(House of Representatives - April 15, 1999)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman
from California (Mr. Cunningham) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Duke Cunningham Mr. Speaker, I want to give some perspective on an issue
that is, I think, very near and dear to every American's heart, as it is in
Kosovo today also.
I would like to give the Speaker a little perspective. First of all,
according to Henry Kissinger, and I agree, Rambouillet was a very poor
foreign policy. It was an agreement only between Albania and the United
States in which the United States knew, in no uncertain terms, that Serbia
would never give up Kosovo itself. Any history student would know that.
We have spent $16 billion in Bosnia to date; Somalia cost us billions of
dollars; Haiti cost us billions; $4 billion times the four strikes in Iraq,
the Sudan, Afghanistan. Our troops are deploying 300 percent above the
highest level in Vietnam but yet we are doing it with about half the force.
Enlisted retention in our own military is below 23 percent; pilots, 30
percent.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said we are $150 billion short. We cannot buy
spare parts. We do not even have basic bullets. Top gun, 14 of 23 aircraft
are down; 18 for engines; 137, parts.
Kosovo, and this is according to General Clark, I was with General Clark
just days ago and I said I want to know how many sorties the United States
is flying. Mr. Speaker, General Clark said, and this is accurate to the
sortie, 75 percent of all strikes in Kosovo are being flown by the United
States. That does not include the B-2s, the tankers, the support aircraft
like C-17s and C-130s. That brings it up to 82 percent.
We are dropping 90 percent of all the weapons, so we are paying for over 90
percent. That does not even include our ships. That does not include our
manpower over there. My point is that it should be the other way around.
The reason given by General Clark is that other nations do not have the
stand-off capability that we do so we are having to fly 90 percent of this
stuff, 82 percent of it and 90 percent of the ordnance.
My point is that the supplemental that we are going to ask for, if NATO is a
fair share organization,
then NATO ought to pay the United States between $10 and $20 billion for our
supplemental and not come out of our taxpayers' dollars.
Let me give you another perspective. Before the bombing in Kosovo, there
were only 2,000 deaths. Each death is important, but in perspective there
were only 2,000 deaths attributed in Kosovo that whole year. One-third were
Serbs and other nationalities besides the Albanians, but after the bombing
look at the number of deaths. We have just killed 70 Albanians in a convoy
trying to get out of Kosovo. NATO has killed 70 Albanians in an air strike.
Look at the million refugees that these air strikes have caused that would
not be there unless we had bombed Kosovo.
The Croatians executed 10,000 Serbs in 1995 in Croatia. They deported and
fled over 250,000 Serbs as refugees. Indonesia has killed millions; Turkey,
thousands; India with the Sikhs; China, thousands with Tibet. Yet, we are in
a mass war where there is less than 2,000 deaths, and over a third of those
by the people we are claiming to bomb.
The Pentagon, confirmed by Secretary Cohen, that the Pentagon did not want
to execute just air strikes. The Pentagon told the President that they would
not work alone, that they would exacerbate the problems, cause refugees,
kill a lot of people. The United States would have to pay for a lot of it
and unless we put ground troops in there the goals were not attainable. Yet,
the President says no ground troops, which I am opposed to also.
Why is he opposed to it? Because the Germans balked, the Italians balked. In
World War II, Germany had 700,000 troops in Kosovo. The Chechens, with one
half the force that Milosevic has, killed those Germans. General Shelton
just 2 days ago said that this is the easiest place to defend and the most
difficult to attack in the world.
We do not belong there, Mr. Speaker. This is Clinton's war. Clinton ought to
get out of it.
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