The Serbian Army, for their part, committed numerous massacres against the civilians of Kosovo, drawing attention and condemnation from world leaders. Largely outmatched, the Kosovo Liberation Army was forced to engage in a guerilla war against the Serb forces. In response to the growing pressure, some Kosovars began armed resistance against Serbia and its troops. Initially, this arrangement was made tenable by granting Kosovo rights of autonomy however, in 1997, as Slobodan Milosevic, a Serbian nationalist, won the Presidency of Serbia, peace began to break down.Īs part of his Serbian nationalist philosophy, Milosevic began a crackdown on the people of Kosovo. When the new borders were formed, the predominantly Muslim-Albanian population of Kosovo found themselves sandwiched into the predominantly Christian-Slavic nation of Serbia. Crisis in KosovoĪs Yugoslavia collapsed into several independent Balkan nations in the early 1990s, the map of the region was redrawn.

Saddam withdrew his forces soon thereafter. To put further pressure on Iraq to withdraw from Irbil, President Clinton put the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 986, which would have allowed “Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine for its own people,” on hold until the city was back in the hands of the Iraqi Kurds. President Clinton said in a statement to the American people, “Our missiles sent this message to Saddam Hussein: when you abuse your own people or your neighbors, you will pay a price.” In response, President Clinton ordered missile strikes to destroy the air defenses of Southern Iraq and expanded the no-fly-zone imposed by the United Nations to include most of the country.

In 1996, despite 'clear warnings' from President Clinton and the international community, the Iraqi military attacked Irbil, a city controlled by Iraqi Kurds. Or, click here to read the transcript.įor much of the 1990s and early 2000s, the government of Saddam Hussein was a perennial thorn in the side of American Middle East policy. Two months later, Serbia, the most powerful of the former Yugoslav Republics, invaded Bosnia with the goal of annexing large swathes of the country for the creation of a “greater Serbia.” After making substantial gains, the Serbian Army settled into a system of ethnic cleansing, seeking to purge their occupied lands of all Bosnian Muslims.Ĭlick the player above to hear President Clinton's remarks on the 1996 strikes on Iraq.

In February 1992, the largely Muslim nation of Bosnia declared its independence from the ailing remnants of Yugoslavia. In this module, you can explore some of the conflicts that arose during President Clinton’s administration and the ways in which the President used military force to ensure the safety of the United States and its allies. Acting in this capacity, the President finds themselves ultimately responsible for the safety and security of the United States and its citizens. One of the most important roles for the President of the United States is that of Commander in Chief. United States Constitution, Article II, Section 2 “The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States”

Commander in chief meaning