[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 16, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E441-E442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS IN KOSOVO RESOLUTION

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                               speech of

                             HON. JIM RYUN

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 11, 1999

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the concurrent resolution 
     (H. Con. Res 42) regarding the use of United States Armed 
     Forces as part of the NATO peacekeeping operation 
     implementing a Kosovo peace agreement:

  Mr. RYUN of Kansas. Mr. Chairman, United States armed forces are 
being stretched too thin. They've been asked to take on peacekeeping 
missions in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and now possibly Kosovo. President 
Clinton told Congress and the nation that the United States' deployment 
to Bosnia in 1995 would be over in one year. However, the mission in 
Bosnia has continued for four years with no strategic exit plan in 
sight and at a cost to the United States of $10 billion. Not only are 
these peacekeeping missions costly, but they are degrading the overall 
readiness of our fighting force.
  Mr. Chairman, 2,200 troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit 
(MEU), currently stationed aboard Navy ships in the Mediterranean, will 
be part of the initial force moving into Kosovo as soon as an agreement 
is reached between the ethnic Albanians and the Serbian government. 
However, that unit is headed into its final month of a six-month 
deployment and scheduled to be home in North Carolina by May 13th. to 
be home by that time, the unit will have to leave Kosovo no later than 
mid-April. Mr. Chairman, that leaves the Administration with limited 
operations, the most prominent one being extending the length of the 
unit's deployment. How long will this unit be in Kosovo? How much 
longer will they be away from their families, beyond their already 
served six month deployment?
  Mr. Chairman, for America's armed forces to sustain this 
Administrations' peacekeeping pace, the force must be augmented by an 
increased amount of part-time Reserve and National Guard personnel. Not 
only are Reserve

[[Page E442]]

and National Guard personnel being forced to leave their families more 
often, but they are also losing an increased amount of training and 
technical knowledge from their careers here in the United States. These 
military personnel are being forced to explain open-ended deployments 
to their employers who are becoming less willing to continually lose 
their skilled employees. Mr. Chairman, we will not be able to keep 
these individuals in the Reserves and National Guard if we continue to 
send them into peacekeeping situations around the globe. In the future, 
when Reserve and National Guard personnel have the opportunity to leave 
military service, they will choose their family's quality of life and 
their career over serving our country.
  Mr. Chairman, a Kosovo peacekeeping mission will place a heavy burden 
on America's armed forces compromising their readiness levels, the 
quality of life of their families, and the national security of the 
United States. We cannot continue to ask our military to do more with 
less. Mr. Chairman, before the Administration decides to deploy troops 
to Kosovo, I ask that they lay out their plan in detail to Congress. 
The Administration should not be able to put the men and women of our 
armed forces in harm's way without explaining their reasons for doing 
so.

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