[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16373-S16374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICAN TROOPS IN BOSNIA

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity and many 
other opportunities between now and the next few weeks, to strongly 
urge the President to come to Congress for authorization before he 
makes a decision to send American troops into Bosnia. We have discussed 
this in our committee meetings, our Senate Armed Services Committee, 
and I am very much concerned about the fact that if you look at the 
history of Bosnia, all the way back to the Ottoman empire, you see that 
you have these three warring factions that have always warred with each 
other.
  We know that the Archduke who was assassinated was what precipitated 
World War I right there in Sarajevo. We know that in World War II, 
Marshal Tito, when he was putting together his alliance to go against 
the Germans, he had most of them except for Croatia. At that time 
Croatia was on the other side. We were on the side of the Bosnian 
Moslems and the Serbs. So it has been a moving target throughout the 
years.
  The only thing that is consistent is that they have been murdering 
each other. And we have evidence in the last 6 months, all three 
factions have fired on their own troops and tried to blame the other 
side. So we have a long and agonizing history of what has been 
happening over there. There is no more hostile area any place in the 
world to send our troops on the ground than there.
  Back in World War II, any of us who have studied history at all 
remember how the former Yugoslavians were able to hold off the best 
that Hitler had on the ratio of 1 to 8. This, in other words, is not 
the Persian Gulf. These are mountains with caves, Mr. President. This 
is an area where historically a small number of people have been able 
to murder a much larger force and take many, many casualties. This is 
the environment into which we are talking about sending our troops.
  I draw an analogy between that and Lebanon in 1983. In 1983, we sent 
our troops over to Lebanon. We had a very modest mission at that time, 
and it was not until the months rolled by when the bomb went off and 
241 of our troops were killed, and, of course, then there was a public 
cry, and we brought our troops home.
  Or Somalia. I cannot hang that on the Democrats because George Bush, 
in December, after he lost the election, before the new President, 
President Clinton, was sworn in, he sent troops to Somalia really just 
for 7 weeks. And then he went out of office and Clinton came in. At 
that time I was serving in the other body. Almost every month we sent a 
resolution to the President, ``Bring our troops home. There is no 
mission that is relative to our Nation's security in Somalia.'' And it 
was not until 18 of our Rangers were murdered in cold blood and they 
dragged their corpses through the streets of Mogadishu that there was 
enough public outcry to bring the troops back home, and we did with our 
tail between our legs. Nothing was accomplished. You see, we have 
adopted a foreign policy in this country where we are sending our 
troops out on humanitarian missions, as opposed to missions where we 
have our Nation's security at risk.

  Well, now, this came to a head when we had our Senate Armed Services 
Committee meeting--it was a public meeting--just the other day. We had 
Secretary Christopher, Secretary Perry, and General Shalikashvili. When 
we came to the part where we were talking about the mission, the 
strongest mission they could state that we have in Bosnia is twofold: 
First to contain a civil war, which has been going on for hundreds of 
years; second, to protect the integrity of NATO, the North Atlantic 
Treaty Organization.
  So I asked a question--and this was after there was a quote from 
General Rose, who was the U.N. commander in Bosnia. He said, ``If 
America sends troops over there, they would lose more American lives 
than they lost in the Persian Gulf.'' There we lost 390 lives. So I 
said, ``So we can reasonably assume we are going to lose hundreds of 
American lives if we send troops over on the ground in Bosnia? That 
being the case, Secretary Perry, is our mission, as you have described 
it, to contain a civil war and to protect the integrity of NATO worth 
the cost of many hundreds of American lives?'' He said, ``Yes,'' 
without flinching. I said, ``Secretary Christopher?'' He said, ``Yes.'' 
And General Shalikashvili said, ``Yes.''

[[Page S16374]]

  So here we have the people who are in the top ranks, the President's 
three top men, reflecting the wishes of the President--that is, to send 
troops into Bosnia on the ground.
  There is something else that is very curious about this, which came 
up in this meeting. They stated in the meeting that no matter what the 
condition was 12 months from now, those troops would be back in the 
United States.
  I ask you, Mr. President, in all of your well-read days on military 
science, if you have ever found a time when a country sent its troops 
into a warring area with a time certain to come back, regardless of the 
circumstances, whether we were in the middle of a very hostile 
situation or whether it was a peace accord, we are going to bring them 
home in 12 months?
  They all said, ``Yes.'' They had it written down that, ``The troops 
will return in 12 months.'' As much as I hate to see it, the only thing 
I could think of with any degree of certainty that is going to happen 
in 12 months is that it will be election time, November 1996. I hope 
that does not have anything to do with this decision.
  So I plan, in a couple of days, to go over to Bosnia. I am going to 
go, and I am going to stand in the same places where all of our troops 
are going to be standing if the President is successful in not coming 
to Congress for authorization to send troops. I am going to look at the 
hostility around me, and I am going to listen to the gunfire, and I am 
going to bring that message back to the American people.
  This is something that has to rise above politics. We went through 
this same thing when President Bush wanted to send troops to the 
Persian Gulf. Yes, we had a real mission there relative to our Nation's 
security. That mission was whether or not we could have the energy 
necessary to be viable in fighting a war--a real mission relative to 
our Nation's security. At that time, he said we are going to send the 
troops there, and we said: Mr. President, we do not think it is wise to 
send the troops over, those soldiers, not knowing they have the support 
of the American people as well as the support of Congress behind them. 
He did not have to. Just like President Clinton does not have to come 
for authority to the Congress, President Bush did not have to, but he 
did it. It was a very wise move for the sake of those individuals who 
were going over there to lay their lives on the line, where 390 
Americans died valiantly. The President, at that time, came to the 
Congress, asked for authority, and we had a united America in fighting 
the Persian Gulf war.
  This war over there is not our war, Mr. President. This is a civil 
war. Sure, it is a problem for people in Western Europe, and I hope 
that Western Europe gets busy. Let them do what is necessary to protect 
their security interests. Perhaps they have security interests in 
Bosnia. We do not.
  I do not want to wake up and find out that the American public did 
not know about this, did not care about this enough that they did not 
know whether they have an outcry to bring our troops back until our 
American corpses are dragged through the streets of Sarajevo. We can 
stop it right now, Mr. President. I plan to go to Bosnia and spend 
several days there at the end of this week and bring a story back for 
the American people.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, if I understand it correctly, we are 
in morning business at the present time?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Correct.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I ask that I may be permitted to speak for as much 
time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________