[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11563]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 CHALLENGE TO NATO'S CONTINUED BOMBING, DESPITE RUSSIAN-FINNISH PEACE 
                         PLAN AND VICTORY TALK

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, NATO is risking reigniting a wider war by 
simultaneously insisting on troop withdrawals and continuing bombing 
attacks on the troops. If acceptance of the Russian-Finnish peace plan 
by the Serb Government means anything, then the bombing should have 
stopped. If it means nothing, then why did NATO officials declare 
victory because such a plan had been accepted?
  Either NATO has a peace plan in its hand or it does not. If it does, 
then it should stop the bombing instead of this approach of putting one 
foot on the accelerator of war and the other on the brake of peace. 
When Japan sued for peace after the atomic bombs were dropped, the U.S. 
did not keep bombing.
  The L.A. Times quoted an unnamed NATO diplomat as describing the 
agreed-upon exit of troops in these terms: ``Take these routes, don't 
get off them, move quickly, do not stop to collect $200,'' in an 
apparent reference to the Monopoly game. The same diplomat was saying, 
``Anybody off the yellow brick road is subject to being bombed,'' a 
reference to the Wizard of Oz.
  The undisguised attempts to trivialize the importance of troop 
withdrawals and the further threats to bomb military targets in retreat 
reveals an arrogance of power which is neither conducive to concluding 
a peaceful agreement, nor keeping a condition of peace. If NATO wants 
peace, it ought to show it by stopping the bombing.

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