[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 88 (Friday, June 14, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6259-S6260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TROOPS IN BOSNIA

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I want to repeat something in perhaps a 
little bit of a different way that I mentioned yesterday because we 
talked about a lot of things on this floor that are very significant, 
such as our health delivery system and such as the deficit. But our 
Nation's defense perhaps is the most significant subject that we could 
have to talk about.
  I was so dismayed and shocked yesterday when I read what the 
President was saying through Secretary of Defense William Perry that we 
now are going to leave our troops over in Bosnia for a period longer 
than the 12 months that they agreed to.
  I am on the Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services 
Committee. I can tell you that at the time this happened, I could not 
believe that we were sending troops into a warring area with an exit 
strategy that was geared to time, 12 months, as opposed to events. I do 
not know of any time in history that this has been the case.
  So during the October 17 Senate Armed Services Committee meeting and 
several other meetings, and on the floor, we talked about the fact that 
we did not believe it was going to be a 12-month operation. I asked 
specifically Secretary Perry, as well as other people asking him in the 
same meeting--one was Senator Robb from Virginia and one was Senator 
Bingaman from New Mexico--``Are you absolutely committed to bringing 
the troops home in 12 months?'' The answer was always, ``Yes, we are 
committed.'' It was hard for me to believe that could be possible.
  So I went over to the northeast sector of Bosnia where we were 
planning at that time to send our troops. When I got there and went up 
to the northeast sector, finding out no other American had been up 
there, I found out from General Haukland, from Norway, who was in 
charge of the U.N. troops of that sector, that, in fact, it was 
laughable.

  I said, ``Are you aware that our troops are coming back in 12 
months?'' He said, ``You mean in 12 years?'' That is when he drew this 
analogy, when he said putting the troops in there is like putting your 
hand in water, and you leave it there for 12 months and take it out and 
nothing has changed; it is still there.
  So we are making a longer term commitment than the President of the 
United States promised the American people. I can tell you right now, I 
stood right here on December 13 of last year when we had the resolution 
of disapproval that was authored by the junior Senator from Texas and 
myself, Senator Hutchison and myself. We lacked four votes of passing a 
resolution of disapproval. Mr. President, we would have had those four 
votes and many more if the American people had known, and if the 
Senators in this Chamber had known, that it was going to be a long-term 
proposition.
  Right now it does look like it is open-ended. We could talk about the 
cost of it, we could talk about the mission, but the point is, they 
told us something that they knew was not true on December 13, at the 
time they passed the program to send American troops over into an area 
we have no vital security interest in.

[[Page S6260]]

  I am not saying, ``I told you so.'' I am just saying, it was so 
obvious at the time and everyone is on record and the President is on 
record and John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
is on record and Secretary Perry is on record, all of them assuring it 
was going to be 12 months, and now we know it is not going to be 12 
months.
  As I said yesterday, we have to serve notice on the administration 
that when they try to extend that time, we in this Chamber will do 
everything we can to support our troops who are over there, but they 
are going to have a fight in keeping our troops over there for an 
undetermined period of time.

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