[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 137 (Tuesday, September 27, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT BE IN HAITI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. (Mr. Bilbray). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to once again express my great 
concern about the United States presence in Haiti. I do not think there 
is any threat to our national security in Haiti. There is no vital U.S. 
interest there. I believe that the majority of the American people do 
not want us to be there. And on top of that, and especially I believe 
that the overwhelming majority of the American people do not want us to 
spend several billion dollars there, which is what we will spend before 
everything is through.
  The Pentagon has recently estimated that it will cost some $500 
million just for our short-term initial military obligations. That is 
of great concern to me, and I know to so many others.
  I think that President Kennedy put it best in 1961 when he said:

       We must face the fact that the United States is neither 
     omnipotent nor omniscient--that we are only 6 percent of the 
     world's population--that we cannot impose our will upon the 
     other 94 percent--that we cannot right every wrong or reverse 
     each adversity--and that therefore there cannot be an 
     American solution to every world problem.

  The only change in that quote in my opinion is that now we have less 
than 5 percent of the world's population, and yet the world is still 
looking to us to solve every problem and each adversity that goes on 
around the world. It is just impossible for us to do that.
  I think in these international tragedies in the future, whether they 
be in Rwanda, or Somalia, or Haiti, or Cuba, or wherever that we should 
convene a meeting of all of the nations in the world who are willing to 
contribute, and we need to say to them, ``What are you willing to do, 
Japan? What are you willing to do, Germany?''
  The liberals are fond of telling us how good everything is in Sweden, 
and France, and Germany, and some of these other places. But the truth 
is that none of these other countries are helping in the situation in 
Haiti and so many of these other international tragedies. They are 
doing nothing or either next to nothing, and I think it is totally 
unfair for the rest of the world to sit back and expect the United 
States to foot the entire bill in Haiti or in any place else, and that 
is basically what we are doing.
  Listen to this Associated Press story that has recently come out 
concerning the situation in Haiti. It states:

       For example, the United States is paying $900 per month, 
     per soldier, to each foreign government--the salary amount 
     set by the United Nations for peacekeeping forces.

  We are not only footing the bill for the American soldiers, we are 
paying $900 per month to these small foreign countries that have agreed 
to participate at our insistence or at our encouragement in Haiti. This 
is not an international expedition in Haiti as it is frequently 
referred to. It is a United States expedition, plain and simple.
  This Associated Press story says this:

       The United States has agreed to put $20 million into an 
     international effort to pay off Haiti's past-due payments to 
     international lenders such as the World Bank and the Inter-
     American Development Bank. Haiti is now some $75 million in 
     arrears and bringing the accounts current would free new loan 
     money.

  I do not think the American people want us to be paying off Haiti's 
debts to the international lenders, some $20 million according to this. 
Of course, that is just a drop in the bucket compared to all of the 
other money that we are spending, but still it is of concern to me.
  I think it should be of concern to the American people as to why 
President Aristide and his supporters have been able to pay some 
$55,000 per month to the lobbying firm of former Democratic Congressman 
Michael Barnes, as was reported in the Washington Post, for lobbying 
and public relations efforts during the time that he has been in 
Washington to orchestrate this campaign of support, $55,000 per month 
for a lobbying effort. I wonder how much of that has come from the 
United States taxpayers?
  This same Associated Press story that I have referred to says this 
further:

       Administration officials said they planned a U.S. 
     contribution of some $100 million in 1995 toward a 4-year, $2 
     billion aid program that would include World Bank lending and 
     contributions from other donor nations.

                              {time}  1800

  A $2 billion aid program over and above our military efforts. I think 
this is totally ridiculous.
  B.J. Cutler, the chief foreign affairs columnist for the Scripps-
Howard newspaper chain, wrote a column a few days ago, and he said 
this:

                 Haitians Not Alone in Needing Our Help

       President Clinton tells us that Haiti's military junta is a 
     vile abuser of human rights, and that is a main reason he is 
     ready to invade the miserable place.
       The president is right, of course, the Cedras regime is 
     bloodthirsty. But if guarding people from the savagery of 
     their rulers is America's duty, it would be fighting all over 
     the world, squandering lives and bankrupting itself.

  If we go everyplace in the world where something bad is happening, we 
will turn this Nation into some type of Third World nation if we are 
not careful.

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