JUST INCREDIBLE!; ANOTHER DAY OF REAL AND POLITICAL BOMBSHELLS : HOUSE DEBATE TO START TODAY DESPITE ATTACK.

Byline: R.W. Apple Jr. The New York Times

On another day of surreal, split-screen frenzy in the capital, the Republicans in the House of Representatives decided Thursday to begin debate on the impeachment of President Clinton today, when American warplanes presumably will be preparing for further raids on Iraq.

An uproar over the timing of the impeachment debate broke out on the House floor Thursday afternoon while television screens outside were aglow with ghostly green images of bombs and missiles exploding in Baghdad.

While there was no sign that any House Republicans were wavering on impeachment - indeed, several more undecided Republicans said they would vote for impeachment - it was evident that the party leadership had been thrown off stride by the strikes.

The president's strategists conceded that the struggle in the House had been lost and turned grimly to the task of preparing for a Senate trial.

Clinton also faced bitter criticism on the diplomatic front from a handful of foreign countries, notably Russia and China, for resorting to force. The Russians recalled their ambassador from Washington in protest Thursday.

Democrats objected strenuously to moving ahead with impeachment while the bombing campaign was under way. It is expected to end by this weekend, a White House official said, when the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starts.

The House majority leader, Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, said debate would begin at 9 a.m. today (6 a.m. PST), with voting on the four articles of impeachment running into Saturday. No change was conceded by the Republicans, but discussions about the timetable and the rules, especially the one governing the time to be allotted for debate, continued deep into the evening.

Barring some significant change, the stage was set for the spectacle of a House vote on impeachment, only the second in 130 years, taking place while American military planes were flying over hostile territory.

``I'm going to complete this mission,'' Clinton vowed as allied bombers and cruise missiles hit Baghdad and other parts of Iraq with a second wave of punishing airstrikes. Reports from the scene said explosions in the capital were louder and more percussive than those in the first wave Wednesday night.

There were no reports of casualties among American pilots, but Clinton acknowledged that Iraqi civilian casualties were unavoidable.

His eyes red and puffy with fatigue, the president forcefully but without visible rancor rejected suggestions from senior Republicans that he had ordered the strikes to dissipate momentum toward impeachment. ``I don't think any serious person would believe that any president would do such a thing,'' Clinton commented just before a briefing in the Oval Office.

The president was told at the briefing, and reporters were later informed, that the first volley of more than 200 unmanned cruise missiles, launched from ships in the Persian Gulf at some 50 targets, had leveled President Saddam Hussein's military headquarters in Baghdad and four barracks of security guards at weapons sites. But Gen. Henry H. Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that other strikes were ``not as successful.''

Pointing at an aerial photo of one of Iraq's special security brigade headquarters, Shelton said, ``You don't see anything but rubble in what was formerly this building.''

The second wave Thursday, which included British Tornado bombers for the first time, sent more cruise missiles deep into Iraq while Navy planes with laser-guided bombs went after Iraqi air-defense sites along the border.

World opposition

Iraq, China and Russia all called for an immediate end to the attacks, but a divided U.N. Security Council took no further action. France, whose initial reaction was rather negative, seemed to be softening somewhat after President Jacques Chirac had what his spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna, called ``a good conversation'' with Clinton.

``Once again, responsibility lies clearly with the Iraqi president,'' Chirac said in a subsequent statement. ``The main point is to settle problems that, without a doubt, will not be settled by airstrikes.''

Four national polls taken Wednesday evening after the bombing began indicated that the American public overwhelmingly supports the military action in Iraq and accepts Clinton's explanations of its timing and purpose.

However, a significant fraction of those who support impeachment, a relatively small minority of the population in itself, believes that the imminence of a House vote may have affected the timing of the raids in some way.

Some prominent Republicans who sharply questioned the honesty of Clinton's justification of the raids Wednesday pulled back Thursday, though none apologized. Notable in this group was former Secretary of State Lawrence F. Eagleburger, who said after a meeting with the present holder of that job, Madeleine Albright, that he would mute his language in coming days.

Under criticism from both parties, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the majority leader, backed away from his charge that the strikes were linked to impeachment. After overnight reflection, he said, ``I am satisfied this was a military decision.''

In an interview on CNN, Lott also confirmed that the Senate would open a trial of the president if any of the articles of impeachment was approved, and he said there would be no deals to cut it short, as a number of Democrats have proposed recently.

A parade of Republican senators, including John McCain of Arizona, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, John W. Warner of Virginia and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, voiced support of the president's decision to strike now. All are prominent party spokesmen on defense and foreign policy matters.

Others in the party worried that proceeding with the impeachment debate and vote might backfire on the speaker-elect, Rep. Robert L. Livingston of Louisiana, just as closing down the federal government a few years ago came to haunt the outgoing speaker, Newt Gingrich. A Republican senator deeply involved with foreign policy said, ``It is Bob's call, of course, but he had better watch carefully where he treads.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) IMPEACHMENT - President Clinton will face impeachment debate today

(2--Color) BACKING DOWN - Senate leader Trent Lott backs away from earlier statements

(3--Color) NEW SCANDAL - Future Speaker Bob Livingston admits to extramarital affairs