[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 188 (Tuesday, November 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BOSNIA

  (Mr. FUNDERBURK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, I served as the United States Ambassador 
to Yugoslavia's next door neighbor, Romania. Bill Clinton is talking 
about 20,000 soldiers, many of whom will come out of North Carolina, 
for peacekeeping. This is not peacekeeping, it is peace enforcement. 
But there is no peace to enforce. Just 2 days ago the Bosnian Serb 
leader said he did not like the agreement.
  So what artificial peace are we going to enforce? Last night we heard 
Orwellian doublespeak: war is peace, peace is war. Clinton has gotten 
bad advice.
  What could we possibly hope to accomplish? Our troops stand guard for 
1 year, then we are out. We lose some lives, we leave maybe, then full-
scale war breaks out again. What is the purpose? What is 1 year in 600 
years of ethnic warfare in the area? And what about the cost to the 
taxpayer for this folly?
  We have spent the last 50 years defending our European allies in NATO 
from the Soviet threat; now wealthy Western Europe should use its 
resources to try to keep the peace in its backyard.
  Our vital national security interests are not at stake in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. First of all, there is no real Bosnian nation, no Bosnian 
people, no Bosnian language; there are Croats, Serbs, Muslims fighting 
each other since the 1300's. If Bosnia's ethnic strife and people 
killed are in our national interest, then whey not go into every place 
on the earth where people are fighting and being killed?
  This is a tragic mistake. American lives will be sacrificed. And for 
what? Can we not learn some lessons from history?

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