[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 13, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           DEFINE ``VICTORY''

  (Mr. KLUG asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KLUG. Mr. Speaker, I have to ask this morning whether we are 
about to invade Haiti or whether we are going to adopt Haiti. As my 
colleagues know, we have had this unruly stepchild under our guidance 
once before, and it was an absolute disaster. The United States won 
that initial fight easily, too, in 1915, Mr. Speaker, and then spent 19 
years chasing and fighting 10,000 armed guerrillas across the 
countryside.
  I do not think we can send a single U.S. soldier to die on the 
beachhead until we understand how we are going to define victory and 
how we define when we are going to go home. There is no vital United 
States interest in Haiti, no strategic threat, no threat to a single 
American except for the young American soldiers who will soon be 
ordered to become Haiti's cops.
  ``When you ad lib a mission, Mr. President, you lose. Look at 
Vietnam. Look at Somalia. And look at Lebanon.''
  My constituents do not understand why we want to run the 
international affairs of Haiti, and frankly, Mr. Speaker, neither do I.

                          ____________________