sign.
Only 44 percent support such a move.
Inserting combat troops into an all-out war would be an even harder sell.
"The president, the military leadership of this country, NATO, the political leaders of NATO, believe we can accomplish our military objectives through the air campaign that's ongoing," Lockhart said yesterday.
Many Balkan experts say Clinton's reluctance may be playing into the hands of Milosevic, who may believe he can wait out the air war, conduct his brutal campaign against Kosovar Albanian civilians, and present NATO with a Kosovo free of ethnic Albanians by the time he accepts a peace settlement.
"Everything we say to reassure the American public and the Congress [that combat troops will not be used] undermines the force of our words and our actions, undermines our prospects on the battlefield," said Richard Haas, a Brookings Institution analyst who once advised President Bush on foreign policy.
Some in Congress, along with much of the Albanian-American population, say the United States should simply arm the Kosovo Liberation Army, in effect turning the KLA into NATO's ground troops.
That way, Daalder says, NATO could present Milosevic with a face-saving choice: accept peace and NATO peacekeepers or the very real prospect that armed Kosovar Albanians could win their independence.
Running out of arms
Naim Selaj, a Kosovar Albanian in New York who spoke yesterday with his cousin, a KLA fighter, said the ethnic Albanians are quickly running out of ammunition and lack any sophisticated anti-tank weapons.
"They're counting their last grenades," Selaj said. "NATO should give arms to the KLA. Instead of talking about ground troops, they should give ammunitions to these very tough warriors."
White House aides remained opposed to arming the KLA, saying NATO is supposed to be promoting peace, not channeling more weaponry into a region already bristling with guns.
Robert Hunter, who served as the U.S. ambassador to NATO from 1993 to 1998, scoffed at the idea that a ragtag group of guerrillas could be shaped into a significant fighting force in time to help the allied air war.
"What are you going to do? Take them to Fort Bragg for six months?" he asked. "You don't just airdrop arms to them. You have to train them."
White House aides pleaded for patience.
"I would encourage everyone to stop trying to write the conclusion of the story at the end of each day," Lockhart told reporters yesterday.
"This is a phased military campaign, a systematic assault on President Milosevic and the Serbian military to either force him to embrace a peaceful solution or degrade his ability to launch [any] sort of offensive military operations. And as any systematic operation, this will take time."
Ellen Gamerman of The Sun's national staff contributed to this article.
Pub Date: 3/30/99