Ronald Dellums: “Mr. Chairman, let us slow it down and think about what it is we are doing. There are 2 amendments before the body that…”

“Mr. Chairman, let us slow it down and think about what it is we are doing. There are 2 amendments before the body that call for a date certain of withdrawing Americans troops. The previous speaker in the well said we should not be the police officer to the world. I agree. Let us talk about where we are. We are in a period that is so unique we have not come up with a name for it. We simply call it the post cold war era. But it is an era that is defined by change and difference and transition, and, as I have said on more than one occasion, both challenge and opportunity. In this period America has just begun to internalize and learn about, accept, play the role of peacekeeper, peacemaker, peace enforcer. This has not been part of the American lexicon: peacekeeping, peacemaking. This is all new to us. We are learning and evolving. The first practical reality of setting a date, I would challenge anyone here: Does the human condition lend itself to a date certain? Does it? What was happening that caused us to be in Bosnia in the first place? I want to remind my colleagues 250,000 people were killed, 13,000 of them children, women raped, beaten and brutalized, and I said, Mr.…”