[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 194 (Thursday, December 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H14207-H14208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BOSNIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Funderburk] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about the tragedy of 
American troops being sent to Bosnia and the fact that the President 
has made a decision without consulting with the American people and 
without consulting with Congress.

                              {time}  1515

  We are here for a purpose in the People's House. We were elected to 
represent the people. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution gives 
the Congress the authority and the power to raise funds for armies and 
for the Navy. The President, like he did with the Mexican bailout, has 
simply gone around the Congress and tried to circumvent us in this 
action.
  It is obvious from the polls taken around the country, and it is 
obvious from the people who call into our office every day, that there 
is very little support for the President's action, yet he has gone 
ahead without the support of the people and without the support of the 
Congress, and I think there is a tragedy in the making.
  Personality I lived 6 years of my life in the Balkans. I was a United 
States Ambassador to Romania, which borders Yugoslavia. I traveled over 
into Yugoslavia, and the terrain in that area is mountainous. Winter is 
coming in the Balkans at this time. We have got tanks over there that 
are going to be messed up in the mush and the slog of winter. There are 
millions of land mines that have been planted by the Bosnia Serbs, and 
Croats, and Moslems.
  And the President said he is sending American troops over there to 
keep the peace, and that we are going to impose and we are going to 
bring about a peace, and we are going to stop the genocide of these 
people. Well, if we go everywhere in the world simply because people 
ware fighting and killing each other, we could be in Sudan, we could be 
in Northern Ireland, we could be in Afghanistan, we could be all over 
the world. This is an absurdity.
  In 1386 they had a famous battle, the Battle of the Blackbirds in the 
former Serbia and Yugoslavia, and that is when the Serbs lost, and the 
Ottoman Turks came in, and they won, and many of the people converted 
or were forced to convert to Islam. Today the Serbs, who are Orthodox 
Christians, are still upset and they are still seeking revenge, and 
they are still fighting against those who became Moslems. So you see 
you have an ethnic strife that has been going on for 600 years, and we 
are supposed to send troops over there for 1 year, let them stand in 
place, get killed by land mines, get killed by radical Arab terrorists 
who are in the area, and then we exit after 1 year supposedly, and we 
will have established peace that has not been there for 600 years. Come 
on, Mr. President, give me a break, get real.
  The cost in lives to America is something that we ought to be very 
careful about, and the cost in dollars. First of all, the President 
said he was only going to send 20,000 troops. That is what he told the 
American people. Now it is up to 37,000 troops. First he said it is 
only going to cost us $2 billion. Now it is up to $4 billion.
  I mean we are up here to balance the budget, we are here to reduce 
the deficit, we are here to cut costs, and the President is getting 
money for a Mexican bailout, $25 billion out of a slush fund. Now he 
wants to send $4 billion, probably much more, to Bosnia, a place that 
is an artificial creation, it is not a member of NATO. We have NATO set 
up to defend members of NATO against the Soviet threat. What happened 
to the Soviet threat? So he said we have got to save NATO by going to 
Bosnia.
  Are you ready for this? The President backed last week the Foreign 
Minister of Spain, Spain is not even part of the military aspect of 
NATO, he backed the Foreign Minister, Javier Solana, to be the new NATO 
military commander. Well, this is an anti-NATO guy who is a member of 
the Socialist Worker's Party, tried to establish communism in Spain, 
one of Fidel Castro's best friends. Now he is the head of NATO. We want 
to go save NATO under the NATO military command of Javier Solana. Give 
me a break. 

[[Page H 14208]]

  The President apparently has pollsters who have told him, ``What 
you've got to do is establish some leadership credentials, so go over 
there, and look presidential, act like command in chief, and the people 
will reward you for it.'' Not only that, they told him something, and 
if this is the way he is operating, and this is truly what is behind 
this, this is a very cynical way to manipulate the American people and 
to perhaps bring about the loss of lives and a lot of dollars. They 
said, you know, ``It doesn't matter if the American people are opposed 
to this action, it does not matter if Congress is opposed to it. You 
put the troops in the field, and they will be forced to do the loyal 
thing and say they support the American troops.''
  That is the box he is putting us in, and I think he is making a 
tragic mistake, and I wish he would reconsider.

                          ____________________