[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 121 (Tuesday, July 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7684-H7685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            VIEWS ON BOSNIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, Members, I would like to talk to you 
tonight about the situation in Bosnia and as I see the situation in 
Bosnia. I have spent a great deal of time since a high school 
graduation a couple of months ago studying exactly what the issues are 
that we have on the conflict in Bosnia and let me tell you what 
inspired me to take a closer look at exactly what kind of commitment 
our President has made over there in that country, what objectives we 
have in that country, and what results we can expect as the result of 
our intervention in that country.
  Mr. Speaker, what inspired me to do it was when I was sitting on the 
platform of a graduation, having just spoken to the graduation class, 
and a young man, 18 years old, as he was walking across the stage to 
get his diploma, the person sitting next to me said, ``That young man 
is going into the Marine Corps, and he is proud.''
  He is 18 years old and before long he could find himself committed to 
a country which he has never seen, probably never heard of, for a 
commitment that is unclear to me and unclear, I think, to many citizens 
in this country.
  If that young man lost his life in his military service in the 
country of Bosnia, would I be able to go to his family, go to his 
mother and his father, and tell them that their son's life, or in some 
cases their daughter's life, was necessitated for the national security 
interests of this country? The answer to that is ``no,'' and I think it 
is clearly ``no.''
  That is what has driven me to spend a few moments with you tonight to 
talk to you about the situation in Bosnia. Of course, the President has 
led you to believe that there are several objectives that they hope to 
obtain in Bosnia.
  One is humanitarian aid. Clearly, that has been an absolute disaster. 
The humanitarian aid has been few and far between. It has been scarce. 
The winter months have kept it out. A lot of people over there are 
suffering, because that humanitarian aid does not make it there.
  Then the other purpose they come up with is an objective to moderate 
the war. United States involvement through the United Nations is not 
moderating that war. Take a look at the headlines in the last couple of 
days.

[[Page H 7685]]

  The other one is to pursue a diplomatic settlement. It is not going 
to happen. Do you know that war in Bosnia has been going on for over a 
thousand years? It was going on before Columbus set sail for the New 
World. And never in the history of this country have we successfully 
intervened in a civil war, and that is exactly what is going on in 
Bosnia. We have never successfully intervened in the civil war of 
another country, and this will not be an exception.
  I think the elements we have to look at before we commit any further 
money or troops or time to Bosnia really is three- and fourfold:
  One, do we have a national security interest in Bosnia? The answer is 
no.
  Number two, do we have a clear objective? When we went to Kuwait, we 
had a clear objective. Iraq had invaded Kuwait. We had a border. We 
know that one party had gone over a border that they were not supposed 
to go over. Do we have that kind of objective in Bosnia? The answer is 
no.
  What is another objective? Are our allies facing a national security 
threat in Bosnia? The answer is no. Is there an economic threat to our 
country because of the civil war in Bosnia? The answer is no.
  My opinion is, there is no clear objective in Bosnia. I think we have 
to take a look at what kind of commitment the President is willing to 
make.
  First of all, the President relies on the United Nations. Mr. 
Speaker, take a look at this headline. And by the way, that number has 
gone up in the last couple of days. It says, ``United Nations, for the 
78th Time, Condemns the Serbs.''
  Folks, the United Nations is nothing more than a paper tiger. What is 
going to happen is, the United Nations is going to be put in there in a 
stronger and more forceful way and it is going be the United States of 
America carrying that burden. It is going to be our young sons or 
daughters or grandsons and granddaughters that are going to be in 
Bosnia fighting a war that cannot be won.
  What happens if we do find peace in Bosnia? The only way we can do it 
is to make a massive commitment of military ground troops, may be at 
least 100,000 troops. And the worst thing about it is, we are going to 
have to keep them there.
  What happens if we do get that peace? How are we going to keep it? 
The only way we can keep it is a long-term military commitment, and 
this country is not prepared to make that kind of commitment with 
military ground troops in the country of Bosnia.
  What do I suggest we do? I think it is fairly complicated, but rather 
simple on its face. One, lift the arms embargo on the Bosnian Moslems. 
Let them have a fair fight. What we have done is gotten engaged in a 
fight where we have tied the arms behind their back of one party in the 
fight and let the other one go at it.
  We need to pull out of Bosnia.
  Mr. Speaker, thank you for the time. I urge that we pull immediately 
out of Bosnia and lift the arms embargo.

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