[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 126 (Monday, September 12, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
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]

 
                   NO UNITED STATES INVASION OF HAITI

  Mr. COATS. I wish to note today that while I do not know for a fact 
that the United States will invade the island nation of Haiti, all the 
press reports indicate that the decision has already been made at the 
White House. The news reports and spokesmen for the administration over 
the weekend on news shows seem to indicate that an invasion of Haiti is 
imminent and that the decision has been made; ships are steaming to the 
Caribbean, troops are being trained; and we are told that any day now 
we can expect an invasion of that nation.
  Mr. President, the President's stated justification for an invasion, 
to this Senator and I think to many, simply does not hold up. Neither 
the cause of democracy nor the national security interests of the 
United States will, in my opinion, be served by an invasion of U.S. 
Marines of that nation. To the contrary, both the cause of democracy 
and our national security interests I think can be in the long run 
significantly undermined if we in fact do use military force to return 
Mr. Aristide to power in Haiti.
  Unlike some of its neighbors, Mr. President, Haiti has never known 
true democracy. While its brief flirtation with elective politics after 
the fall of ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier resulted in Mr. Aristide's election 
as its President, the country merely substituted one repressive regime 
for another. And unlike Duvalier, when the country could stand no more, 
Aristide himself was overthrown.
  While a democratic Haiti is certainly a desirable goal, restoring Mr. 
Aristide to power will not magically produce a democracy in a country 
where it has never taken root. Democracies cannot be imposed any more 
than nations can be built, and we do democracy a disservice by using it 
as an excuse to further what appear to be political rather than 
democratic goals.
  In the same way, America's national security is undermined by 
diverting valuable human and other resources to a cause that has not 
been adequately defined as a cause in the national interest.
  Mr. President, when Secretary of Defense William Perry conservatively 
estimated that it will cost $425 million to mount an invasion of Haiti 
and occupy the island for 7 months, he failed to calculate what is the 
more likely cost of a prolonged United States occupation. You see, Mr. 
President, the last time we invaded Haiti to establish democratic rule 
we had to stay there 19 years, and even that 19-year occupation did not 
result in a democracy that we had intended or democratic rule for the 
nation of Haiti.
  And so the $425 million is just for the initial cost. We have no way 
of calculating what that cost will be or how many months we will stay 
or what the participation of the United States will be once we invade 
that country. And we have no assurance or no guarantee that any stay, 
no matter how prolonged, particularly based on past experience, will in 
any way guarantee any semblance of democracy in that nation.
  But, Mr. President, the real cost to America will not be measured in 
dollars but in a number of other factors that are even perhaps more 
important than the dollars. First, it will be measured in the further 
decline of the readiness of U.S. military forces as already stretched 
defense dollars are once again diverted to nonessential military 
purposes.
  Many of these purposes have not necessarily been purposes with which 
we might not want to engage. Certainly alleviating starvation in 
Somalia, certainly attempting to help with the situation in Rwanda were 
humanitarian interests and gestures of the United States that many have 
concluded were worth the cost. But as we found, sometimes those 
missions change and sometimes the initial goals are muddled as we 
attempt a multilateral effort with other nations and particularly 
attempt to follow some of the dictates that come from the United 
Nations.
  But those dollars are dollars that are taken out of military 
readiness, those dollars are taken out of an already stretched and 
already thin defense budget. We will be debating later today and 
perhaps tomorrow and the remainder of the week the Department of 
Defense authorization bill and perhaps the appropriations bill and we 
will be talking about the very significant decline in defense spending, 
budgetary commitment for defense purposes, how this affects our defense 
readiness and potential readiness in the future. So to an already 
stretched and already reduced over the next 10 years' defense budget we 
will be committing additional funds, not paid for out of the State 
Department budget, not paid for out of other functions, but perhaps 
another supplemental appropriations. I do not know. But certainly it is 
another strain on defense dollars.
  The cost to America will not just be measured in dollars, nor will it 
just be measured in military readiness. It will also be measured by a 
continued decline of U.S. prestige as the United States invades a 
country that is at war with no one and poses no threat to the United 
States, poses no threat to any other Caribbean or hemispheric nation. 
What is going on in Haiti has been going on in Haiti for decades. There 
is no threat to the United States other than the threat of perhaps a 
flow of immigrants that is a threat caused by the administration's own 
policy.
  But most importantly, Mr. President, it is not the cost in dollars, 
nor the cost in readiness, nor the cost in decline of U.S. prestige but 
it is the potential cost measured by tragic, unnecessary loss of life, 
as many more U.S. military men and women may be asked to pay the 
ultimate price for a cause that has nothing to do with the national 
interest.
  It is time to put an end to gunboat liberalism. What the Clinton 
administration is demonstrating is not national strength but a national 
deception. There is no United States national security interest at 
stake in Haiti. And there is no reason to risk even one American life. 
As with Bosnia and Somalia, liberal Democrats now argue that United 
States credibility is on the line. We have no choice but to invade, 
they say, but credibility lost by political bungling should not be 
redeemed by American blood.
  During the cold war, gunboat diplomacy may have served a purpose by 
denying a defined enemy victory or regaining ground lost to the advance 
of communism. But in the post-cold-war era, gunboat liberalism to 
establish and maintain democracies where none have even existed serves 
no purpose at all except to put our own democratic ideals at risk.
  Mr. President, we cannot use U.S. soldiers for the purpose of 
advancing a theory which has not been adequately explained or 
communicated to the U.S. people, nor to the U.S. Congress. This is a 
subject that deserves debate. This is a subject that deserves to have 
the voices of the people heard. This is a subject that ought to be 
discussed on this Senate floor.
  I urge the President to step back from what appears to be a decision 
that has been made to invade Haiti--to step back, reassess what is in 
our best national interests, reassess the security threat, consult with 
the Congress, consult with the American people, and at least explain 
how and why it is in the United States national security interest that 
we invade the country of Haiti.
  I do not believe it is, and I would urge the President to reconsider.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I yield the floor. I suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Under the order, the Senator is recognized for not to exceed 10 
minutes.

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