[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 102 (Friday, July 29, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  HUMANITARIAN AID MISSIONS COULD AFFECT ADVERSELY THE UNITED STATES 
                         MILITARY PREPAREDNESS

  (Mr. MAZZOLI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MAZZOLI. Madam Speaker, nothing gives American citizens a greater 
sense of pride and satisfaction than to see the flag of this great 
Nation planted in a foreign country and the troops of our Nation 
providing humanitarian aid and assistance to people who are suffering 
and people who are starving. We saw it very recently in Kurdistan. We 
saw it in Somalia. We have seen it in Guantanamo Bay with troops 
providing help for Haitian refugees, and we are now seeing it in 
Rwanda.
  But, Madam Speaker, it must be said that the U.S. Army is not the Red 
Cross, and the U.S. Navy is not the Salvation Army. Those are two 
outstanding and wonderful organizations dedicated to providing succor 
and aid to people around the world, but they are not military 
organizations, and our military organizations are not humanitarian 
organizations.
  When as it is stated in today's Washington Post some people at the 
Pentagon are concerned about the effect of humanitarian aid missions 
upon our national preparedness and our national defense, we have to 
take warning. I would say we must keep up the good work, but we cannot 
let that good work affect adversely our being militarily prepared to 
defend our Nation.

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