[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 27, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E784-E785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THOUGHTS ON KOSOVO

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. MARSHALL ``MARK'' SANFORD

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 27, 1999

  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with you thoughts on 
Kosovo from a friend back home, retired Vice Admiral Al Baciocco. His 
insight as a military man speaks

[[Page E785]]

powerfully to the U.S. actions in the Balkans. I hope we will take the 
time to think through the lucid thoughts he offers.

     To: Hon. Mark Sanford
     From: Al Baciocco, VADM, USN (Ret), 747 Pitt Street, Mt. 
         Pleasant, SC
       Dear Mark: As you reconvene in Washington, DC, and begin 
     debate on many important issues, I hope that you will 
     consider the current KOSOVO situation an issue of critical 
     and major National Security importance. I have taken the 
     liberty of providing you a copy of an item I wrote to other 
     senior retired military friends a few days ago, reflecting on 
     my feelings about this engagement we have become involved in. 
     I have also provided a copy of one of the responses, this one 
     especially poignant, which I received from other retired 
     senior Admirals. I thought these items might be of interest 
     to you--and perhaps useful in guiding your thoughts.
       My somewhat wordy epistle follows:
       ``To all of John's (and my) Friends--
       I worry that I am somewhere out in left field on this 
     Kosovo disaster that we seem to be marching further into, 
     despite continued opportunities for someone (anyone!) to 
     speak up and bring the country to its senses! What we hear 
     and see the Serb military and their leadership engaged in is 
     grossly, morally wrong--beyond the limits of civilized 
     toleration! Given that, it is correct that the United States 
     and the rest of the civilized world be engaged in correcting 
     this outrage--politically, at least; militarily, if 
     necessary! However, the actual endeavor in which we are 
     currently engaged--and the manner in which we have chosen (or 
     allowed ourselves to be eased into) to carry out this 
     endeavor is troubling.
       Despite my long professional association with and personal 
     respect for NATO--a mutual defense alliance with a proven 
     track record for deterring aggression--I anguish that we are 
     now engaged in a rather ambiguous mission to ``deter with 
     destruction'' and to ``punish'' an offending European leader 
     who clearly has no moral conscience or standards of conduct, 
     with the United States virtually abdicating its visible 
     position of leadership and allowing itself to be represented 
     by a European (NATO) presence, with political and military 
     leadership only vaguely understood by the American people and 
     demonstrating only rather vague definition, judgment and 
     experience. I am offended to find that briefings and 
     statements describing this very dangerous situation are being 
     provided by ``glib'' NATO political and military 
     ``spokesman'', not by the elected and/or appointed, 
     potentially-respected ranking officials of the United States. 
     Granted, we have allowed ourselves to become involved and 
     engaged in this NATO (European) show--albeit with some 75-80% 
     of the resources, combat troops, munitions, and ``target for 
     ultimate blame'' provided by the United States--but, if in 
     fact this engagement is truly in the vital National Security 
     interests of the United States of America, then the nation 
     should hear this from its leaders, both political and 
     military, every hour and every day of its duration. We must 
     clearly understand why we are there; we must clearly be on 
     the field exercising bold and realistic military judgment and 
     direction; and we must be willing, in fact, must demand--
     through our processes--that our national leaders, both 
     political and military, act and be held accountable for their 
     Constitutional and moral responsibilities!
       I am deeply troubled and honestly quite offended as an 
     American that we are expected to feel good about seeing our 
     forces calmly (and quite professionally) go about launching 
     cruise missiles and bombs, however accurately guided, against 
     what is perceived by the world as--and in fact, is--a 
     fundamentally civilian infrastructure of a small, rather poor 
     country--albeit led by a ruthless thug! We have seen this 
     happen before in recent months--most of the time with 
     ambiguous results, at best. All too often today, the general 
     populace and the media seem to view the deployment and use of 
     such military force with the same interest, fascination and 
     concern as they view a ``video game''! In my view, cruise 
     missiles are becoming--perhaps have become--``TOO EASY'' to 
     use! Their use does not demonstrate a clear commitment of our 
     nation's soul--and a clear commitment to the fray of a 
     nation's soul is the only sign that history demonstrates will 
     deter and influence a tyrant to quickly stand down from his 
     adventure.
       The National Soul is demonstrated by a willingness to 
     commit ``warriors'' to the field, and to shed the blood of 
     our young, if necessary, to achieve justice, freedom and what 
     is morally right! Our nation was founded on these 
     principles--and they should be overlooked, blurred, or 
     discarded only at our peril. None of us were brought up 
     believing that we were a nation that was capricious in the 
     use of our military might. We were brought up as, and are a 
     nation and a people of justice, of honesty, of principle 
     founded on high moral ground! Have all of our men and women 
     in positions of leadership and responsibility within our 
     political and military hierarchy forgotten this? Has 
     ``political correctness'' clouded their recall of history and 
     our heritage, their judgment, and their courage?
       We should answer the question as to the fundamental 
     importance to the United States of America of the current 
     situation and of our current endeavor in the Balkans. If the 
     answer clearly measures up to the standards and principles 
     our nation stands for, then we should openly, proudly and 
     aggressively take the political and military lead, and 
     complete the task--however long it takes--with our Soul and 
     our ``warriors'' fully committed! If it does not, we should 
     depart the field!
       So much for ``Views from the Low Country''! I hope my 
     stream of consciousness (and conscience) is not too far off 
     the mark!
           Warm regards,

                                                          Al''

       The response from another retired senior Admiral follows:
       ``Dear Al,
       Right on the mark in my opinion. I share your views and I 
     believe that a large number of the active duty senior 
     leadership does as well. The military power of our country is 
     being applied to solve the world's humanitarian problems and 
     we are creating more problems in the process. The United 
     States of America is no longer perceived as a protector of 
     freedom, but it is now an enforcer of ``our way of life.'' 
     The image of the GI slogging through the mud or riding in the 
     back of a jeep sharing some candy with the children of a 
     devastated community has been replaced with cruise missiles 
     launched from ships that are 500 miles away or from aircraft 
     that nobody ever sees.
       We need to stop this madness and return to the values that 
     have made this country great. Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest 
     Generation, talks about these values and the men and women 
     who not only believed in these values, but lived them as 
     well.
           Best regards,''

           

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