[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CLINTON FOREIGN POLICY--A CAUSE FOR ALARM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my distinguished colleague from 
California.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I just 
want to say to my colleagues in response to the last speaker in the 
well that, as the chairman of the Early Childhood Youth and Family 
Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over all Federal education 
programs and policies from preschool through high school, we did in 
fact have hearings specifically on the different, the competing 
Republican and Democratic classroom size and teacher training proposals 
in this Congress, and I do not recall receiving any letter or 
indication of interest from the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio).
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak about foreign policy, a very 
difficult and delicate task these days. If it were an easy subject, I 
do not think the Nation's first President would have encouraged us to 
avoid foreign entanglements altogether, but it is precisely because it 
is difficult and because risks to Americans and our interests are so 
great that we have got to exercise all due care and diligence of an 
exercise of American foreign policy, and that particularly means using 
our troops and putting them in harm's way.
  A successful foreign policy is built on clearly articulating American 
interests and having the willingness to fight for those interests when 
and how best appropriate. In other words, knowing what we are doing, 
looking before we leap. A successful foreign policy is not built on 
photo opportunities, it is not built on eroding American capability by 
saying one thing and then doing another. And most certainly it is not 
built on appeasement.
  Most Americans follow international events through the media. The 
press tends to provide us snapshots of what is going on in the world 
other than of course the sensational topic du jour that we read about 
inside the Beltway. The snapshots that have made their way through the 
haze lately, from Russia to Haiti to Bosnia to Sudan to Iraq, North 
Korea, to the Middle East are indeed a cause for a great deal of 
concern. When you take a close look at those events and what the 
Clinton administration is doing, and in some cases not doing, they are 
in fact a cause for alarm.

  Bosnia:
  When President Clinton committed troops to Bosnia in 1995, he 
promised they would be home by Christmas of 1996. Everybody remember 
Christmas 1996? Well, that deadline is almost 2 years passed, and our 
troops remain on the ground with no strategy in place for their 
withdrawal. Indeed the Clinton administration has no idea has no idea 
when the troops can be withdrawn. After several years and about 10 
billion of taxpayers' funds, it would seem to me that the 
administration needs to start talking about bringing an end to this 
mission or accomplishing something more than we are.
  Somewhat of an irony, just in the Speaker's Lobby outside of this 
Chamber we are invited to send Christmas messages and Christmas 
greetings to our troops in Bosnia. My message is: Hurry home. I wish it 
were possible to send that message. We cannot send that message in good 
faith because we do not have policy for that now, and I want to know 
why not.
  And interestingly enough, the administration recently considered 
bombing Serbia over the Kosovo Province and, in fact, is considering 
supporting a deployment of some 2,000 observers from the Organization 
of Cooperation Security in Europe. Of that not many Americans know who 
is in the Organization of Security and Cooperation, what it is 
comprised of and what its capabilities are. But I guarantee you they 
will not be able to do much in Kosovo. I suppose they can watch, as we 
can watch, but I am not sure they will be able to do much more. I do 
not even know what the ground rules would be for such observers nor how 
to protect them. I imagine some would be Russians, some would be 
appeasers, and some would be other, and I do not know exactly what they 
would expect to do or how to do it. We need those details as we 
approach the 72-hour countdown before the ultimatum on using force in 
Kosovo.
  North Korea:
  Since 1994 the Clinton administration has pursued a policy of butter 
for guns with North Korea. The reports out of North Korea suggest that 
despite its receipt of a hundred million in heavy fuel oil and two 
hundred million food aid, the dying regime of Kim Jong-Il, there have 
been repeated violations of the 1994 nuclear agreement that has 
continued to proliferate ballistic missiles, has continued to divert 
food aid from the starving population from the needy to the elites of 
the ruling class, the ruling few. The North Korean regime is engaged in 
narcotics trafficking and counterfeiting of American dollars.
  At some point what this means is the administration is going to have 
to decide when North Korea has simply gone too far, what does it take? 
Can we not verify the deal that they are supposed to comply with?
  In Iraq a similar situation exists. Since the end of the Gulf War the 
United States has taken a lead in ensuring Iraqi compliance with the 
cease-fire agreements. The administration has talked tough on Iraq. We 
all remember those words the President made, threatening use of force 
and engaging in a massive show of military might earlier this year. 
However, the reality is that the effectiveness of the U.N. arms 
inspections has been badly undermined by the United States. In addition 
to the mountain of evidence making that clear, the words of Scott 
Ritter, a former U.S. Marine and leading arms inspector, raises serious 
questions about the administration's commitment to eliminating Iraq's 
war making capability.
  This is an issue with serious ramification. In addition to the threat 
of chemical-biological weapons, Iraq has apparently hidden away 
components to build three nuclear weapons. It simply needs to acquire 
the necessary fissionable material on the international black market in 
order to produce a completed nuclear weapon. And we have withdrawn.
  This is hardly get tough policy. We need to know more. We need to 
know now. We need to know it before we go home.

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