BTT
I can understand Clinton.....typical....but I fail to understand republicans supporting him, as too many did, like McCain"
Although I'd dispute some of his Serb atrocity claims, I do think that Gibbs has the gist of the matter correct -- that the US was looking for a new model for military actions in the post-Cold War period, and they discovered/created the concept of "Humanitarian Intervention". Led largely by the Left, that new model for "Humanitarian Intervention" was forged during the break-up of Yugoslavia -- tentatively in Bosnia and forcefully in Kosovo.
The reason that McCain supported this was two-fold: it gave NATO a new lease on life when it was almost ready for the scrap heap; and the foreign nationals stuffing his and other political campaigns on behalf of anti-Serb actions was generous and nearly a bottomless pocket, as most mafias are.