[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 20, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       THE MORNING AFTER IN HAITI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. 
Goss] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this Chamber Members of the House 
of Representatives paused in the legislative agenda, took time out to 
do something that was extremely appropriate. That is we passed a 
resolution to reinforce our support for our troops who are now 
overseas; we would say ``not in harm's way,'' but certainly in a 
sensitive and delicate situation where the risk for hazards and bodily 
harm is certainly greater than normal business as usual for members of 
our military, and of course it is appropriate for Congress to take the 
time to send that support because it means a lot. We have some Members 
who have been on the receiving end of that in other actions we have had 
on behalf of our country. We have a gentleman from California [Mr. 
Cunningham] who testified to that so eloquently, that when he was in 
Vietnam, how much it meant to him that Members of Congress, speaking 
for the districts of the people they represented across America, knew 
of the sacrifice and the extra effort, the risk and the hazards, that 
our men and women in uniform are taking on behalf of our Nation, and in 
the resolution we passed yesterday, Mr. Speaker, there was a little bit 
of self-congratulation, too, by the administration for avoiding, at 
least for the time being, the worst of the consequences of the Clinton 
administration's ill-advised policy for Haiti. But unfortunately, after 
those kinds of celebrations, there always comes a morning after, and 
when it has been a particularly difficult celebration, Mr. Speaker, 
there sometimes is a hangover, and we do, in fact, have a hangover.
  The situation in Haiti so far has been generally without violence. 
There has been no conflict that I am aware of between American forces 
and Haitians. There certainly has been some confrontation between 
Haitians because they are, in fact, in the middle of a very difficult 
civil discord, if not a civil war, and our troops are really the ham in 
the sandwich, as it were, but our troops, it seems from the reports we 
have seen come in, are in an almost circuslike atmosphere, perhaps not 
lighthearted, but they have been welcomed with some openness and 
friendliness by the Haitians, which is certainly understandable because 
this is a friendly neighboring country that we have gotten along with 
for years, enjoyed wonderful relations with. We have many Haitian-
Americans, and they have many Americans living in Haiti, and vice 
versa, and it has been a very good and happy relationship.
  It is unfortunate that in the country of Haiti they have not evolved 
to the level of democracy that we have in this country and that they 
are struggling to do that, and that struggle regrettably has involved 
some violence, and it has not yet been resolved, and I would ask every 
American to think back in the history our country, of the hard times we 
have had solving our own problems in the evolution of democracy and 
developing a wonderful Constitution that serves us so well no matter 
which way the wind blows, no matter how hard it blows in our country. 
The Haitians have no such anchor; they have no such constitution. They 
are a republic formed by runaway slaves, so they did not have the 
traditions, or the wisdom in those days, or the opportunity perhaps, to 
pull together a plan or vision for their nation that we enjoy in our 
country, and still have, and pursue diligently. So, we end up with an 
evolving situation, and I would point out that in our own history we 
did not get it all done peacefully either. There was, regrettably, a 
time of war between our States when a great many American lives were 
lost, and we sorted out our differences. That is never the way to do 
it, but I do not think we can say that others are any less worthy than 
we and other nations because they fail to avoid the path of violence 
when we in our own history failed to avoid that path as well.
  So, now we are left with a country that is still very, very divided, 
and we are seeing that there is great unhappiness on both sides with 
the arrangements that have been made to avoid the armed conflict. We 
have the pro-Aristide supporters in dismay in this country and in Haiti 
that Cedras has not been thrown out and put in jail or had horrible 
things happen to him. On the other hand, we have dismay that Cedras has 
undergone a rehabilitation. In 72 hours the worst, most brutal dictator 
in the Western Hemisphere, to quote President Clinton, has 
rehabilitated to a man with honor, a worthy partner in a military 
venture, to paraphrase the words of Colin Powell and former President 
Carter, so I suspect the American public is a little confused about 
whether Cedras is a monster or a loyal soldier trying to carry out his 
duty in Haiti, remembering that they have a different mission and he 
being a citizen of Haiti, not of the United States. These kinds of 
complex enigmas are going to sort themselves out as we go along and as 
the administration belatedly finds out more and more about Haiti and 
what is afoot there.
  There are some lessons that have to be learned from this, and we will 
be using the time in the days ahead to review these lessons so we do 
not make the same mistake again and have to try and avoid armed 
conflict with last-minute negotiations as we did this Sunday.

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