[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 51 (Thursday, April 30, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S3810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            BOSNIA AMENDMENT

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to comment briefly on one of 
the amendments that will be considered this morning, an amendment by 
Senator Craig of Idaho.
  Senator Craig is an outstanding Member of this body and one of my 
closest friends, but I reluctantly will oppose the amendment he 
offered. I think he knows that I opposed the President's decision to 
deploy U.S. Armed Forces to Bosnia in 1995. I continue to have major 
problems with the situation there and questions about what the end game 
is. But I don't look at Bosnia in a theoretical sense only or without 
considering the history of that part of the world.
  I have traveled to Brussels to meet with all of our NATO allies and 
discuss the situation in Bosnia. I spent the last 4th of July in 
Bosnia, Sarajevo, and Tuzla. I have looked at the situation firsthand. 
I spent many hours with administration officials and outside experts 
discussing the situation in Bosnia. I have grave concerns about the 
administration's completely open-ended commitment to remain in Bosnia. 
We were solemnly given dates and unequivocal assurances that U.S. 
troops would be out by December 1996. They weren't. Then it was July 
1998. The President intends not to meet that date. The assurances we 
were given were wrong.
  The fact that the administration has been so often wrong raises 
questions about their overall policy. Do we want peace there? Yes. Have 
we been willing to make a commitment? Yes. But the question is, How 
much, how long, and for what? Is the situation under control there? 
What is happening in Kosovo? Did the administration turn a blind eye 
and ignore that problem and only now realize the ramifications, the 
implications, that Kosovo has in the region?
  There has been some progress in Bosnia. Many time lines and the 
agreements that were supposed to have been met, however, have not been 
met. We do need to continue to move forward and to encourage peace, 
democracy and freedom--not fighting and killing--in that part of the 
world.
  But the U.S. taxpayers have already spent some $8 billion in Bosnia 
since December of 1995. Our European allies have been reluctant to 
shoulder more of the burden. There are even credible reports that a 
French military officer tipped off the most notorious war criminal and 
helped him avoid apprehension. Basically, they say, You are the world 
leader; without you, it won't be done. We assume a very serious 
responsibility and maybe a certain degree of pride in that. But I think 
more needs to be done by our European allies and there needs to be a 
plan, some way of dealing with this problem, just like there should be 
a long-term plan in dealing with Saddam Hussein. There is no plan 
there, no plan to find a way to remove Saddam Hussein so the people in 
Iraq can be free.
  The pattern begins to be clear. I have been very careful as majority 
leader to try to rise above politics or partisan politics. I have taken 
a pounding from some sources for that. I did support the Chemical 
Weapons Treaty and I do support NATO. But there is a limit to how far I 
will go. I will not support the administration unconditionally--
particularly if there is no policy, no clear plan. I think that is the 
case in Iraq, where the policy of containment is not working. So what 
is next? Quite frankly, it falls to the Congress to try to say: How 
about this? Would you consider that? Develop a plan to do something, 
anything. We are prepared to do that if we have to because of the 
absence of action by the Administration.
  For all those reasons, I am concerned about the administration's 
policy in Bosnia. This issue should be addressed by the Senate on 
merits later on this year in the appropriations process. But we should 
not use it as a way to delay the decision to enlarge NATO.
  NATO enlargement is the right thing to do. But it should rise and 
fall on its own merits. We should not allow it to tangle up our 
decision into issues like Bosnia. I agree with Senator Craig's 
concerns, but I don't think this is the place to have the debate or 
action based on what may or may not be the future in Bosnia to 
determine what would happen in NATO. We should not make the legitimate 
aspirations of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic subject to our 
differences with the executive branch on Bosnia policy. I hope the 
Senate will defeat this amendment and move to conclusion and pass NATO 
enlargement.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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