Liz Saville Roberts: “I asked the colonel what he was proud of, what kind of progress he had made. That was the trip that we had in February…”

“I asked the colonel what he was proud of, what kind of progress he had made. That was the trip that we had in February to Kosovo. He indicated that finally they had found somebody who agreed to serve as a schoolbus driver for the Serb children. Unfortunately, there were no Serb schoolchildren in Urisivic, and they would not have been allowed to attend the Kosovar school had they been there. In addition, there would have had to have been a separate curriculum and separate teachers. But they found a schoolbus driver who was willing to drive the schoolbus if, in fact, there was schoolchildren. These troops were guarding six Serb families in what was called Serb Alley. They were escorted by armored vehicles to shop and get groceries once a week. These families are staying with the hope that their youngsters would return some day, if they are, in fact, still part of Serbia, and so they could continue their businesses. I could go on with example after example. Basically, we asked him what he spent most of his time on. He said, Albanian violence on Albanian. The basic question is, within the next 18 months that we figure out if, in fact, Europe has the capability to conduct the peacekeeping operations. This is not a pullout. This is not an automatic retreat. All this is, is for the Congress of the United States to assume its constitutional responsibility at the end of 18 months, if the President requests it and says it is in our vital national interests, that we vote to stay.”