[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            NO EXIT STRATEGY

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to talk about our 
administration's foreign policy and the men and women in our Nation's 
military service. I have three words to describe the administration's 
strategy for deployment of U.S. troops to police Kosovo, and they are:
  No exit strategy.
  Can we honestly ask the men and women of our Armed Services to stand 
up and once again become the world's police of foreign policy 
decisions? Should we not justify to the American people the need for 
intervention based on some realistic, identified and threatened vital 
national interest?
  I should think so.
  However, when a defective strategy results in a multi-year 
deployment, billions of dollars in cost to the American taxpayer and 
the risk in lives of every American soldier over there, it is time for 
us to say no. It is time that our foreign policy marches to a new 
cadence, one that protects our vital national interests and the lives 
of our hard-working, dedicated men and women in our nation's military.
  On behalf of our Nation's interests and the lives of our service men 
and women, I yield back this dangerous foreign policy and the balance 
of my time.

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