[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         IRAQI TROOP MOVEMENTS

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, we have had some very disturbing news 
reports today, reports that bode very ill for national security as 
Congress heads for adjournment.
  The news wires have been reporting all day that large concentrations 
of Iraqi troops have moved toward the Kuwaiti border.
  Secretary of Defense Perry has said the movements are not routine and 
are cause for concern. One defense official has called the troop 
movements huge.
  In response, President Clinton has warned the Iraqis and has ordered 
the aircraft carrier George Washington to deploy to the Gulf.
  In addition, we see that China has once again exploded a nuclear 
device, its third test in a year.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Iraq and China have gotten the idea 
lately that they can flout the will of the international community and 
thumb their nose at the U.S. Why?
  Because that is precisely the message that the Clinton administration 
has been sending them for two years, that's why.
  This is the kind of behavior you get from dictators when you gut your 
defense budget, bog your forces down on some irrelevant island and 
pursue an overall foreign policy of sheer, unadulterated appeasement.
  Let's look at the things this administration has been doing that 
might have encouraged Iraq and China.
  First, our defense budget is a shambles. There is simply no question 
that we are back to the days of the hollow forces of the 1970's.
  We have been cutting now for 10 years, and this president has forced 
through 2 years of draconian cuts.
  The result: Reduced training. Spare parts running low. Operations 
scaled back.
  Secretary Deutch's notorious memo of August 18, outlining all of the 
weapons systems that they are going to kill.
  The Naval Reserve cancelled all of its drills for the rest of the 
fiscal year just last month.
  And several military leaders and analysts have remarked lately that 
we simply could not fight Desert Storm again today.
  Second, we have 20,000 personnel and massive amounts of equipment 
bogged down on an irrelevant Caribbean island, trying to re-install an 
anti-American Marxist dictator.
  Third, the Clinton administration is pursuing a foreign policy of 
sheer, unadulterated appeasement.
  There isn't a place in the world where this administration has shown 
the moxie to stand up for our real interests.
  I have been warning about this all year long. Most recently, the 
administration caved in to Russian and French pressure to lift the 
sanctions on Serbia.
  They have been hoodwinked countless times by the North Koreans, and 
just two days ago, we ordered the carrier Kitty Hawk to leave the area 
because the North Koreans demanded it.
  And the Russians--well, there just isn't a thing in the world that 
this administration won't give the Russians.
  I read this week that the Russian press, and that means the Russian 
government, go the impression that the administration granted Russia a 
sphere of influence in the former Soviet space.
  Add to this two cave ins on MFN for China and Wednesday's ridiculous 
concession to lift our military sanctions against China in exchange for 
that rogue regime's promise to stop selling missiles to its clients.
  This disastrous, pathetic state of affairs is simply not lost on the 
world's aggressors, Mr. Speaker.
  Indeed, the Iraqi and Chinese actions are quite logical if you think 
about it.
  Why wouldn't they think this administration can be intimidated?
  They are so incompetent they even have to let a former president 
violate the Logan Act to conduct their foreign policy for them.
  It would be laughable, Mr. Speaker, but Iraq, China and several 
Haitian mobs have just reminded us that we are now definitely in the 
dangerous phase of the ridiculous thing that is the Clinton foreign and 
defense policy.
  Mr. Speaker, maybe Congress shouldn't adjourn. Someone needs to get 
our foreign policy priorities straight.
  Someone needs to stiffen the spine of this administration.
  Someone needs to restore our defense budget.
  And someone needs to get our forces out of this hokey mission in 
Haiti now.
  As one analyst remarked recently, it is time for adult supervision of 
the Clinton foreign policy team.

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