[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 53 (Monday, April 19, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S3830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NATO ACTIONS IN KOSOVO

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I wanted to speak about three items today. 
First, I want to talk for just a moment about Kosovo and the NATO 
actions in Kosovo.
  I had a town meeting in North Dakota over the weekend and had a 
fairly large number of North Dakotans pack into a rather small room, 
and we had a 1\1/2\ hour discussion about the airstrikes in which NATO, 
including the United States, is involved in Yugoslavia and in Kosovo. I 
expect I am joined by all of my colleagues when I say I hope and pray 
the hostilities in the region will cease. I hope Mr. Milosevic will 
pull back his Serb troops and that we will be able to restore peace and 
order and have the opportunity to find a way to provide those refugees 
who have streamed across the border the opportunity to go home.
  Most North Dakotans who have communicated with me, and those who came 
to this weekend's meeting I had in Fargo on this subject, are anxious 
and nervous and concerned about what is happening in the region.
  They do not have any better answers than I or my colleagues, or 
anyone else for that matter, on what to do when someone like Mr. 
Milosevic commits genocide or ethnic cleansing, including substantial 
massacres of the civilian population in the region of Kosovo.
  The question that all of us at this weekend's meeting in North Dakota 
posed was, What shall we do? Shall we say it is none of our business, 
it is not in our part of the world? Genocide committed by Mr. Milosevic 
or ethnic cleansing is not something we need to be concerned about? I 
think most people believe that is not the answer either.
  Clearly, we do not want in 5 or 10 years from now to look back and 
say, that genocide or Holocaust, or whatever it was Mr. Milosevic 
committed, killing thousands, perhaps ultimately hundreds of thousands, 
is something that we did not care about. If that were the case, I think 
it would be reasonable to say shame on us.
  We must be involved and we must care. The question is, How do we 
address it? How do we effectively thwart the attempt by Mr. Milosevic 
to clear all of the Albanians out of Kosovo? How do we thwart his 
attempt to massacre innocent civilians with the Serb Army? How do we 
restore order to this region?
  I have supported the airstrikes, and I hope and pray they succeed in 
driving Mr. Milosevic back. I have said before and I reiterate today 
that I do not and will not support the introduction of U.S. ground 
troops to the Balkans. I think that would be a horrible mistake.
  Frankly, the bulk of the airstrikes have occurred in the Balkan 
region with U.S. planes and U.S. pilots. If, in fact, ground troops are 
ultimately needed, I believe it is the responsibility of the European 
countries to commit those ground troops. I know NATO is involved in 
this as an alliance, and we are a significant part of that alliance. 
But the United States bears the heaviest burden in the air war, bears 
the heaviest cost in the airstrikes, and I think if ground troops 
ultimately are necessary--and I hope they will not be--I think those 
ground troops must be furnished by the European countries. I will not 
support the position that we should introduce U.S. ground troops in the 
Balkans. I believe that would be a serious mistake, and I cannot and 
will not support that.
  Let me again say, I do not believe my constituents or my colleagues 
have any easy answers. This is not an easy situation. Things are 
happening in the Balkans that I think all of the world looks at with 
horror and says, ``We must do something to try to respond to it.'' But 
it is not easy.
  Dozens of foreign powers over many centuries have gone to the Balkans 
only to experience profound disappointment in their attempt to change 
something that was internally happening in that region of the world.
  Let me hope, along with my colleagues, that these airstrikes by NATO 
will convince Mr. Milosevic that the price is too high to continue 
doing what he is doing in that region to so many innocent men, women, 
and children. Let us hope that this is a success sooner rather than 
later and we can provide some peace and stability to that region.

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