-Caveat Lector- Lawmakers Say NATO Slows Down War By TOM RAUM .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- NATO's cumbersome procedures are sharply limiting Army Gen. Wesley Clark's military options in Yugoslavia, some lawmakers are suggesting. ``The NATO consulting process is slowing down the war,'' said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah. ``And if you win it -- what do you win? First prize is 50 years in Kosovo. I'm not sure that's a prize I want to win,'' Bennett said. Congressional frustration is increasing over NATO's caution and its constant need for a consensus -- amounting to what many suggest is a war by committee. ``But for NATO, we would not be in this fight, and because of NATO, we can't win this fight,'' Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., told Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as she defended NATO's role on Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She strongly disagreed -- although conceded NATO's was a little rusty as a military machine. ``NATO is the right instrument, and while it has never fought a war, it is doing a pretty darn good job doing it,'' she said. ``We need to hone it, but we are on the right track.'' But calls are increasing in the Republican-led Senate for more direct action to stop Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's aggression against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. A bipartisan group of seven senators led by 2000 GOP presidential hopeful John McCain of Arizona filed a resolution Tuesday that would authorize ground troops in Kosovo -- even though the administration has not requested them. ``When a president threatens a war he should plan for it,'' McCain said late Tuesday in satellite remarks to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. ``President Clinton seems neither to have a plan A nor a plan B.'' Other lawmakers have called for even more direct action to try to overthrow Milosevic. ``I think we should put a Tomahawk missile through Milosevic's bedroom window,'' said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. But removing Milosevic is not part of NATO's strategy. Albright made that clear earlier Tuesday at a White House briefing when asked if she thought Milosevic should be removed -- and how that would be achieved. ``That is not ... our goal for this conflict,'' she responded. That goal, ``as we have all said, is to try to get the Serb forces out of Kosovo, the refugees back into Kosovo and have the protection of an international security force,'' she added. The bombing campaign is not a U.S.-only operation, but is subject to review by the other 18 NATO countries. And NATO may need Milosevic one day to enforce terms of a peace agreement. The United States says its prefers to have a democratic government in place in Belgrade -- but is short on details on how that might be accomplished. NATO's cautious position toward Milosevic was underscored Tuesday when British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested allies will ``carry on until he does step down.'' Jamie Shea, the NATO spokesman, quickly clarified Blair's remarks by saying NATO policy was to get Milosevic to ``back down'' rather than ``step down.'' To be sure, the four-week-old air campaign against Yugoslavia is run by a four-star American Army general -- Clark. But military planners from other NATO nations are closely watching over his shoulder. ``I think we've been able to strengthen the consensus process in NATO,'' Clark recently told a group of U.S. reporters in his command post in Mons, Belgium, about 30 miles from NATO headquarters in Brussels. ``And I think that's very evident in the increasingly smooth flow of the air campaign.'' But lawmakers who have been to Europe to meet with Clark tell a different story, suggesting he is being hamstrung. ``General Clark just does not have the options he needs,'' said Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. ``He needs a consensus finding for targets and for objectives. As a result, General Clark is bound by that consensus.'' A bad omen for NATO on the eve of its 50th anniversary celebration? Not really, said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, and a strong NATO booster. And he says he fully expects NATO to be around for its 100th birthday, as well, ``because it serves an ongoing useful function.'' ``It's extraordinary how NATO's new nations, like Hungary, are willing to take risks for a common cause here,'' Levin said. ``And the common cause this time is an important one. NATO will prove itself by succeeding in not allowing Milosevic to ethnically cleanse Kosovo.'' 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