Mike Levin: “What I simply was saying was, for instance, benchmark No. 3, ``An effective judicial reform program is in place.'' I…”

“What I simply was saying was, for instance, benchmark No. 3, ``An effective judicial reform program is in place.'' I said to the general, ``My heavens, we are not going to be doing that in a matter of years. If it is highly successful, that could take a decade to achieve. But we cannot be there that long. We have to let the Europeans know in some way that we can only be there for a reasonable period of time, and then our ground forces must be removed, because we are stretched thin. We are all over the place, all over the world in many different ways, and our readiness is going to be jeopardized if we continue to have our forces in Bosnia for an unlimited period of time.'' So what General Clark committed to do is to give us, within a matter of months, estimated time lines for achieving these benchmarks. That is what we are awaiting. I think it will be very helpful. I think all of us look forward to his estimates, as to how long would it take for an effective judicial program to be in place. He said he is not going to give us a specific year. Then I said, ``Can you give us a range as to how long it might take?'' He said he will go through this, benchmark by benchmark, in order to give us that range. So I think we are kind of after the same goal here, both making sure our mission is clear--and I just put that in the Record, making sure that our particular military tasks are clear, and I just put those in the Record.”