[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 72 (Friday, June 10, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1995

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                               speech of

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 9, 1994

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4301) to 
     authorize appropriations for fiscal year 1995 for military 
     activities of the Department of Defense, to prescribe 
     military personnel strengths for fiscal year 1995, and for 
     other purposes:

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I have been in Yugoslavia three times. I want 
to take my hat off to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. McCloskey] for 
his amendment and the support by the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Gilman], the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior], and the gentleman 
from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer].
  Mr. Chairman, I was in East Mostar in January this year and took this 
picture of a young lady in the East Mostar Hospital who literally had 
her face blown off. People I met pleaded, ``Please give us weapons 
whereby we can defend our husbands, our wives, and our children.''
  The next picture is of two elderly women. When I went down to the 
basement, where they were forced to live, they said, ``They are 
mortaring us every day. The bombs come in every day. We stay in bed 
until 12 o'clock because they mortar, and they mortar, and they mortar, 
and then they take lunch, and then we can come back out again,'' and 
they cried when they said, ``Give us weapons.'' They said, ``We do not 
want any American soldiers here, none. Just give us weapons.''
  Last picture: Look at the hospital. Look at this hospital. My 
goodness. I say to my colleagues, the amendment by Mr. McCloskey, Mr. 
Bonior, Mr. Hoyer, and Mr. Gilman is one of the most defining 
amendments and votes that we will have in this Congress. I strongly, 
strongly, urge you to put yourself in the position of a husband or a 
wife or somebody in East Mostar village with no weapons to defend 
themselves. You wouldn't want to be there.
  And I say to the chairman [Mr. Dellums], who I have great respect 
for, ``By passing the McCloskey-Bonior amendment we will end the war 
faster.''
  And last: Believe me. These Croats and these Bosnian Moslems, they 
know how to use the weapons. But they have no weapons to use.
  In the interest of this woman who lies in the bed with her face half 
off, Mr. Chairman, I strongly would urge the Members on both sides in a 
bipartisan way to support the McCloskey amendment, the Bonior 
amendment, the Gilman and the Hoyer amendment.
  Imagine if the French had not come to our aid in the Revolutionary 
War.

                              {time}  1240

  Imagine if we had not gone to the aid of the mujaheddin in 
Afghanistan. Imagine that. This is an opportunity, and let us not do 
what the Senate did. Let us not have it both ways. Let us not be for 
everything for everybody.
  Mr. Chairman, let us vote for this amendment and vote down the next 
amendment that will be coming up.

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