[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 28 (Monday, February 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      U.S. MILITARY FORCES FACED WITH BUREAUCRATIC U.N. LEADERSHIP

  (Mr. BRYANT of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BRYANT of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, the study of recent military 
conflicts and peacekeeping missions have led to two conclusions: First, 
in the case of major conflict, the massive presence of U.S. forces is 
necessary to defeat the aggressor or to contain the threat; second, our 
American forces must be given the necessary military means and freedom 
of action to accomplish these goals. Operation Desert Storm has rightly 
been held as a prime example of a U.S.-led international military 
force.
  Unfortunately, the hope and the lessons of Desert Storm have been 
lost as we have squandered them away in Somalia and even more in 
Bosnia.
  Over 40 years NATO has successfully preserved the peace and freedom 
of its members against a threat by the Soviet Union and its allies, but 
instead of celebrating our success, NATO today must confront a crisis 
that tears at the very fabric of that alliance.
  At the heart of this problem is the fact that in Bosnia, NATO cannot 
act without the consent of the United Nations and its local 
representative. An inflexible, time-consuming dual military command 
structure also have proven to be an invitation to disaster.
  The Armed Forces of the United States are the preeminent fighting 
machine in the world today. They are the best trained, best skilled, 
best equipped, and best led.
  Mr. Speaker, the brave young men and women in the Armed Forces 
deserve better than to be placed under the command of foreign nationals 
acting on behalf of the United Nations in a faceless bureaucracy. That 
is why the National Security Revitalization Act is so important.

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