[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 54 (Tuesday, April 20, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2181-H2182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SITUATION IN KOSOVO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I have spoken several times over the last 
few days about the situation in Kosovo. Unfortunately, as a former 
editor of Foreign Affairs magazine wrote recently in the Washington 
Times, the President has put us in an impossible situation.
  There is no good answer. As Henry Kissinger said, ``Ethnic and 
religious fighting is endemic to the Balkans and has been going on 
there for hundreds of years.'' We cannot stop it unless we stay there 
forever at unbelievable costs to our taxpayers.
  Do we mortgage the futures of our children and grandchildren to 
temporarily make things a little bit better in Kosovo? Everyone agrees 
that Milosevic is a tyrant. He is a communist dictator. I am certainly 
not defending him in any way.
  In fact, I went to Yugoslavia 2 years ago with the National Defense 
Council. While in Belgrade, I, along with three other Members of this 
body, appeared on radio station B-92, which was the main opposition 
station to Milosevic. But as many columnists and commentators have 
pointed out, our bombings have basically created the refugee situation 
and have strengthen Milosevic.
  Everyone has tremendous sympathy for the refugees. But several 
hundred thousand Serbians were forced out of Croatia not long ago. They 
were victims of ethnic cleansing then, and we did nothing about it. And 
as many people have pointed out, there are small wars or fighting going 
on in 30 or 40 different places around this world right now. Several of 
those situations were far worse than in Kosovo before we started the 
bombing.
  There apparently is little disagreement with the description that the 
Kosovar Liberation Army is a terrorist organization and one that has 
been funded primarily by illegal drugs.
  On MSNBC this past Saturday night, the question was asked about the 
refugee crisis, whether it was created by NATO bombs or Serbian troops. 
Sixty-five percent of the many thousands of callers said NATO bombing 
was mainly at fault.
  NATO is getting ready to hold one of the biggest parties this city 
has ever seen here this weekend. I believe NATO and our President 
thought Milosevic would cave after just a few days of bombing and that 
they could then toast each other in a great victory celebration for the 
50th anniversary party of NATO this weekend.
  What a miscalculation. That was certainly one of the greatest 
miscalculations in American history and, unfortunately, one that is 
costing American taxpayers $46,000 a minute and many, many, many 
billions before it is all over.
  We are about to be asked to appropriate $6 billion in emergency 
funding. And if we go into a ground war, they estimate that is going to 
be $10 or $15 billion and that before it is all over, if this thing 
drags out, we could spend $40 or $50 billion that would have to be 
taken from other programs or from the Social Security fund.
  All of this that I am saying today was said much more eloquently in a 
column written by A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times which ran in the 
Knoxville News Sentinel this morning. Mr. Rosenthal wrote this. He 
said, ``The way adults of any intelligence can find out how well they 
are dealing with a crisis, personal or national, is to ask themselves 
two questions: Would we do the same things again if we had

[[Page H2182]]

a chance? If not, what do we now do to get out of this mess?''

  Then Mr. Rosenthal asked these questions: ``Would the United States 
again decide that to help Kosovo's Albanians we would give Slobodan 
Milosevic what he wanted most, the cover to drive a million of them 
into foreign exile or become displaced persons at home, wandering their 
roads in terror? Would we spray bombs at a dictator without it 
occurring to our leaders he would immediately drive out or slaughter 
the people we were supposed to save? Were our leaders fools?'' ``Yes'' 
Mr. Rosenthal says.
  Would the U.S. President again decide that before going to war he 
would guarantee not to send ground troops so Milosevic need not get all 
worried?
  ``Would we again bomb-bomb-bomb the capital of the Serbs, who thought 
of themselves as far more our friends than his? So far this has 
produced three major results: humiliating Serbs forever, turning 
friendship into enmity, and persuading many to rally around a man they 
detest and fear.
  ``Would we be roaming around again with a diplomatic begging cup 
asking Russia, the same addled country that we pity, or any other 
country that will answer the phone, to find a way out for us?
  ``Would we again allow Washington to weaken the world's human rights 
movements by arousing fears that they will one day mean more bombing 
assignments for America?''
  Mr. Speaker, just to sum up what we really have done, we have turned 
friends into enemies at great cost to this country. And I think that, 
unfortunately, we have gotten into one of the biggest messes we have 
ever gotten into in this country, and we need to negotiate and get out 
of this mess as soon as we possibly can.

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