[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 184 (Saturday, November 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17430-S17431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SENDING TROOPS TO BOSNIA

  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, let me thank both Senators from Nebraska 
who have been kind enough to allow me to have a little time. I 
appreciate it very much. I will try to return the favor some time.
  Madam President, I have a feeling that this is a historic moment 
right now, that we may not have any more votes, and we may be leaving 
all of this up here and going back, hopefully, for the Thanksgiving 
holidays, in which case I have a couple of comments I want to make. 
They are not really exactly on the focus of today, but I will also go 
back and wind up with some thoughts I have on this subject.
  There have been some rumors--and I always hate to talk about rumors 
on the floor of the U.S. Senate--that have come from so many different 
unrelated sources, and I am concerned that during the period of time 
that we will be in the Thanksgiving recess, there may be some agreement 
reached and our troops may be deployed to Bosnia.
  This concerns me very much, and this is not a very appropriate time 
to bring it up. But I do think that we need to get on the record and 
remind the President that this Senate passed, just 2 days ago, a strong 
sense-of-the-Senate amendment to the DOD appropriations bill which says 
that we, Mr. President, want you to come to the Senate and to the House 
of Representatives for authority to send troops into Bosnia.
  It was a very similar situation that the President of the United 
States at that time, George Bush, faced back in the early nineties when 
he wanted to send troops to the Persian Gulf. He did not want to come 
to Congress. He felt it was necessary and that we had vital national 
interests in the Persian Gulf and we had to go. Yet, he did not want to 
do that and take a chance of being turned down. So we have a similar 
situation today.
  I can remember talking to one of the generals training over at the 
1st Armored Division in Germany. Those are the troops that were going 
to go to the Persian Gulf. Now he is training the troops that would go 
to Bosnia. He related to me an experience of sitting and listening to 
the radio, hoping, and praying that George Bush would take this to 
Congress to get authority. They did not want to be sending their troops 
into a hostile area without the American people behind them.
  I see exactly the parallel situation here. I certainly hope that the 
President will come to Congress and not use an opportunity when we 
might be on recess to deploy troops to Bosnia. Not too long ago, before 
the Senate Armed Services Committee, we had Secretary Christopher, 
Secretary Perry, and General Shalikashvili. I asked them the question, 
after they defined the mission the United States has in Bosnia. The 
mission was twofold: First, to contain a civil war to the former 
Yugoslavia, and second, to protect our position in NATO and the 
integrity of NATO. I felt--and I think several other people who have 
spoken on this floor feel the same way--that those two missions are not 
worth the loss of one life.
  Shortly before, General Rose--Michael Rose, who is the commanding 

[[Page S 17431]]
  general of the U.N. forces in Bosnia--had made a statement that if 
America gets involved and sends troops over to Bosnia, we will lose 
more lives than we lost in the Persian Gulf war, which was 390. I asked 
the question to all three of these top officials representing the 
President of the United States. I said, ``Is that mission worth the 
loss of 400 or more American lives?'' Secretary Perry said, ``Yes.'' 
Secretary Christopher said, ``Yes.'' General Shalikashvili said, 
``Yes.''
  I think there is the honest difference of opinion, and we need to see 
how that opinion is shared by the American people and by both Houses of 
Congress.
  I certainly admonish the President if, during this period of time, if 
the temptation comes to deploy troops, to think of the troops going 
over there without the American people behind them.

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