[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
       WHY I VOTED ``NO'' ON COMMENDING CLINTON FOR HAITI POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kreidler). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take a brief 5 minutes to 
explain my ``no'' vote, along with about four dozen other Republicans 
on this rather bland resolution that we just passed on Haiti.
  The concurrent resolution starts out in its prolog, ``commending the 
President and the special delegation to Haiti, and supporting the 
United States Armed Forces in Haiti.'' Most of my colleagues in the 
Republican Party and a lot of good conservative Democrats focused on 
only the line that states ``supporting the United States Armed Forces 
in Haiti,'' and I commend them for that.
  But I have recently, since the terrible firefight from hell in 
Somalia, the worst fighting since Vietnam in the streets of Mogadishu, 
visited Fort Benning twice, then to Fort Campbell, Fort Bragg, with the 
Air Force at about four different bases, flew into Mogadishu, met with 
umpteen generals, had dinner a couple of weeks ago after shooting at a 
firing range at Benning with the young super-trained Rangers down 
there. I met with all of their commanding officers, had dinner with 
them, and my relations, Mr. Speaker, are so good with these men and 
women who wear uniforms in this country, including all police and 
sheriffs' agencies, that I do not have to worry about them thinking 
that Bob Dornan is not supporting them.
  I went up on the roof of this Capitol on Thanksgiving and flew with 
two of my grandsons 194 flags for the 164 wounded and the 30 that were 
killed in the line of duty in Mogadishu. And then I realized that in 
the case of the married people those flags would go to the young 
widows. And Herb and Lois Shugart on the phone together with me, the 
parents up in Carlisle, PA, the father who refused to shake Clinton's 
hand in the White House on May 23 at the posthumous ceremony awarding 
his son, Randy Shugart, with the Medal of Honor, along with Gary Gordon 
who won that medal the hard way with their lives, giving up their very 
lives to try to save Michael Durant and his three crewmen. They saved 
Michael Durant, chief warrant officer, helicopter pilot, but the other 
three members of that crew and Randy and Gary were the guys we saw 
being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu and their bodies 
defiled.
  So I went up on July 4, on the Nation's birthday, and I flew another 
30 flags for the parents, and when the parents were divorced I flew a 
separate flag for each, for all of the parents of some of those 30 men 
killed in action so that they would have a flag that flew over their 
Capitol. And then I took time to hand write on each one of the those 
certificates at proclamations with the flags, breaking apart the word 
``Thanksgiving'' and saying giving thanks for giving everything for 
their country, and to the wounded thanks for giving their pain. So I am 
okay with the military.
  But here is what I am not okay with: some boot-licking female 
reporter who said about Clinton, ``Well, isn't this sort of his Bay of 
Pigs?'' Let me go back to 1962, and let us take John F. Kennedy, Navy 
lieutenant, back pain all of his life for his PT boat being hit by a 
Japanese destroyer. If he wanted to negotiate with Castro to stop great 
loss of life in Cuba, would he have put a delegation like this 
together? Maybe. Who would he have picked? Back to the most prior 
Democrat President, Harry Truman, and then a soldier's soldier like 
Colin Powell. That would have been Omar Bradley, and the mentor of Sam 
Nunn was then sitting in the Senate as chairman of the Armed Services 
Committee, Richard Russell. He was there for 18 years as chairman, and 
I think he had 2 years, 1951, 1952, took over in 1955, so he would have 
been there in like eighth or ninth year.

  Imagine Kennedy with Harry Truman in Havana, Cuba, sitting in front 
of Castro, eyeball to eyeball negotiations, at one side Omar Bradley, a 
five-star former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, on the other side 
sitting chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate, and he 
begins an invasion. Unbelievable. Is anyone in this country analyzing 
the idiocy of the last few days? Imagine what Castro would have done.
  First of all he would have stood up, like General Raoul Cedras and 
said, ``Are you tricking me, are you keeping me from my forces in the 
field to defend my country from an invasion by a superpower?'' That is 
exactly what Cedras said. And Jimmy Carter told us today that he told 
him, ``General, absolutely not, I swear to you,'' and he was believed.
  Castro would not have believed that, because he is a real first 
degree killer. he killed a student body opponent in his college years, 
murdered him in cold blood in a movie theater. There is a real killer. 
He would have arrested the former U.S. President and the five-star 
general and the senior Senator and made them hostages. Then what would 
that have done to Kennedy's invasion of Cuba, which he never would have 
started with three senior Americans sitting under the guns of the 
forces you have negotiating with over the crisis.
  I cannot commend the President for this charade. Mr. Speaker. The 
planes took off at 6:50, only a few of them, and I heard the general 
say on television today that the targets or specific military 
objectives were not given to them. This must be a phony show. What else 
do you expect from a triple draft dodger? I am surprised he did not 
turn up at Oxford over the weekend. This is not a good foreign policy. 
This is bad politics. Let's just hope our brave troops return home soon 
safe and sound.

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