[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 126 (Monday, September 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              FULL AND OPEN DEBATE URGED ON HAITIAN POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON. Mr. Speaker, I take out this special order today to 
continue the dialog that is so important for this Nation on what our 
policy should be in regards to Haiti. As an 8-year member of the 
Committee on Armed Services that has had the opportunity to travel to 
all of those commitments that we have made around the world with our 
troops, whether it be at Hurricane Andrew down in Florida Labor Day 2 
years ago, or whether it be over in the Middle East leading up to and 
then involved in Desert Storm and the actions surrounding that 
activity, or whether it be our humanitarian effort in Somalia, I have 
had a chance to see our troops in action, to talk to them and to make 
sure that what we are doing is in fact in their best interest. Mr. 
Speaker, I am no fair-weather friend of our military. Those who know me 
on the Committee on Armed Services know that I am a strong supporter of 
use of military when it is appropriate especially to protect the 
freedoms and rights that we enjoy as a nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I am extremely concerned with what 
is happening inside the Beltway as it is very evident from comments 
being made to members of the President's Cabinet that we are preparing 
to go into Haiti for a major military involvement. We are aware that 
troops are already being sent, that they are gearing up, that the 
necessary supplies are being put together, and that in fact we will be 
within Haiti within the next several days, perhaps next several weeks. 
What bothers me, Mr. Speaker, is that up until now, the President has 
not signaled to us that he would want us to have a full and open debate 
on what our policy should be. Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely 
outrageous. Whether we agree with the use of force in Haiti or not, we 
owe it to the American people as we did leading up to the invasion and 
the action in Desert Storm to have a full and open debate on this 
issue. This administration has not yet said it would come to Congress 
to request our support or our denial of such involvement.
  Mr. Speaker, we are hearing from our colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle as we heard today saying that at the least this President needs 
to have the current situation in Haiti fully debated. Not only is 
that important but I feel strongly that the direction we are going in 
regard to Haiti is the wrong one. The President is telling the world 
that we are going in to restore democracy and protect human rights.

  Mr. Speaker, I will insert in the Record at this point the list from 
Freedom Review of this year of the 20 worst rated countries in the 
world of which Haiti is one:

       The 20 worst rated countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bhutan, 
     Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, China, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, 
     Haiti, Iraq, Korea, North Libya, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, 
     Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
       The 6 worst rated related territories: East Timor 
     (Indonesia), Irian Jaya (Indonesia), Kashmir (India), Kosovo 
     (Yugoslavia), Nagomo-Karabakh (Armernia/Azerbaijan), Tibet 
     (China).

  Mr. Speaker, there are 19 other countries that have records and 
current situations just like Haiti. How do we as a nation justify 
sending young American men and women into combat for one of those 20 
countries when in fact the other 19 are as bad or perhaps worse in 
terms of human rights violations? But, Mr. Speaker, what bothers me the 
most, and I started this dialog back in August of this year, is what is 
coming out of the United Nations. I have put in the Record before, Mr. 
Speaker, comments and memos from Dante Caputo, the U.N. special envoy 
to Haiti, comments from meetings and memos he has sent to Boutros-
Ghali, the U.N. Secretary-General.
  Mr. Speaker, these documents lay out for the American people what is 
in fact the thought process within the United Nations, that the only 
reason that President Clinton is proposing to send our troops into 
Haiti is not necessarily for the stated purpose but rather for 
political ends.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, let me read one of the memos from one of the 
meetings that was held on May 24 at the U.N. headquarters. The 
attendees were the Secretary-General and others, including Danta 
Caputo.
  Mr. Caputo says:

       The Americans will not be able to stand for much longer, 
     until August at the latest, the criticism of their foreign 
     policy on the domestic front. They want to do something; they 
     are going to try to intervene militarily.

  Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that the United Nations knew back as far 
as May that we did not in fact hope or expect the sanctions to work, 
that in fact we had the game plan laid out all along. They even put the 
time frame in. They said that we would have to invade by the end of 
August. Then further on we go to an internal memo from Dante Caputo to 
Boutrous-Ghali, and I quote from this memo:

       In the same fashion, the President of the United States' 
     main advisers are of the opinion that not only does this 
     option (the military option) constitute the lesser evil, but 
     that is politically desirably. Thus we think that the current 
     opposition of public opinion to an armed intervention will 
     change radically, once it will have taken place.

  How outrageous, Mr. Speaker. He goes on to further state in his memo:

       The Americans see in this type of action a chance to show, 
     after the strong media criticism of the administration, the 
     President's decision-making capability and the firmness of 
     leadership in international political matters.

  Mr. Speaker, I have been here 8 years and I have never seen political 
decisions impacting our military except on two occasions. The first was 
when the former Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, told us in this body 
that he did not want to send the extra support necessary for our troops 
to Somalia because of the political atmosphere in Washington. As a 
result of that, we lost 20 young troops when they were attacked in 
Somalia and Mogadishu and could not defend themselves. We could not 
even get the bodies out.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the second occasion. We should never be using 
political decisions and judgments in terms of committing out young men 
and women to military action. At the least, we should have a full and 
open debate on this issue and we should allow the American people to 
hear the arguments pro and con and we should look in detail at the U.N. 
communications that have occurred internally. Mr. Speaker, I ask 
Members to speak out on this.

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